How Many Guitars Do You Really Need?

If you’re anything like me you might have a long-suffering wife or partner who would not unreasonably prefer to use the space (or the money) for something else. Or perhaps you’re not a multi-millionaire with an enormous home studio who can buy all the guitars you want whenever you want them… Also like me. So in a world of seemingly infinite options but somewhat finite resources, which ones should we be prioritising? The following are my suggestions, based on almost two decades of experience teaching and performing, as the guitars that will come in particularly useful for the working musician.

Of course we’re starting here. Jimi Hendrix, SRV, David Gilmour, Nile Rodgers, Eric Johnson, Jeff Beck, and countless other incredible players have used a Strat to create and define their sound whilst inspiring generations of guitar players along the way. These days a decent Strat-style guitar doesn’t have to break the bank either, since the Mexican- and Korean-built models are becoming increasingly well made, and that’s before even considering the multitude of very good alternatives to Fender. My Mexican Fender Player Strat was an eBay bargain that I picked up as an inexpensive workhorse and it quickly became one of my favourites – I use it for everything from teaching to function gigs.

There are some sounds that you just can’t make without a guitar like this, from the nasal, out-of-phase sound of ‘Sultans Of Swing’ to the aggressive-but-crystal-clear lead sound of pretty much anything by Yngwie Malmsteen. There’s a very good reason that the Fender Stratocaster is almost a household name, and that every professional guitarist I know owns at least one Strat style guitar.

Before the Strat, there was the Telecaster. This was the very first mass produced solid body electric guitar, and Leo Fender absolutely nailed it. They’ve changed very little in the last 74 years because they simply haven’t needed to. I must confess that when I was at Music College I hated Telecasters, thinking they were ugly and too bright-sounding, but I was young and impressionable and have clearly matured a lot since then! Many of my current favourite players favour Telecasters, and since owning one I can see why.

The mellow neck pickup is perfect for a modern jazz sound, the bridge pickup handles everything from country to classic rock and beyond, and the middle setting gives you the iconic Motown ‘spank’ that you just can’t get any other way.

Funnily enough, the guitar I’ve owned the longest is a Fender Lite Ash Telecaster which I bought when I was shopping for a Strat. After failing to find one I liked, the Tele caught my eye so I tried and it turned out to be the only guitar I connected with that day. It has a chunky, C-shaped neck that forces me to play a little differently and it’s an incredibly versatile instrument.

Sometimes we just want to rock out, don’t we? For those times you need a humbucker. The irony of me writing this as someone who doesn’t own a Les Paul or a PRS or anything like that is not lost on me, but at least I know what I have to buy next! I do, however, have an American Deluxe HSS Strat which almost ticks this box… But it’s just not quite the same and we all know it.

In all seriousness, the warmth and sustain of a humbucker in both positions is something you occasionally need to call upon, and there is no way of mimicking that sound if you don’t have one. My American Deluxe is a great guitar, but, being HSS, obviously only has a single coil pickup in the neck position, so it lacks the creamy sustain I’d get with a humbucker instead.

A Les Paul is by no means the only viable option to scratch this particular itch, but they do have a very distinctive sound – similar to the Stratocaster, they’re an enduring sight in music for good reason. Personally, I don’t really get on with the shorter scale length so some kind of HH Super Strat might suit me better, but the fact remains that a guitar with a humbucker in both positions is occasionally something you just need to have.

I can’t play jazz guitar very well at all, but I really wish I could. I’m working on it. But when I play my designated jazz guitar (a beautiful cherry red Epiphone Emperor II Joe Pass signature) it can almost sound convincing – I have it setup with heavy gauge flatwound strings to really add to the illusion. A lot of a guitarist’s usual bag of tricks becomes redundant on an instrument like that, since things like string bending and vibrato are impossible, so it forces me to think a lot more about note choices and phrasing.

There is also something wonderful and ‘woody’ about the timbre of these kinds of guitars that simply cannot be achieved with a solid body electric.

A key part of being able to play any style is getting the right sound, which is why I often feel slightly happier with my attempts at being a jazzer when I’m playing a jazz guitar. It’s possible that some of this might be a kind of placebo, but it can never be a bad thing to feel happy with your own playing.

An essential part of any serious guitarist’s arsenal is a nice acoustic guitar. I don’t mean for unsolicited performances of ‘Wonderwall’ at parties, but because they have a unique voice and give rise to equally unique ideas – not to mention the fact that they are more convenient to pick up and put down then finding in a cable, plugging in an electric guitar, and switching on amplifier. I also think at least a rudimentary grasp of fingerpicking is an essential skill for any guitarist, and acoustic guitars lend themselves perfectly to that style. If you’re new to the world of acoustic guitars then I’d recommend something with a solid top as they are usually more resonant and produce a fuller sound.

Whenever I sit down to write music, which is admittedly a bit of a rare luxury these days, I definitely notice a difference in the kinds of ideas that I come up with when I have an acoustic guitar in my hands compared to an electric guitar. Also, I’m sure we’re all familiar with the concept of ‘acoustic versions’ of songs, whereby things get stripped back and simplified and listeners can hear the bare bones of a song. This can often be the litmus test for whether a song is actually any good or not, but it can also just provide a refreshing alternative to the usual version.

For those among us who are trying to make a living playing these things, it’s impossible to avoid the need to own and play an acoustic guitar from time to time. In my experience, you really do get what you pay for with acoustic instruments much more than electrics – probably because there are fewer things going on between the creation of the sound and the sound itself, so to speak – and so it’s very much worth investing in a good quality acoustic guitar.

The overriding theme is that each guitar yields its own set of unique sounds, and that they can cause us to play slightly differently. Whether those differences are caused primarily by the sound of the guitar or the feel of the guitar, or whether it’s more psychosomatic than that (ie., subconsciously adjusting our playing to better suit our own perceptions of what a particular guitar ought to sound like) is not really important because the net result is the same.