Hi, my name is Jon, and I’ve got GAS.
That’s Guitar Acquisition Syndrome, for the uninitiated.
I like guitars. It’s my hobby. It’s how I de-stress and one of the things I do for fun.
For a very long time, I only had a couple of guitars. I’d hover between owning two and four instruments at any one time. And that made sense, given my income level and the frequency with which my wife and I moved (six times in the first nine years of our marriage).
But then we settled in a neighborhood, bought a house, and I started making a little more money — enough to have fun money for the first time.
I spent much of my fun money starting a guitar collection (I blame Phil McKnight). I didn’t buy anything too expensive or fancy — I never spent over $600 on any one purchase — but over the next several years, I ended up with over a dozen guitars.
My story is typical — guitarists just love gear. It seems inevitable over time that we end up buying way too many guitars. (And yeah, I admit, a dozen is probably too many.)
But if you’re just starting out, you’re probably looking at your guitar buddies, seeing their massive collections, and wondering, how many guitars do I really need?
The answer, of course, is none.
Playing the guitar is not a necessity — it is a luxury. People can and do live fulfilling, rich lives without ever picking up and strumming a guitar (I know, it’s hard to believe).
You don’t need a guitar unless you want to play, in which case you need one.
That’s right, you really only need one guitar to be a guitarist. Tab Benoit, for instance, is an amazing blues musician from Louisiana who’s been playing the same Fender Telecaster for 30 years (okay, so he actually has an identical backup in case a string breaks during a show). He gets everything he needs from just that one guitar. The man doesn’t even use pedals.
Brian May from the band Queen also used one guitar — his homemade Red Special — for decades until it became too fragile to take on tour. (He then commissioned replicas, which he still plays today.)
So that’s the minimalistic approach. But many of us aren’t minimalists. We may want to experiment with different tones or play songs using a similar guitar as the original artist. How should we go about determining what to add to our arsenal?
Thankfully, you don’t need to own a dozen guitars or more, like I do. And in any case, even though I own a bunch of them, I really only gravitate toward a few of them. Most of the rest don’t get played very often, if at all.
And this fact gets us closer to what I think is a reasonable solution. In all honesty, you can get just a handful of guitars and be able to play almost anything:
A Stratocaster-style guitar
The quintessential electric guitar. Countless artists use a Strat (or a Strat copy). Wanna play some Hendrix or Clapton? You’ll want a Strat. The same goes for Buddy Guy, John Mayer, EVH, SRV, and a thousand other players. It seems that everyone uses a Strat at some point in their career, and the infamous “quacky” tones are only available via a single-coil Stratocaster.
A Telecaster-style guitar
If you’re into country music, the twang of a Tele is what you are hearing more often than not. But Telecasters find their way into almost every genre of music, from jazz to blues, and they have a unique tone that’s hard to duplicate with any other guitar. Brad Paisley rocks a Tele, as does Chris Shiflett of Foo Fighters, and the aforementioned Tab Benoit.
A Les Paul-style guitar
For a more full-bodied sound, the humbuckers on a Les Paul style guitar are key. It’s hard to imagine playing along with Slash on “Sweet Child O’ Mine” with anything besides a Gibson-esque solid body. So many musicians play Les Pauls it’s crazy. From Jimmy Page to Duane Allman to Pete Townshend, many great classic rock guitarists made their mark playing Les Pauls.
An acoustic guitar
If you want to get into bluegrass or flat-picking, or if you’re going camping or just want a chiller, unplugged vibe, you will want to have a trusty acoustic by your side. Plus, there are tons of acoustic-based songs that you will probably want to play. One of my favorites is “Drive” by Incubus. And if you are a Christian like I am, an acoustic is indispensable if you ever want to lead a worship set.
If you want to have a versatile collection of instruments on which you can play the widest range of music, then this is the combination to get you there with as little spending (not to mention space) as possible. These four guitars will enable you to cover all of the bases.
From there, you can always get further specialized, of course, but these four instrument types are the heart and soul of modern guitar-based music.
However, if you suffer from GAS like I do, the only thing I can say is good luck and godspeed!
Leave a Reply