How many guitars is fairly normal?

[Gary Gretsch]

In the Beginning: I owned only one guitar.
Gibson FJN acoustic ca 1964, bought used...
I was a young man, and needed to travel light. One...

Later on I bought a bass. I'd always listened to the bass lines on
popular songs, so it seemed that I embraced this station long before
I had any extra money to buy an instrument. When I saw a 1966 Fender
Jazz bass for sale by owner, I went to see about it, and brought the bass
home. Two...

Of course I needed an amp to go with it... these aren't counted in this thread.

Have bass, will travel... I joined a band and when that broke up, I joined
a singer-songwriter and played gigs as his bassist. He got injured and quit, so
I joined up with a friend and we got ourselves rolling. I went home and asked
my dad if I could take his old Orpheum electric jazz guitar for gigs. He said yes,
he didn't like the neck. I liked it fine. Three...

Of course I needed a guitar amp to go with my new (old) electric. But we
aren't counting amps here, are we?

So I was gigging with three... Acoustic, electric and bass. And two amps.
A lot of logistics, but I was young and tough and determined.
Someone broke into my car while I was in a restaurant and stole my acoustic
and my dad's Orpheum and my Fender Twin Reverb. They didn't get my bass
because that was in the trunk. I wish I still had that amp, but it was a heavy
m/f... I'd sell it now.

I went searching for a new 'used" acoustic at Elderly Instruments and
bought a Mossman Dreadnought "Flint Hills" model, and played that for
the next forty years. I'm sure I made hundreds of dollars playing that.

For a long time, I was happy with just that one acoustic and my
Fender J-Bass. I figured I already have the best, why fuss about
anything else.

I lucked into a deal on a 1936 Martin 0-17 acoustic, and pounced on
that. Some opportunities you don't pass up, or forever regret it. Three...
I used the Martin to play alternate tunings without re-tuning my main
guitar. That was useful, and it was worth the additional logistics.

Years went by and gigs were played and miles and miles and miles
were driven, and we made hundreds of dollars I'm sure. I did the majority
of my performing career with those three. We played coffee houses, concert
series, gazebo concerts, schools, art fairs, colleges, festivals (but no more bars).

When my father died, my family put his well loved classical guitar into my hands.
I was honored to have it, but I didn't fit into my stage work. I bought a few others
on whims, but never bonded with them and sold them or gave them away.
The core group of three was all I needed.

As I approached the honorable age of sixty in 2008, still gigging, I began to
imagine other tones, and other ways to play songs I already knew.
So, as a gift to myself for making sixty, I bought my first NEW guitar...
I bought a Gibson SG! I'd been looking for a while, and thought I'd end
up with a Strat, but the SG called to me from ten meters away in a music
store, and I picked it up, tuned it, played it and was bewitched immediately.
FOUR!

That started the G.A.S. bubbling. I loved the tones of my '07 faded special
and soon joined this forum. I learned a lot here when members still wrote
long posts on real computers and read them on real monitors. Things are
different now, with so many members attempting to function on an internet
forum using only a hand held device. *shrugs
It's a long time since then.

Anyway, this forum and my first SG introduced me to G.A.S...
I found out about cool electric guitars I'd never seen or heard played.
(I knew about the SG...)
I bought a Fender Telecaster deluxe replica... MIM 2006. Five...
I still have that Tele. It's an excellent and unique instrument.
Two Fender "wide range" hum bucking pickups.

Then I bought my second SG! I bought a 2012 SG special '70s tribute.
Mine was in silver burst. I'd never seen any guitar in that color. Mine had
the (then) newly designed mini-hum bucker pickups. I had to have it.
These didn't sell well their first year, so Gibson marked them down and
down and down till I got a great deal on an excellent and unique instrument.
Six...

Of course I needed another amp or two to go with these... but we're not
counting amps on this thread, now are we...

This is how it works, when you're a working musician without much extra
money to blow on cool guitars. Lots of things have changed over all these
years I've seen, but one thing that hasn't changed much is how much we
get paid. My daddy warned me about that when he gave me his Orpheum.

This tale continues, but I'll give y'all a break. It's hard to read anything
much on your durn phone. Maybe I'll write more later.
Maybe I'll attach some pix...

Interesting reading. You may want to tell about your amps. After all I started the thread. LOL

 

[caldera]

I've got 2 electrics (SG and a Strat), 1 acoustic (J-45), and 2 basses (a jazz bass and a precision bass)

I don't need any more and I don't think I could get away with buying any more!