How Do You Prevent Regretting Selling A Guitar?

[TSJMajesty]

I'm conflicted on whether to move the guitars I don't use on to someone who would. I have enough regrets in my life that I don't want to create any more, on the one hand, but otoh, I don't feel right owning guitars that just sit in their cases.

I don't need "things" to validate me, so as long as I always have a guitar I love, I feel like that should be enough. I know enough about myself that I don't need them hanging on a wall, but I also don't like feeling like I'm tied to stuff because I'm being materialistic. But I'm also not sure if that's part of it. (A little soul-baring perhaps.)

I absolutely love my Majesty, and it's all I play. Now. But I think..., there may come a day that I'm back in a band, and would then want to use a couple different guitars, or maybe play acoustic gigs, who knows? And then there's the sentimental reasons for keeping them.

Same thing applies to the amps I have. I'm currently totally content with just the Axe Fx.

So, any advice? I don't need the money, but with some things I have planned for the future, the proceeds might be useful, in the short term, but even that I'm not certain about.

#unsure

 

[the-trooper]

They're just pieces of wood and some metal bolted on it. Any handy carpenter can make an electric guitar.

Mass produced ones? Made by regular people on the production line, same as bicycles. Or windows. They're not luthier master works.
Not using it? Sell it.
No magic in them.

 

[jellodog]

Agree with @the-trooper - Sticks and wires, is all they are. Definitely move on the ones that you aren't using.

After they've been gone a couple of months, you won't care any more.

 

[Eagle]

Keep it.
Finding the perfect guitar is not easy.
No two are the same. All wood is different so some will be exceptional and replacing them is not easy.

 

[DrewJD82]

Had a conversation with a non-guitar playing friend about this last night as I got my PRS ready to send my buddy.

I haven’t gotten rid of a guitar since I was 13 years old. It was my first guitar and I regret it so much, I never let go of another one again. Fast forward to the last few months and that PRS, I loved it for the first 9 months I had it, but when I got my Strat it just slayed it in playability and tones. I didn’t touch that PRS for 9 months straight and it really is a great guitar, it SHOULD be played by someone, but it’s not unique enough to keep around.

I was supposed to send him the damn thing like two months ago, but I kept putting it off and I finally realized why; I DO have some sentimental attachment to it, I got it the same week of my divorce and I played the sh*t out of that thing for those first 9 months. It played a bit of a role in me acclimating to a new life and just for that, has some sentiment attached to it. Otherwise, I don’t think I’d care much about this one.

Selling it to my best friend will allow me to still see it a couple times a year, I know he’ll treat it right (he barely plays) and if I ever want it back, he’ll sell it back to me.

Short of close friends, though, I dunno man. Not selling is the only way I got around it before!

 

[Eagle]

They're just pieces of wood and some metal bolted on it. Any handy carpenter can make an electric guitar.

Mass produced ones? Made by regular people on the production line, same as bicycles. Or windows. They're not luthier master works.
Not using it? Sell it.
No magic in them.

Have you never played a great guitar that stood out from the crowd?

 

[jellodog]

Keep it.
Finding the perfect guitar is not easy.

But we're talking about the guitars that he's not playing, aren't we? Not his main guitar?

 

[la szum]

If you have any kind of history with any of them keep them. Trust me.

If no emotional ties, then move that shit!

 

[TSJMajesty]

Had a conversation with a non-guitar playing friend about this last night as I got my PRS ready to send my buddy.

I haven’t gotten rid of a guitar since I was 13 years old. It was my first guitar and I regret it so much, I never let go of another one again. Fast forward to the last few months and that PRS, I loved it for the first 9 months I had it, but when I got my Strat it just slayed it in playability and tones. I didn’t touch that PRS for 9 months straight and it really is a great guitar, it SHOULD be played by someone, but it’s not unique enough to keep around.

I was supposed to send him the damn thing like two months ago, but I kept putting it off and I finally realized why; I DO have some sentimental attachment to it, I got it the same week of my divorce and I played the sh*t out of that thing for those first 9 months. It played a bit of a role in me acclimating to a new life and just for that, has some sentiment attached to it. Otherwise, I don’t think I’d care much about this one.

Selling it to my best friend will allow me to still see it a couple times a year, I know he’ll treat it right (he barely plays) and if I ever want it back, he’ll sell it back to me.

Short of close friends, though, I dunno man. Not selling is the only way I got around it before!

Yeah I hear ya. There was a guy in Cali on the fractal forum that was really interested in my Silverburst, but I couldn't even begin to put a price on it. That one definitely has sentimental value, since it was my first "real" guitar, and I bought it new when I was 16 with my grass-cutting money. But it doesn't get played, and now that I'm so acclimated to how the Majesty feels, even when I do play it, I struggle with it. So I ask myself, "What's the point in keeping it?"

It's a conundrum.

 

[dk_ace]

Oh this is super easy, keep everything you don’t totally hate. And if you totally currently hate it but can imagine a future you/situation that could use/appreciate it, keep those too.

D

 

[la szum]

They're just pieces of wood and some metal bolted on it. Any handy carpenter can make an electric guitar.

Mass produced ones? Made by regular people on the production line, same as bicycles. Or windows. They're not luthier master works.
Not using it? Sell it.
No magic in them.

You are right there is no magic in them.... unless and until we put it there with our blood, sweat, and tears.
Then there is stardust and love and longing and memories and hopes and dreams coursing through them
there sticks and wires.

I am a pantheist, though, who believes there is spirit in all things---and name my cars and appliances,
so what do I know.

 

[Eagle]

But we're talking about the guitars that he's not playing, aren't we? Not his main guitar?

My favourite guitar changes all the time.

 

[jellodog]

@la szum

** whispering **

Yes, I know, but we are trying to help him let go. Trying not to talk too loud done here in the small type - he might hear us!

 

[TSJMajesty]

My favourite guitar changes all the time.

No sh!t?? I guess so, since you have so many that pass through your hands!

#jealous

 

[TSJMajesty]

Maybe I could start with this POS PRS SE Tremonti, and see how I feel.
Then the Takamine acoustic, yeah, that one wouldn't be a problem.
Then maybe the 12-string Taylor I bought really only to be able to play Hole Hearted.

 

[TSJMajesty]

You are right there is no magic in them.... unless and until we put it there with our blood, sweat, and tears.
Then there is stardust and love and longing and memories and hopes and dreams coursing through them
there sticks and wires.

I am a pantheist, though, who believes there is spirit in all things---and name my cars and appliances,
so what do I know.

I had a PM going with the guy on the Fractal forum (he recently bought a brand new Silverburst and posted pics- it's gorgeous!), and I told him the stories behind my guitar..., the time the cymbal stand fell and the edge of the cymbal cut a little slit onto the neck binding, how it got the buckle rash from a friend when it was brand new... Sigh

My thinking was if I did sell it to him, I'd want its back-story to go with the guitar. These pieces of wood and metal are going to outlive us all.

 

[la szum]

@la szum

** whispering **

Yes, I know, but we are trying to help him let go. Trying not to talk too loud done here in the small type - he might hear us!

Haha! The only help I am here for is to help prevent the regret.

 

[la szum]

I had a PM going with the guy on the Fractal forum (he recently bought a brand new Silverburst and posted pics- it's gorgeous!), and I told him the stories behind my guitar..., the time the cymbal stand fell and the edge of the cymbal cut a little slit onto the neck binding, how it got the buckle rash from a friend when it was brand new... Sigh

My thinking was if I did sell it to him, I'd want its back-story to go with the guitar. These pieces of wood and metal are going to outlive us all.

Don't. Sell. It. The. End.

 

[the-trooper]

Have you never played a great guitar that stood out from the crowd?

No
They're made from corpses of living things, even after several decades of development they're still like a preschool science project, they go out of tune, necks bend and twist, frets ware out, electronics rust, pots crackle, strings brake, they buzz, and they get dings!
They're all crap. I hate them all!

 

[jellodog]

They're all crap. I hate them all!