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Thread: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

  1. #76
    Registered User Tom Haywood's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    I tend to keep the instruments, even the ones I build to sell. Each one has a character that only it can fulfill. Each one is a friend. I may not see a friend for a long time, but I hate to let them go once and for all. However, I know from other pursuits that we like to define ourselves and remember who we are by what we have. "I am the person who...", and I have the stuff that proves it. Yet, in the end, I am not the person who. That was my ego, my "I, me, mine". That is not the real me. That is why my stuff has not much value to anyone else, because it usually doesn't define who they think they are. So, I have been that person who has a reputation for playing electric music. Long ago. I have kept the stuff even though it hasn't been out of the closet in 12 years, because I might use it again for a reunion. Sure. But I know that was me - just a memory now, and it is a bit of an anchor on who I am becoming.
    Tom

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  2. #77
    Registered User Dan Adams's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    ‘I don’t think I have any instruments I’ve kept for years for sentimental reasons; Yes dear..?’
    “What about that old Harmony you bought from Charles Sawtell at the Denver Folklore Center in 73?”
    ‘Okay, one.’
    “What about that Gibson you call Lumpy you bought in 75?”
    ‘Oh well, maybe two.’
    “Don’t you have a Blue Ridge Custom guitar you bought in 76?”
    ‘But it’s a guitar!’
    “And that Flatiron 2MB pancake you bought in 81 that you travel with and busk?”
    ‘But it’s small and loud!’
    “Your Fisch Czech mandolin you performed with for 13 years, your custom made Triple iii, that electric mandolin, the octave you play Irish tunes with, a fiddle, an accordion, and our brother in law’s Larivee MV5 guitar?”
    ‘But, I’m not sentimental about the fiddle and the 50 year old family accordion because I can’t play them, and the guitars are nice but I don’t really play guitar. I have to keep those other instruments, but first I have to learn how to play the mandolin!’
    “Likely justification”
    ‘Yes dear.’
    Play em like you know em!

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  4. #78
    Registered User Dan Adams's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    “Let’s not forget that 1917 Gibson A-Model pumpkin top?”
    ‘Oh yeah! That one’s cool!! Looks like it just walked off the factory floor in Kalamazoo!’
    Play em like you know em!

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  6. #79
    Registered User Ivan Kelsall's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    Hi Mike - The Yamaha guitars at that time had a revolutionary 'laminated top' as you know,however,the overall sound was excellent.
    I sold mine to buy one of the new 'Ovation' guitars,a ''Balladeer' model.

    I did actually find a Yamaha FG140 for sale over here yesterday,but it was £300 UK,a tad high for me. I can buy a brand new Takamine acoustic (Parlour size) for £200. I think that a Parlour guitar would sit (literally) more comfortably with me. A friend of mine once said that after playing a mandolin,playing a guitar is a bit like trying to play a wardrobe - i had to agree,
    Ivan
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  7. #80
    Registered User Timbofood's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    Playing a wardrobe, I like that!
    Timothy F. Lewis
    "If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett

  8. #81
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    The problem is, when you pick it up to get ready to sell it, you play it.

  9. #82
    Registered User Timbofood's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    Quote Originally Posted by AndyV View Post
    The problem is, when you pick it up to get ready to sell it, you play it.
    And there is the root of why I keep everything!
    Timothy F. Lewis
    "If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett

  10. #83
    Registered User Bob Buckingham's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    How much are they eating? What does it cost you to keep it?

  11. #84
    Registered User Timbofood's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    And of course:
    Can you afford to replace it?
    Shedding chattels due to downsizing or to some other necessity is one thing to consider as well. I have more stuff than I need and should probably start thinning the crop of everything! The real problem is I keep adding to my wife’s collection of cloisonné!
    Timothy F. Lewis
    "If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett

  12. #85
    Registered User foldedpath's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    Quote Originally Posted by RobBob View Post
    How much are they eating? What does it cost you to keep it?
    I can tell you exactly how much.

    I like to change strings before the intonation goes too far out, and that can happen even before the strings sound too dull. After selling off all my old electric guitars and a few acoustic guitars, I'm down to one mandolin, one OM, one steel string acoustic guitar, and one acoustic nylon string guitar. The mandolin gets a string change every 3-4 weeks, the guitars and OM every other month.

    All together, that's 28 strings to change on a regular schedule, at roughly $40. With the staggered schedule between mandolin and guitars/OM, it comes to roughly $350 a year for strings. That's what they "eat." Plus my time in changing strings, of course, and I don't enjoy that any more than anyone else here.

    So yeah, there is a cost in maintaining a collection. Back when I had a dozen guitars of various types, I'm sure something like half of them were not in good condition, string-wise. With my current 4 stringed instruments, I can manage to keep the strings in good shape. Any more stringed instruments at this point would just be decorative wall hangers. I did add a couple of wooden flutes in the last few years, but those are practically maintenance-free compared to stringed instruments. Just a little bore oil a few times a year.

    Of course none of this will matter to the folks who can go a year or two between string changes, but I've never been that person. I can hear it when strings go out of intonation or start sounding dull, and it drives me nuts.

  13. #86
    Registered User Bob Visentin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Keeping instruments for sentimental reasons

    Good instruments can be good investments.
    I still have my first bass. A 1966 Fender jazz I bought in 73 for $200. It is worth thousands now.

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