How many times have you changed your mind?

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by Br1ck

I don't make resolutions. Eventually they get broken.

Originally Posted by Mandobart

I appreciate hearing another person on this forum with a similar point of view as myself.

I agree. Uh, it doesn't happen very often with me. I'm like a roach hotel: by and large, gear checks in but it doesn't check out. I've gotta fix that. The times when I have sold or traded, I made up my mind and just jumped on it.

Bob

[Mbroady]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

If memory serves (and at my age, that's unlikely) in 1999.
I had my lovely new Collings (twice the price I'd ever paid before. My handmade 0028 (from my wife - 50th birthday gift),
My Dobro and my mandolin.
A Daion L-999 Legacy and a Daion 12 string.

I retired in 2007 (age 59) and took some tax free cash out of my private pension to fund the gap until I got my state pension (social security in the US ?) in 2013.
However my calculations were overly cautious and I found that I was accumulating cash, so started buying.

2005 : Collings 0002h
2006: Harmony Monterey.
2007 - Weissenborn
2007 - Lebeda F5 Mandolin
2007 - Eastman AR805e
2008 - Huss & Dalton DS12
2008 - Larrivee SD-50
2009 - Dobro (from a departed friend's widow).
2010 - Collings DS1
2010 - Hofner octave mandolin
2010 - John Evans L-1
2011 - Gibson L4/7,
2011 - Martin D12-20,
2011 - Collings Ds2h
2012 - Collings Ds1 ASB
2014 - Santa Cruz RS
2015 - National Estralita
2016 - Waterloo WL12
2016 - Recording King Banjo (gift from wifey)
2017 - Harmony 12 string
2018 - Eastman AR805
2019 - Eastman E20-P
2020 - Eastman E40-00
2023 - Collings 002h.

23 instruments

Sold -

2011 - Hofner octave mandolin (conversion)
2012 - Loar LH700
2012 - Reliance Archtop
2013 - Martin D35-S
2014 - Del'Arte Leadbelly 12 string
2015 - National Style "0" Deluxe
2015 - Daion L-999
2016 - Eastman AR805e
2016 - Larrivee SD50,
2016 - Daion 12 string
2018 - John Evans L-1
2019 - Collings Ds2h

12 instruments sold.

Purchase "mistakes" :

* Eastman AR805e (fine guitar but too red and looked electric)
* Hofner Octave mando - great fun experiment - but ...
* Loar LH-700 Eugh!
* Del Arte Leadbelly - impossible!
* Huss & Dalton DS12 - a totally awful guitar - unplayable.

I'm not sure when "being equipped" changed to "collecting."

I have three lovely Collings dreads, and don't "need" them - but .... what child do you choose to kill?

That’s a lot of guitars I started buying and selling in the mid 80s. I might come close to that number. Don’t recal every one. Until the last decade I was not a hoarder

I have cut the number in half but over the years there have been a handful that got-away. That’s probably why I hesitate to sell now. . I have a humble handful but they all have something that calls to me.

Still, I will let go when I choose the one. …or the 2, or the 3. That time my come soon

[BrunoBlack]

That’s one of the reasons I don’t impose an arbitrary 1 in 1 out rule. I’ve tried it and wondered — why am I doing this? Now, If I see a guitar I really like and think I need to have, I buy it. When a guitar I own isn’t doing it for me any more, I sell it. Ins and outs are driven buy desire and budget.

[Mbroady]

Originally Posted by BrunoBlack

That’s one of the reasons I don’t impose an arbitrary 1 in 1 out rule. I’ve tried it and wondered — why am I doing this? Now, If I see a guitar I really like and think I need to have, I buy it. When a guitar I own isn’t doing it for me any more, I sell it. Ins and outs are driven buy desire and budget.

I don't consider having a self-imposed 1-in-1 out rule arbitrary. Infact its deliberate. I guess they key words in you comment are "need to have". I don't need to have any more guitars, nor do i need all the guitars I have. Would I like to have more? Not really but im not going to deprive myself of playing guitars that I have not tried before. And if there is a guitar that I try that blows me away then there is a deliberate choice to eliminate one to make room for one coming in, literally. My guitar room/man cave is a nice size, but it can only fit so many guitars and cases, as well as work out equipment and studio gear.

[biotechmgr]

Not with acoustics, but with electrics. Bought and sold off several throughout life.
Currently "off" electrics, they just feel differently to me as well as spend too much time finding a tone.

[alex0811]

Many times a change in perspective on the guitar has been accompanied by a progression in playing level, and a change in style of playing.And of course there's the growing knowledge of guitar brands, craftsmanship.Always changing my mind, but one day you'll totally love the this and say look, this is what I want!