For those of you who know me well, you may think I am loosing it. Rest assured. I am not. For what I am about to say, know that I am sane and balanced. I am aware. "Sell your guitars!"
I know I know. Sin of all sins. Blasphemy! After all this is a guitar blog. For the love of guitars and the guitar lifestyle right? Yes, and in that spirit I continue. For the guitar lifestyle. Stay with me.
For years I have bought and sold guitars. I have collected and traded and loved and played many many fine six stringed instruments. A few four stringed as well. Recently however, I have been feeling a little flat from the experience. Unfullfilled if you will. Not that the guitars are not fantastic and beautiful and unique. Its just that the stream of instruments coming and going has left me hollow. Hollow in that I never really get the chance to connect with any of them on a significant basis. Much like a relationship with a friend. If it is too swift or too short, you never really know if there was something there. Something that could have been lasting anyway. And so I sold my guitars. Goodbye and farewell my fine fretted friends.
Not all of them of course. I have a few pieces that I will never let go of. A recent vintage Gibson Southern Jumbo, A Gibson Les Paul Custom Pro (anniversary present from my dearest Rebecca), A 1980 Fender Stratocaster Monacco Yellow, An Eastman T386. Everything else is gone. I think....
There are some closets I have not checked.
Now that my pack is light, I find myself moving much faster and with a lighter heart and mind. Why would that be? I think it is because I am dedicated to these pieces. I am connected to them. I love them and they love me. We are familiar and we like to see one another. We have stayed together long enough to know what we love about each other. Good and bad. I know my Strat needs new frets and that the neck pickup is too throaty and dull to be of any use, but I LOVE that guitar. I return, it knows I will likely never pull EVH runs or properly use a tremelo but it LOVEs me anyway. It is MY GUITAR. I walk into my studio and it says, "Hello old friend, I have missed you" and I say "Hello my faithful friend, It is good to see you too". Then we are immediately connected and familiar and we enjoy our time together and we look forward to the next encounter. Good and bad. We accept and we commit and we like what we have. Not perfect but real.
This type of connection simply cant happen for me when I have eight different Strats sitting in my living room. I am too distracted by them all. Too much noise in the room and I cant focus on any one conversation. It becomes impossible to really spend enought time with one guitar to find out if we really are good for one another. Maybe the action on this one guitar is too high or the neck is too wide and so I pick up another one that has a better feel but a tone that is abrasive to me. So I look for another and then another thinking that that one perfect piece is out there. That process consumes all of the time that I should be spending with that one Les Paul and that one Southern Jumbo. I have no time left to fix the problems or work through and get used to their shortcomings. I am simply to distracted by the idea of something. Something that does not exist.
So not unlike our relationships in the outside world with friends and relatives and love ones in my opinion. Im not saying that you should dump your friends. What I am saying is that perhaps you should do an occasional inventory and think about where you really want to spend your time. Maybe thin the distractions a little so you can work through that little issue with those one or two people. You know who those people are. They are the ones you think about when they are not around or when you have not heard from them. They ones that still somehow have a voice that you can hear even when you are in a room full of other people. Find them and spend the time to work it out. Trust me. When you have fewer silly choices, the important ones become more fullfilling. You might realize that you might not have to look as far or as hard to find that friendship that you can make the best music in.
I miss my Road Worn Telecaster on occasion. Also my Les Paul Classic. They were awesome and I wish them well and I hope they find a place to jam and be jammed. That said, when I go home to my favorite two, I miss nothing. We rock on together and we are happy doing it.
I know I know. Sin of all sins. Blasphemy! After all this is a guitar blog. For the love of guitars and the guitar lifestyle right? Yes, and in that spirit I continue. For the guitar lifestyle. Stay with me.
For years I have bought and sold guitars. I have collected and traded and loved and played many many fine six stringed instruments. A few four stringed as well. Recently however, I have been feeling a little flat from the experience. Unfullfilled if you will. Not that the guitars are not fantastic and beautiful and unique. Its just that the stream of instruments coming and going has left me hollow. Hollow in that I never really get the chance to connect with any of them on a significant basis. Much like a relationship with a friend. If it is too swift or too short, you never really know if there was something there. Something that could have been lasting anyway. And so I sold my guitars. Goodbye and farewell my fine fretted friends.
Not all of them of course. I have a few pieces that I will never let go of. A recent vintage Gibson Southern Jumbo, A Gibson Les Paul Custom Pro (anniversary present from my dearest Rebecca), A 1980 Fender Stratocaster Monacco Yellow, An Eastman T386. Everything else is gone. I think....
There are some closets I have not checked.
Now that my pack is light, I find myself moving much faster and with a lighter heart and mind. Why would that be? I think it is because I am dedicated to these pieces. I am connected to them. I love them and they love me. We are familiar and we like to see one another. We have stayed together long enough to know what we love about each other. Good and bad. I know my Strat needs new frets and that the neck pickup is too throaty and dull to be of any use, but I LOVE that guitar. I return, it knows I will likely never pull EVH runs or properly use a tremelo but it LOVEs me anyway. It is MY GUITAR. I walk into my studio and it says, "Hello old friend, I have missed you" and I say "Hello my faithful friend, It is good to see you too". Then we are immediately connected and familiar and we enjoy our time together and we look forward to the next encounter. Good and bad. We accept and we commit and we like what we have. Not perfect but real.
This type of connection simply cant happen for me when I have eight different Strats sitting in my living room. I am too distracted by them all. Too much noise in the room and I cant focus on any one conversation. It becomes impossible to really spend enought time with one guitar to find out if we really are good for one another. Maybe the action on this one guitar is too high or the neck is too wide and so I pick up another one that has a better feel but a tone that is abrasive to me. So I look for another and then another thinking that that one perfect piece is out there. That process consumes all of the time that I should be spending with that one Les Paul and that one Southern Jumbo. I have no time left to fix the problems or work through and get used to their shortcomings. I am simply to distracted by the idea of something. Something that does not exist.
So not unlike our relationships in the outside world with friends and relatives and love ones in my opinion. Im not saying that you should dump your friends. What I am saying is that perhaps you should do an occasional inventory and think about where you really want to spend your time. Maybe thin the distractions a little so you can work through that little issue with those one or two people. You know who those people are. They are the ones you think about when they are not around or when you have not heard from them. They ones that still somehow have a voice that you can hear even when you are in a room full of other people. Find them and spend the time to work it out. Trust me. When you have fewer silly choices, the important ones become more fullfilling. You might realize that you might not have to look as far or as hard to find that friendship that you can make the best music in.
I miss my Road Worn Telecaster on occasion. Also my Les Paul Classic. They were awesome and I wish them well and I hope they find a place to jam and be jammed. That said, when I go home to my favorite two, I miss nothing. We rock on together and we are happy doing it.
