WHY DO WE BUY MORE GUITARS?

crave new guitars when we already have a SWAT team’s worth of guitars in all different shapes, sizes and pickup configurations? I’ve come to realize that — unless you’re super wealthy and buy guitars simply — it all comes down to the concept of “potential.” You see a new guitar — like last weekend when my brother sent me a link to the very Italian-sounding (but Nashville-based) Novo Guitars Rivolta Combinata XVII in Autunno Burst — and you think, “Holy crap, I need this!” But why? I’ll tell you why! It’s because, regardless of your age, you still imagine a situation sometime in the future — a “mythical show,” as Jimmy Page says on page 48 — when a giant E chord from that guitar sends waves of beautiful, crushing sound out into the adoring audience as the stage rattles under your feet. You imagine the photos or videos someone might shoot that night; when you see them, you’ll say, “Damn, that guitar sounds and looks amazing!” You imagine other guitarists lining up after the show to ply you with questions about that amazing guitar. Or you imagine you’re recording with friends (or via GarageBand during a lonely lockdown), going from guitar to guitar as you search for just the right tone — when you suddenly remember . Three seconds after plugging it in, you know it’s gonna save the day. Even after I announce that I’m done buying guitars (and I actually it as I say it), I check out the new-gear releases at a NAMM Show, or I open a link from my brother, and... As Jimmy Page says, I hope we’ll meet up one day at that mythical show!