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Thread: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

  1. #51
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    Well … yeah I "get" keeping instruments around for sentimental reasons. They are , in a sense. like old friends. When I pick one up it is like a conversation with an old buddy. The tunes and times come back in memory and a good time is had by all. I have even asked a friend to bring an instrument I sold them to a jam because I missed playing it. Lastly, I have even bought an instrument of the same make and model I started playing on all those years ago. Does any of that make sense fiscally or in square footage of home space. No not really but then making music isn't about making sense to me. R/
    I love hanging out with mandolin nerds . . . . . Thanks peeps ...

  2. #52
    Registered User Roger Adams's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    I think the "problem" of hanging onto objects such as musical instruments becomes more of an issue as we grow older. We have these things, and they are meaningful to us, but they may in fact mean little or nothing to others in our family. Over the past couple of years, I have had the experience of reallocating the treasures of folks who have passed on, and I discovered that in most cases, there are few folks who have interest in these sentimental objects that were so carefully preserved by the former owner! Who wants great grandma's tea set? No one!

    Lesson learned! I have started the process of "downsizing" and finding new homes for items that I have retained for sentimental reasons. In terms of musical instruments, If I have not played it in years, and see no prospect of doing so, I find it a good home. Case in point; I just sold my first banjo, one that I acquired in high school, and played for many happy times, but had not played in the last 25 years. I had kept it simply because it was "my first." Had I an aspiring banjo player in the family, it would have gone to them.
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  4. #53

    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    Thank you for all the personal thoughts. Of course it is just making the choice harder! haha Just when I thought there was a slight bias to not put so much emotion on instruments, here comes the comments from the other side of the coin!

    To this day I still have my very first Les Paul.
    Every now and then I'll play it and of course I keep the strings loose if I intend to store it for a while.
    I'm not sure I could ever willingly give it up.
    Yep, A Les Paul Standard is among them. I just envision 10-20 years from now, I get together to jam and think about how cool it would be to still have that first Les Paul!

    It doesn't seem that long ago that I was able to load all of my possessions into a VW bus. Man I miss that!

    I think it is past time to face the fact that "stuff" needs to go. That or condemn myself to living in a house 3x the size that we really need.

    I have been facing the same issue with the shop. I managed to downsize it from 1500 sq ft to 600 sq ft. Almost all of the power tools are gone. That part was easy, I prefer working with hand tools anyway.
    Robert Fear
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  5. #54
    Registered User Rodney Riley's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    Had a fellow that lived in a neighboring community who had an old Martin guitar. He was offered over $15,000.00 for it in the ‘90s. Didn’t want to sell it because he wanted to hand it down. Got to thinking, “ I have 3 daughters ( who all played guitars and sang with him at various functions) and only one valuable guitar.” He sold it, bought 3 brand new Martin’s, gave one to each of the girls. “And I had money left over!”

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  7. #55
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    Quote Originally Posted by Folkmusician.com View Post
    It doesn't seem that long ago that I was able to load all of my possessions into a VW bus. Man I miss that!
    I once loaded everything I own in a 73 Chevy Vega. I can relate to the notion of possessing little and being able to move with a days notice. Now so many instruments have moved in with me and then there's my wife's flute and recorder collection. At least she does not complain about my guitar, mandolin and banjo gathering, all of which have hard shell cases.

  8. #56
    Moderator MikeEdgerton's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    I loaded everything I owned into an overseas box, basically a 48X48X48 box on a pallet and shipped it via rail from Portland, Oregon to Kearny, NJ back about 1978. The box wasn't all the way full. We all have to start or in my case, start over sometime. The time will come that I have to slim down what I have. I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
    --M. Stillion

    "Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
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  9. #57

    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    'Tis a morbid thought, that all our possessions, hand-picked personally one at a time over a lifetime, chosen with taste, purpose, meaning, and distinction, will someday be offered for 25 cents each at an estate sale....actually, every estate sale kinda gives me the creeps, in that regard....

    Then again, at that point I don't think we will care.....

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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    I have duplicates of some books and magazines I need to sell, and I need to go through and sell all the picks I don't care for (from my "pick acquisition syndrome,) and I have two guitars I am willing to give away if I find someone who wants them (I am thinking of two kids at church who are musically inclined.) I have my first violin I will never sell as my significant other bought it for me to learn on after I had expressed an interest. It is basically a cheap $100 violin, but it doesn't sound awful, and it stays anyway.

  11. #59
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Mando View Post
    'Tis a morbid thought, that all our possessions, hand-picked personally one at a time over a lifetime, chosen with taste, purpose, meaning, and distinction, will someday be offered for 25 cents each at an estate sale....actually, every estate sale kinda gives me the creeps, in that regard....

    Then again, at that point I don't think we will care.....
    Marley was dead to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.

    --C. Dickens
    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
    --M. Stillion

    "Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
    --J. Garber

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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    Quote Originally Posted by MikeEdgerton View Post
    Marley was dead to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.

    --C. Dickens


    “Mind! I don't mean to say that, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a doornail.”
    ...

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  15. #61
    Registered User Ivan Kelsall's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    My first acoustic guitar back in 1970 (ish) was a Yamaha FG140. It wasn't expensive but it played & sounded very well. I've been looking for a 'used' one over here for a few months now,simply because of the connection between that make / model of guitar & possible the best era of my life & the fact that they were a very good guitar,
    Ivan
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    Weber F-5 'Fern'.
    Lebeda F-5 "Special".
    Stelling Bellflower BANJO
    Tokai - 'Tele-alike'.
    Ellis DeLuxe "A" style.

  16. #62
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    I still have this one Ivan. That was me about 52 summers ago

    That's a FG-110 I bought in 1966 or 67. Someplace in there..
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    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
    --M. Stillion

    "Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
    --J. Garber

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  18. #63
    Registered User Roger Moss's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Mando View Post
    'Tis a morbid thought, that all our possessions, hand-picked personally one at a time over a lifetime, chosen with taste, purpose, meaning, and distinction, will someday be offered for 25 cents each at an estate sale....actually, every estate sale kinda gives me the creeps, in that regard....

    Then again, at that point I don't think we will care.....
    I like some pretty obscure stuff. Eventually, I fully expect all my treasured toys to be shoveled into a pickup truck and carted off to the dump. That disappoints me some now, but as you say I likely won't care much then.
    We are the music makers,
    And we are the dreamers of dreams

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  20. #64
    Registered User Timbofood's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    I am afeared all my earthly goods will simply end up in a dump. No one will give a damn about my kitchen goods, instruments, or anything else that I hold with any form of affection.
    Where’s my bowl of worms?
    I probably sold forty Yamaha FG-110,140,160’s! Dollar for dollar they were an incredible value! Maybe the most consistently “good” right out of the box guitars I ever sold. Alvarez were not bad but, not as even across the board as Yamaha’s.
    Setting either of them up wasn’t too bad, they came needing just a few tweaks usually.
    Timothy F. Lewis
    "If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett

  21. #65
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    My FG-110 is the only guitar I own that is finished inside as well as outside. The first real guitar I owned after a series of Stella/Harmony instruments. It was actually playable and it was a real pleasure
    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
    --M. Stillion

    "Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
    --J. Garber

  22. #66
    Registered User foldedpath's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    I don't know how many here have dealt with clearing out your parents' house and selling it after they pass on, but that's a sobering process. It tends to put a damper on packrat-ism, at least temporarily (see below). Especially when your parents were Depression-era kids, raised to hold on to possessions "just in case." I thought we'd never finish clearing out the garage.

    So it was a lesson, and my S.O. and I did trim down our own stuff to prepare for a move cross-country not long afterwards. I remember giving away a big Peavy mixer and speakers we used in a now-defunct Blues band, to some kids we knew who could use it.

    But then... but then.... after moving to the Northwest USA coast, we bought a big house. We weren't necessarily looking for "big," but my S.O. had always wanted to live in a Victorian-era home, and the surviving ones tend to be on the large side. We never intended to fill up the place with "stuff," but it just happens when the house is on the large side. It's a box to hold your stuff (cue George Carlin), and given enough time, stuff just magically scales to the size of the box.

    We've been here for 17 years now, planning to put the house up for sale next year, and getting into serious downsizing mode. Selling the piano is a first step, but the two acoustic guitars, mandolin, two flutes and my S.O.'s fiddles are coming with us. We're not quite old enough for the "final downsizing and sell-off" for a few years yet!

    Speaking of George and his stuff (mild profanity alert):



  23. #67
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    Quote Originally Posted by Timbofood View Post
    I am afeared all my earthly goods will simply end up in a dump. No one will give a damn about my kitchen goods, instruments, or anything else that I hold with any form of affection.
    Where’s my bowl of worms?
    I probably sold forty Yamaha FG-110,140,160’s! Dollar for dollar they were an incredible value! Maybe the most consistently “good” right out of the box guitars I ever sold. Alvarez were not bad but, not as even across the board as Yamaha’s.
    Setting either of them up wasn’t too bad, they came needing just a few tweaks usually.
    Those old red label Yamahas are great guitars. Hard to find nowadays though.
    ...

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  25. #68

    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    One of mine on the chopping block.... My most played instrument (but only a handful of times in the last 20 years). yeah, it really needs to go...


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    Robert Fear
    http://www.folkmusician.com

    "Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.
    " - Pete Seeger

  26. #69
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    Quote Originally Posted by Folkmusician.com View Post
    One of mine on the chopping block.... My most played instrument (but only a handful of times in the last 20 years). yeah, it really needs to go...
    Cool! Keep the picture and move the instrument along to someone who can make new memories with it.
    Whenever I send an instrument to a less experienced player, I always say "This mandolin already knows a lot of songs. Now it's your turn to learn how to get it to sing them."

  27. #70
    ************** Caleb's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    Quote Originally Posted by Folkmusician.com View Post
    One of mine on the chopping block.... My most played instrument (but only a handful of times in the last 20 years). yeah, it really needs to go...


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    Were you a Nuno Bettencourt fan?
    ...

  28. #71
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    Its not an easy question. Stuff is an indication that we have had a life. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. Of course there are extremes. Extremes of hoarding and clutter, and extremes of minimalism and letting go of everything. Neither extreme is more or less valid a lifestyle, and either extreme can make life really difficult.

    I am not sure I even subscribe to the "keep only what you need, and need what you keep" philosophy. Who defines my need. How many mandolins do I need. The real answer is none. I don't need any. And I am not sure who it hurts to have a bit more than you need, even if you define need for yourself.

    Gratitude for such a condition is important, of course, but I can't find the evil in it, unless you treat people poorly in getting there. In which case it is lack of a generous spirit and perhaps lack of empathy that is the problem, not the possessions.

    (Luke 18:25 not withstanding of course.)
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  30. #72
    Scroll Lock Austin Bob's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    I'm reading this thread with interest, and it's also dredging up a bit of sadness. I just turned 64, and have way too many toys that make noise. And that's just part of my clutter, I have a lot of bicycle stuff I haven't used in years, plus a huge collection of tools.

    I plan to retire in a couple of years when the house is finally paid off, and I sometimes dream of selling everything and moving to a condo on the beach. But what about that beautiful tangerine Strat my wife bought me for my 50th birthday with the Fender tweed amp? Or the Les Paul with the obligatory Marshall, or even the other two mandolins? Truth be told, I really only play one mandolin and my Taylor guitar on a regular basis. The rest could go, but I would be sad to part with them. For one, it's facing the truth that I'm not gonna live for ever, and I'm way closer to the end of life than I am the beginning. Heavy stuff for a rainy afternoon in Texas.
    A quarter tone flat and a half a beat behind.

  31. #73

    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    Were you a Nuno Bettencourt fan?
    I do recall learning "More than Words" haha... But my biggest influence.......


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    I sometimes dream of selling everything and moving to a condo on the beach.
    Yep, this is exactly what is going through my head.
    Robert Fear
    http://www.folkmusician.com

    "Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.
    " - Pete Seeger

  32. #74
    Registered User Timbofood's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    Food, water and shelter are NEEDS. Everything else is a want, I want the things that make my life more comfortable, pleasant and fun! That may include items which others would simply click their tongues over, all I can say is “It’s MY stuff!” Thanks for the George Carlin reference btw.
    Could I dispatch a lot of “stuff”? Sure! Do I think it would make me happier? Not on your tintype! My stuff is mine to buy, sell or give away as I see fit, I’ve had boats and motors stolen from me more than once by people professing to be my friends! Some of those were gifts from my father and dear friends, did these leeches have any compunction about selling them after my “loan” nope! Up yours too bad, I got stoned, sorry.
    That went off track, sorry.
    I’m not planning on moving, or buying much more stuff! I want a couple of things but, that’s a different story.
    Last edited by Timbofood; Sep-20-2018 at 5:43pm.
    Timothy F. Lewis
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  33. #75
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    A dog may have a favorite toy but he'll take it out and leave it and lose it in a heartbeat. Why? He has no sentimental attachment to it or anything. I have several instrument thati am attached to for various reasons. Probably the most sentimental is a Gibson
    RB- 150 that my mother bought my dad in the mid sixties.my dad played that banjo 45 or 50 years, done many things to it himself, played many a tune with me. I don't play a banjo but my wife or kids will sell that one. I'll have it to remember the good times we had until I join dad in heaven. Yes it is just a instrument, but I need the memories more that it needs to be played.

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