A purge, of sort, in progress

[sparquelito]

Man oh man. 
Talk about thinning the herd. 

I just sold two guitars today, and then sat down and took stock of the situation, and did a tally. 

Turns out that in the last month, I have purchased 3 brand new stringed instruments. 
A Sterling Ray5 five string bass, a Traveler Ultra Light six string electric guitar, and (just yesterday) a Slick SL54T six string electric guitar. 

But in that same period of time, I also sold-off, gave-away, or gifted ten guitars. 
A net loss of seven, if my calculations are correct. 
(I was educated in Alabama, so somebody please check my math.)

This leaves me at just 19 guitars in my stable. 

What's this world coming to?

I think I need a cold beer. 

😔

 

 

 

 

[SteveFord]

Down to 19?

You'd better treat yourself to something nice.

[sparquelito]

Another cold beer perhaps??
😜

[Retired]

Well, that's still 12 more guitars than I own so think of it as your ahead! Lol. 

[rct]

Holy cow Sparky!

rct

[sparquelito]

I know. 

I need to settle down with the acquisitions, and sell off a few more. 
It's tough because I get attached to most of them. 

I think ten would be a healthy number. 
2 acoustics, 2 basses, the uke, and a handful of solid body electrics. 

I tell myself that, and then I drive by a pawn shop that I haven't been in lately, and then I walk in a lose my mind.

😔

[kidblast]

maybe you should pick up playing the piano??

 

[uncle fester]

2 hours ago, sparquelito said:

I know. 

I need to settle down with the acquisitions, and sell off a few more. 
It's tough because I get attached to most of them. 

I think ten would be a healthy number. 
2 acoustics, 2 basses, the uke, and a handful of solid body electrics. 

I tell myself that, and then I drive by a pawn shop that I haven't been in lately, and then I walk in a lose my mind.

😔

Ten sounds like a good number...  pick 8 you'll keep, sell the other 11 and use all the profits for 2 other super sweeeeeeeet guitars.

[merciful-evans]

At least you are honest about it Spar. I only count gigging guitars; excusing any others as 'a bit of fun'.  

I dont include ukes or basses either...

[sparquelito]

10 hours ago, kidblast said:

maybe you should pick up playing the piano??

 

Heh heh, yeah, there's that. 

I do play keyboards. 
I have two, a Korg and a Yamaha. 

Also play drums. 
I have two digital Alesis kits. 
One stays in the music room for permanent duty, and the other is stored in the garage for gigs, and always ready to be loaded out. 

LUCKILY, I haven't had the same collecting desires for keys and drums that I do guitars. 
I do look at more and more basses, of course. 
Two is an awfully small number. 

I really need to see a therapist. 
:(

[jdgm]

Owning lots of gear is great fun but getting the most out of it means organization.   Where do you put it all? 

Best to have a dedicated studio room.   Guitars in cases take up spaces.  Bedroom's full of 'em.  Yes I have a bass too....a bass is necessary IMO.

I insure my stuff - most of it. I have a policy for home and one for the road.   It's one thing I do every year that I never realised I'd have to think about; I even insure my effects pedals.

Then there are the guitars or items you sell which later become valuable or collectable.   I used to have one of those....and I did too, a proper sixties one and they're worth a fortune now.

What a privilege, to have this stuff and the time and some ability to use it.  We will never be here again.  

🎸

Edited June 13, 2020 by jdgm

[Retired]

15 hours ago, sparquelito said:

I know. 

I need to settle down with the acquisitions, and sell off a few more. 
It's tough because I get attached to most of them. 

I think ten would be a healthy number. 
2 acoustics, 2 basses, the uke, and a handful of solid body electrics. 

I tell myself that, and then I drive by a pawn shop that I haven't been in lately, and then I walk in a lose my mind.

😔

I wouldn't count a ukulele as a guitar. When I was a teen, I had around 13 guitars and a banjo. When I married, I sold most all of that including the very nice tube amp that I had. 

Sounds like you need horse blinders on before you walk into guitar shops, LOL. Yeah, I know how tempting guitars are. I'm going to get one more, but I will give 2 guitars to my son after I get it and ask him to sell them for me. He is like an outstanding  car salesman, He can get a great price out of anything.  I'll tell him if he can sell it for me at such and such a price, He can keep anything above that price.  A true story of John. His Grandma bought him his first car, He drove it for years and eventually it was totaled from hail damage. The insurance payed a more than fair price for the car and John got the cash. Then he sold the car to a friend  at the original price his grandma paid for it.  He came out smelling like a Rose. 

[jaxson50]

I'm down to one dozen....How do you like the Slick?

[mihcmac]

My magic number is 7, but I don't count bass's or acoustics or lap steels.

One of my guitars has some really hot Slick 90's in it, the sound is killer. In addition some Dream 90's and Mean 90's also from GFS.

Edited June 13, 2020 by mihcmac

[sparquelito]

4 hours ago, jaxson50 said:

I'm down to one dozen....How do you like the Slick?

I like it a lot. 

I'm inclined toward simpler guitars with less knobs and only one pickup, but in most cases those guitars are less versatile than, say, a Les Paul or a Tele. 

This one feels and sounds great. 
Interesting tones and harmonics from that one very hot pickup. 
It's as unique as it looks, if that makes any sense. 

Re; not counting ukuleles and lap steels. 
I do admittedly include all stringed instruments in my total count. 
If I subtract the uke and a 3 string cigar box guitar (good for slide), and the two electric basses, I guess you could say that I technically only have 15 guitars. 
(4 acoustics and eleven electrics.)

Say, I really am making progress here!

I may not need to ring up that shrink after all. 
😛

[jdgm]

Have you still got the machine-gun guitar?

[Twang Gang]

Since my band "retired" about 6 months ago I have been thinning the herd quite a bit as well.  I have sold 4 guitars and an amp, and traded a 5th one yesterday.  I just felt that since I wasn't playing them much anymore it would be better to let someone else play them.  I did keep a LP Standard and my CS356 and have 2 acoustics that I play.  Then I have 2 that don't really count, a classical guitar that isn't very good, but I bought it when I was about 13 and no one would give me anything for it anyway, and I have an Ovation that my significant other willed to me when she died.  It's a good guitar for someone with small hands, but the strings are pretty close together and I don't play it very often.

I think the karma of letting my others go is coming back to me though - see my NGD post 🙂

[sparquelito]

16 hours ago, Twang Gang said:

Since my band "retired" about 6 months ago I have been thinning the herd quite a bit as well.  I have sold 4 guitars and an amp, and traded a 5th one yesterday.  I just felt that since I wasn't playing them much anymore it would be better to let someone else play them.  I did keep a LP Standard and my CS356 and have 2 acoustics that I play.  Then I have 2 that don't really count, a classical guitar that isn't very good, but I bought it when I was about 13 and no one would give me anything for it anyway, and I have an Ovation that my significant other willed to me when she died.  It's a good guitar for someone with small hands, but the strings are pretty close together and I don't play it very often.

I think the karma of letting my others go is coming back to me though - see my NGD post 🙂

You obvious feel strong emotional attachment to the old classical and especially that Ovation. 
(And God rest her soul.)
And that's understandable. 

If you ever feel like you want to pay them forward though, you can do what I often do;
Donate them to a local drug & alcohol rehabilitation center. 
(I find myself donating a guitar to the local Bradford facility at least once a year, including the very first guitar I ever bought with my own money, an old Epiphone FT120.)

When we aren't playing them, but they mean a lot to us spiritually, sometimes it's easier giving them away like that, to a place where patients will play them, and get lost in some playing. And in doing so, forget about their pain and longing and addictions for just a little while.

It's just a thought. 

😐

[brad1]

24 minutes ago, sparquelito said:

It's just a thought. 

😐

A wonderfully considerate  and excellent thought if I may say Sparky!😄

[Twang Gang]

3 hours ago, sparquelito said:

When we aren't playing them, but they mean a lot to us spiritually, sometimes it's easier giving them away like that, to a place where patients will play them, and get lost in some playing. And in doing so, forget about their pain and longing and addictions for just a little while.

It's just a thought. 

😐  And a good thought it is - I have a couple of great nieces and if one of them takes up guitar they may get the Ovation (they are both a little too young right now) but the donation is a good idea I will keep in mind.

 

[sparquelito]

Okay, so the Slick guitar has been holding up just fine.
And she still sounds killer-great.

And I have sold off a few more guitars in the past month.
The Slick remains, so she must be a keeper. 

But the front of the thing struck me as a bit bland.

So a few months ago, our girl singer painted a gecko on there for me.

And today I used some masking tape and pin-striping tape and gave her racing stripes.
And a sporty Mr. Horsepower sticker.

Okay, I'm gonna shut up now.

😐

 

(The original state of affairs....)

Edited January 17, 2021 by sparquelito

[jdgm]

Best keep a sword handy these days.

Must get one but...scale length....silver or gold hardware...pommel...cryogenic or not....scabbard.....you know. 

[merciful-evans]

Smart looking job. Its easy to get this sort of thing wrong. 

I was most taken by the pattern inside the circle. At first I thought it was a kneeling figure with hunched shoulders, but that would have been at 90 degrees to the playing position.

Then I realised it was likely LAO. I thought maybe a Los Angeles sports team or similar. So I did research. These are some of the results:

 

Lao is an ordinary street brawler. He is shown being defeated by Rick Strowd and Li Xiangfei at the opening of Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 

 Lao, Laotian (noun) a member of a Buddhist people inhabiting the area of the Mekong River in Laos and Thailand and speaking the Lao language

 LAO serves the best of Asian home-style cooking with authentic spices, sauces and cooking techniques (Palm Juneirah Resaurant)

 Beerlao (Lao language: ເບຍລາວ) is the generic name of a range of beers produced by the Lao Brewery Company (LBC) of Vientiane

[badbluesplayer]

5 hours ago, merciful-evans said:

 Lao, Laotian (noun) a member of a Buddhist people inhabiting the area of the Mekong River in Laos and Thailand and speaking the Lao language

Laotian?  What Ocean?

 

[sparquelito]

7 hours ago, merciful-evans said:

Smart looking job. Its easy to get this sort of thing wrong. 

I was most taken by the pattern inside the circle. At first I thought it was a kneeling figure with hunched shoulders, but that would have been at 90 degrees to the playing position.

Then I realised it was likely LAO. I thought maybe a Los Angeles sports team or similar. So I did research. These are some of the results:

 

Lao is an ordinary street brawler. He is shown being defeated by Rick Strowd and Li Xiangfei at the opening of Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 

 Lao, Laotian (noun) a member of a Buddhist people inhabiting the area of the Mekong River in Laos and Thailand and speaking the Lao language

 LAO serves the best of Asian home-style cooking with authentic spices, sauces and cooking techniques (Palm Juneirah Resaurant)

 Beerlao (Lao language: ເບຍລາວ) is the generic name of a range of beers produced by the Lao Brewery Company (LBC) of Vientiane

Ha ha ha, good stuff!!

In my professional world, an LAO is a flight called a Local Area Orientation. 
You take somebody out flying to show them the traffic pattern, necessary radio calls to the air traffic control agencies, significant landmarks and reporting points, and hazards. 

But in this case, it's the artist's initials. 
Our girl singer and painter/potter/glass crafter is Lisa Ann O'Neil. 
LAO. 

She signs it in all her works of art and paintings, and recently added a circle when she etches it into ceramic creations. 
She had signed the back of the guitar in very small font when she first did the gecko. 
I simply gave her a larger billing by scrawling her symbol on the front there with a Sharpie. 

😛

 

 

 

Here's the artist in real life.