The "Holy Grail"???

[onewilyfool]

Fellow forumites, allow me to wax philosophically for a moment......I've been experiencing a new sensation lately, and that sensation could be called "enough". I have found that the guitar itself has a strange effect on the heart and mind. So enticing....Over the years I have bought and sold many a fine guitar, and have some beautiful ones right now, but somehow it seems, it is never enough, until now. I'm,what I would call, a hobby player. I get together with friends to play, and am working up to an open mic event. (please, please, HOLD the applause!!) I have found that as I change music tastes, it has led me to different guitars. So as I change, my attraction to a certain guitar will also change. But the search for "the guitar" seems futile because it is a moving target. Each one of my guitars inspires me, and I rotate them often, but I'm just feeling now....enough. I'm wondering if any of you have had that feeling before? Any one of my guitars in the hands of a pro would just sing....now I think is my time to learn to make them sing. The "right" guitar or the holy grail won't make my playing sing, just love of the music and practice. So, I'm taking this attitude....I ALREADY have the "grail", now's the time to enjoy. What do you guys think, is this the ravings of a reformed GAS-aholic? A few years ago, there was a T.V. ad, where this guy has this stunned look on his face, and smoke is coming out of his hair and he says, "I did it! I reached the end of the internet!!!" LOL....I'm sort of feeling this way. I'm not saying that one guitar can do it all......just......enough.....lol....have any of you ever had that feeling???? Have a great holiday, may you find your "holy grail" under the tree.

[gearbasher]

I don't know if this is in the same vein, but every now and then I tell myself; "The less you have, the happier you are." So, I sell off the instruments that I'm not that "attached" to and keep only the "keepers". That lasts for about a year and then I get the "urge" and I start picking up a guitar here and there, all over again. I think I starting a "less is happiness" phase at the moment.

[ajsc]

My J-45 is more guitar than I deserve. Throw into the mix, my AJ short scale. I'm blessed indeed!! Holy grail? I don't know! Both are much better than my abilities.The most guitars I've ever had at one time was 7.

For a guy with my capabilities you would think my epi Aj500m, would be enough, by itself.

I don't plan to buy any more,but sometimes I feel like I'm a little bit greedy.

I blame this on the fact that I was unable to acquire a "good" guitar until I was in my late 4o's.

I sort of went kind of crazy after the 1st one.

I know there are those who play "much" better than I do, who can never have a guitar as nice as any of mine.

Any of my 3 could be the holy grail as far as I'm concerned.

[ksdaddy]

I feel that way every day. I've always been under the delusion that I need this guitar or that guitar but truth is I have about 10 times more than i need in the stable right now. I could keep the Tele, SJ and a classical and cover all the bases.

 

That little injection of truth and honesty won't keep me from pursuing instruments for the rest of my life, I just am getting better at knowing and admitting that I don't NEED it, I just WANT it. And screw it, if I can afford it that week I'll buy it. I will still suck at playing.

 

The 'up' side to that is on the rare (rare!) occasion when my fingers do something right, it is seldom with a newly acquired 'holy grail du jour' guitar, it's usually whichever one jumped into my lap at tha moment. The good part being I can honestly take credit for sounding good at the moment.

[Rosewoody]

The best guitar player I ever personally knew owned a Strat and a J-45, and he outplayed by quite a stretch anyone I've known since. And that was it.

 

Still, I acquire , then purge. Right now I have 2 acoustics and 4 electrics, and could get along nicely with 2 guitars and a practice amp. But getting a new guitar fires me up and I find myself playing more and enjoying it more, at least for a while. Then I walk into a music store and find something I really like, and it starts again. Binge, purge.

[John Lee Walker]

Yep, I can relate to your rant. For years I toured with only a J160E, a '62 Tele, and a Gretsch hollowbody. I didn't buy, sell, or trade for quite some time. I was too busy. When I took a few years off I got GAS and went overboard. At one time I owned 37 guitars, a couple of standup basses, and 4 mandolins. There was a family intervention - it was ugly- 12-step program, the whole nine yards, and I was temporarily cured, only to fall into remission a year later. Now, I own more instruments than I really need, and I still buy now and then, but the late nights hanging around vintage guitar shops in my trenchcoat with the upturned collar are over and done with. I still get that anxious feeling when I see a superb guitar, but I resist the urge to splurge and I'm getting better. I will always be cursed or blessed with this insatiable hunger for that perfect tone, immaculate finish, and exquisite wood grain. But, the urge will always be there. There is no such thing as the perfect guitar. But, committed musicians that we are, we will search for it until the day we die...

 

Got GAS?

[TheLiveSoundGuy]

Yup, Know what cha' mean. Right now I've come to a stage where I would trade my 4 electrics,

my half stack amp rig, and all my effects pedals for one more good Gibson acoustic.

 

They are addicting.

[Rambler]

"The search for "the guitar" seems futile because it is a moving target." Well put. But both you (tastes, needs, aspirations) and the guitar are moving. Constantly. Realizing this can be helpful in all manner of ways. Obviously, abandoning the grail quest and finding contentment with the here/now. But also, letting go of things that no longer fit or moving to something that makes more sense. Even if that something doenst fit a pre-conceived notion re genre or self- image. Or recognizing that you have trying to fill some pre-conceived notion of genre or image. Recognizing the diff between wants vs needs (the phrase "it would be nice to have" is deadly, as in "it would be nice to have a 12 string/steel/OM42 Clapton/1914 F2 mandolin/Banner anything/guitar store) and needs (holds pitch, frets easy, suits my style). And so forth. But, yeh, basically, that truth is under your nose and you can have it right now, if you can see it. J

[Thermionik]

Take the zen way. Stop looking. Stop trying. Just be in the moment.

 

Play the guitar - be it cheap ply by anon or a maple and mahogany masterpiece by Gibson.

 

Enjoy it for what it is, learn from it - learning a limitation is still learning.

 

When you are ready, and when the universe is ready, a 'right' guitar will come your way. Not THE right one - but a right one - for you at that time. The process will continue without you trying.....

 

You will still sound like you when you play a J200.

Ry Cooder will still sound like Ry Cooder when he is playing a 20-buck junk store guitar.

 

But you WILL advance - just play, and watch and listen to other players, especially those better than you. Play with them and they will lift you. Above all..... enjoy.

[onewilyfool]

I hear what you are all saying......I've been through that purge stage. Only to see the money in my jar and having that eat a hole in my pocket for another guitar. Lol.....once I sold four guitars, and sat on the funds for six months, it was killing me. But I like what Therm said, be in the moment. When I do that, the GUITAR teaches me, and that is worth all the youtube lessons in the world!!!! Every one of my guitars are keepers, no doubt, and probably beyond my skill level, yet they all speak to me, and are all teaching me. But I just reached a plateau, and think no need for more......thanks for all your stories and understanding......

 

John Lee.....that was really funny..."family intervention, 12 step program"...but I know what you mean. I think I have done my own intervention.

 

I think I am just feeling grateful for all the great guitars I have.....it's enought....

[Rambler]

Heartfelt gratitude. Always as good thing.

[Honky Dog]

I have 5 guitars (other than a couple of beaters that really don't count): Dove, Hummingbird, J-45RW, Taylor T5, and a Tele. I think that covers my bases fairly well.

 

I'm not all that good of a player, and most of my stuff is strumming, though I can get some good strum patterns going. But what I really do enjoy is writing. Hell, that's why I took up the guitar to begin with. I've always written fiction and poems, and it became obvious in college that my poetry was really song lyrics. Maybe why I always loved Joni and Paul Simon, among others. Anyway, I wanted to put my poems/lyrics to music. After getting comfortable with the guitar, I found I could write the lyrics while playing (easier for me to put lyrics to music, than the other way around, just a matter of experience level in each).

 

Anyway, I find the different guitars inspire different songs and types of songs. I can get stale on a guitar, pick up another and the different sound and feel will sometimes inspire something that I don't think I would have discovered otherwise. And I have a few songs that I don't think I would ever have found had I not had the guitar I wrote it on.

 

I might get one more Gibson, once I've downsized some more and sold off some stuff I just don't need anymore. They are so sweet, and they just inspire me to no end when it comes to writing songs.

[Johnt]

Interesting thread.

 

I fall in to what seems to be a popular category, that of an average player who likes and I suppose can afford to have some guitars about that I consider far "better" than my ability to play them.

 

In the late 1950s I watched in awe as the Shadows played their Strats and Precisions. I first saw a Strat in the flesh in "Duck Son & Pinkers" window in Bath, I bought what I could afford, a cheap nylon strung and promptly painted in blue (or was it green)

 

Later in 1963, I saw the Beatles live at Bath Pavilion and that re newed my guitar bug. Along to Duck Son & Pinkers and surprise surprise I couldn't afford a Gretsch like Georges!

 

My paper round money bought me an unbadged, plywood electric and an amp and I became a major popstar! ( In my own mind and in my own bedroom)

 

A succession of guitars through the 60s all budget. The best was an Aria John Pearse 12 string which I loved.

 

Unfortunately the table and the saddle decided to divorce!

 

The point I am trying to make is that when I could afford to make a "Major" purchase, in my case in about 1981 when I bought the J45, I was already way past "making it" but then as I guess others have done, I bought guitars because I considered them things of beauty and my 4 chords sounded much better than they did on my Seagull "folk" guitar. (Having said that Heaven knows why I got rid of that, it was very good)

 

Bought and sold a lot now happy with J45, SWD12,ES335 and L5 clone

 

:)

 

Having just pulled out of the homecoming I have some unassigned cash so I am back on the J200/300 route.

 

That will then be the lot!

 

Honest!

 

And as Nik advises if you keep going you will improve and I am getting better, I got all the way through "Lady came from Baltimore" today

 

LOL

[Rambler]

"if you could retain just one of your guitars which would it be." Always an amusing question, but, I think, it misses the point. Winnowing down one can give rise to as much attachment and obsession as gathering a herd. They key is being aware of attachments.

[zombywoof]

Ain't no such thing - the search for the Holy Grail guitar is a thinly disguised rationalization for buying more guitars.

 

If there is a Holy Grail guitar it is a mint '59 Gibson burst Lester cuz with the $250,000 you can get for it you can buy pretty much anything you want plus a fully restored Porche 356 notchback coupe to get you to the gig.

[onewilyfool]

Maybe the answer is (from CS&N) "Love the one you're with". In another thread I was talking about sometimes how hard I practice, but once in a while.....they guitar itself "teaches" me....I learn a new slide or just hear something differently, or when the guitar is in PERFECT tuning, or a fortunate "mistake" that reveals a new sound....or just strumming some chords and hearing some new overtones that leads me in a different direction.....that's when it becomes magical for me.....at those moments, the very guitar in my hands is truly the "holy grail"

[albertjohn]

Holy Grails are marketing men's creations. Just enjoy what you have. But if a guitar doesn't work for you change it for one that does.

[Thermionik]

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Love the one you're with..... the zen way indeed.

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