Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

[ratherdashing]

By this, I mean keeping the guitar for sentimental or other reasons, but never (or rarely ever) playing it.

My black Strat is a MIM 1994 Squier Series Fender, and I've owned it since it was brand new. It was a 16th birthday present and it was my first "real" guitar. It's been with me over half my life, and many of my best memories involve this instrument.

The only original parts left are the jack plate, the neck plate, and the wood. Everything else has been replaced at one time or another. The electronics have been replaced/upgraded many times.

Here's the thing ... it's never been a "great" guitar, and lately it seems to be causing me more and more headaches. The truss rod is prone to "ringing" inside the neck because it somehow works its way loose. I need to tighten it every once in a while or I get this weird resonance when I hit the low strings. There's also the bridge - it is a standard sized bridge with a big block that got shoehorned into a route designed for a totally different sized (and really crappy) trem. It feels loose and clunky when I use the bar, and the tuning gets thrown way off every time I do.

Perhaps most troublesome is that it's long overdue for a fret level/dress. That's not a cheap job to do on a guitar that isn't worth much (on paper) to begin with.

It's arguably my "worst" guitar, and definitely my least reliable. It's not unplayable, and it has nice tone, but it's hard not to notice that it's inferior in many ways to the rest of my arsenal.

I would never sell it. It is worth far more to me as a sentimental object than it would ever get me on the used market. At the same time, I don't think it would be a good use of my time or money to fix the issues this guitar has and bring it up to the same standard as my others. Truth be told, I don't think it will ever get up to that standard.

So, my thought now is to scrap it for parts, and mount what's left of it on the wall for show.

What do you think?

 

[Grindspine]

Re: Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

I'd probably never sell my first guitar. It was a POS B.C. Rich bolt-on neck, platinum series import with a single-locking Floyd. The guitar really does not play all that well, but it was the first electric that I bought. I rarely ever play it. Last time I took the effort to restring it, the high E kept breaking at the saddle. Polishing the saddle has not helped nor has lubricating with graphite. Unfortunately, that single locking Floyd bridge has an odd post spacing, so upgrading the bridge is not much of an option.

If I could find an upgrade bridge that would fit the post spacing, updating the pickups might be worth it as the frets are at least still in decent shape. At this point, the only real change from the picture is that I updated the tuners to Grover Rotomatic locking tuners; one of my friends had lost the locking nut pieces when he borrowed the guitar for recording. -_-

 

[zenmindbeginner]

Re: Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

By this, I mean keeping the guitar for sentimental or other reasons, but never (or rarely ever) playing it.

My black Strat is a MIM 1994 Squier Series Fender, and I've owned it since it was brand new. It was a 16th birthday present and it was my first "real" guitar. It's been with me over half my life, and many of my best memories involve this instrument.

The only original parts left are the jack plate, the neck plate, and the wood. Everything else has been replaced at one time or another. The electronics have been replaced/upgraded many times.

Here's the thing ... it's never been a "great" guitar, and lately it seems to be causing me more and more headaches. The truss rod is prone to "ringing" inside the neck because it somehow works its way loose. I need to tighten it every once in a while or I get this weird resonance when I hit the low strings. There's also the bridge - it is a standard sized bridge with a big block that got shoehorned into a route designed for a totally different sized (and really crappy) trem. It feels loose and clunky when I use the bar, and the tuning gets thrown way off every time I do.

Perhaps most troublesome is that it's long overdue for a fret level/dress. That's not a cheap job to do on a guitar that isn't worth much (on paper) to begin with.

It's arguably my "worst" guitar, and definitely my least reliable. It's not unplayable, and it has nice tone, but it's hard not to notice that it's inferior in many ways to the rest of my arsenal.

I would never sell it. It is worth far more to me as a sentimental object than it would ever get me on the used market. At the same time, I don't think it would be a good use of my time or money to fix the issues this guitar has and bring it up to the same standard as my others. Truth be told, I don't think it will ever get up to that standard.

So, my thought now is to scrap it for parts, and mount what's left of it on the wall for show.

What do you think?

Use the wood for a series of custom pen blanks and have the guitar live on as a dozen or so fancy arsed pens.

Personally, My Roland GR-707 and GR700 are lying dormant until I pony up the dough for the PG-200 programmer. Not so much a retirement as a hiatus.

 

[Chocklit_Thunda]

Re: Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

I plan on retiring my X1 (my first guitar) the day that the universe creates a guitar that can rival it.... So probably never then

 

[ErikH]

Re: Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

Yes, I have one that is somewhat "retired". It's my 1988 Kramer Baretta. I picked it up at The Starving Musician in Santa Clara, CA for a really good price in the early-mid 1990's. It had a tone knob added that I promptly removed. One person on a forum tried to tell me that it wasn't a Baretta but it has been verified that it is. I tracked down an 80's reverse zebra JB and slapped it in there. When I was playing it more I had the frets leveled, crowned and polished. It plays like a dream and sounds amazing. One of my best. I play it now and then at home but it never gets gigged anymore. I'm just too paranoid about someone walking out with it.

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

Yeah, my first guitar, a 2000 MiM Fender Strat that I bought new in Christmas 2000. It's been through modding hell twice until now and the only "stock parts" are actually the body and neck. Literally everything else has been replaced.
However the frets were soft to begin with and the neck too chubby and C-shapped for my tastes so when the frets got too worn-out to level, re-crown and dress I got into that chicken-and-egg question of whether I should change the frets on a neck that I'm not crazy about or change the entire neck except then it won't be the same guitar.

I still haven't found an answer to that question which is why she spends her time in a closet waiting for that time I get sentimental and take her out. She sounds phenomenal, I REALLY like her tonally (she's the receiver of 3 SDUGF exclusive pickups, the Crazy 8 and two StraBro90s) and looks-wise, just not very fond of how she feels...

 

[CTN]

Re: Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

Up until a few years ago, my strat was in a state of semi-retirement and had been that way for at least 7 or 8 years prior. Back then it was still loaded with the stock ceramic single coils, and I hated how it sounded. I was also playing metal almost entirely back then so it had no job to do or even excel at.

Then I decided that I would mod it for a humbucker in the bridge position and use it as a backup guitar seeing as I had recently sold off one of my other guitars due to it being a cheap POS. Made the mods, and put a Super Distortion in the bridge. Sounded great. Came out of retirement. Eventually I found myself playing increasingly more blues and rock and felt the need for something different sonically, so I also tried a PAF Pro, an HB103 and a JB8 in it. All sounded good in one way or another.

And then I felt the need for some authentic single coil tones, so i got a new pickguard and some nice handwound pickups, and now it's back to SSS configuration and certainly doesn't have retirement of any sort in its foreseeable future.

I've also patiently worked on my guitars so that all of them are main players now. I'd be happy taking any of them to a gig without any reservations at all.

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

Retired this lemon ages ago.
View attachment 40240

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

Yeah, my first guitar, a 2000 MiM Fender Strat that I bought new in Christmas 2000. It's been through modding hell twice until now and the only "stock parts" are actually the body and neck. Literally everything else has been replaced.
However the frets were soft to begin with and the neck too chubby and C-shapped for my tastes so when the frets got too worn-out to level, re-crown and dress I got into that chicken-and-egg question of whether I should change the frets on a neck that I'm not crazy about or change the entire neck except then it won't be the same guitar.

I still haven't found an answer to that question which is why she spends her time in a closet waiting for that time I get sentimental and take her out. She sounds phenomenal, I REALLY like her tonally (she's the receiver of 3 SDUGF exclusive pickups, the Crazy 8 and two StraBro90s) and looks-wise, just not very fond of how she feels...

This is very similar to my story, and I think it's no coincidence both our guitars are older MIM Fenders.

Mine actually no longer has the original frets. It only took me two years to wear those out. The current ones (Dunlop 6000's, which are comically huge ... I was a teenager) are 16 years old and haven't been re-crowned or dressed at all. There are grooves under the strings on most of the frets.

Just in case anyone interprets this as a bash against MIM Fenders, I should note that the more recent models are far, far superior to mine. I had a 2009 until recently (sold it to fund another purchase) and it was an excellent, trouble free guitar.

I've also patiently worked on my guitars so that all of them are main players now. I'd be happy taking any of them to a gig without any reservations at all.

I have more or less done the same, and aside from the guitar I'm talking about in this thread, everything I own is 100% gig-worthy as of this moment.

 

[Jeff5]

Re: Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

I have two guitars I never play but would never sell.

The first is my Westone. It was my first guitar, a black super strat bolt on. I never play it, but would never sell it as it would get me nothing and it has sentimental value.

The second is a red MIK squier Strat that I bought in the early 90s. It was my main guitar for almost 10 years (saying main....I went though long periods of not playing) and has Hot/Cool Rails in it. I have the parts and pick ups and am going to convert it to a true single coil (well stacked coil) Strat which will probably help it see some use. As it is right now I have no reason to play it.

 

[sixstringsamurai333]

Re: Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

Years ago when I was still heavily into metal and shred, I had a local luthier make me what was essentially my version of a Marty Friedman Kelly. It's pretty much been retired as I don't really play that sort of style of music or guitar anymore - but it's still a fun stage guitar to bring out every so often to make a visual impact. Absolutely nothing wrong with it - still a killer, top quality guitar as far as I'm concerned, it's just that I've evolved (hopefully forward, not backward) as a player these past few years and it no longer feels "right" for what I do these days.

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

Let me bring that one out of retirement for you? Looks awesome. I really like the switch placement.

Marty friedman ftw

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

Wow

 

[jmh151]

Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

I have a Les Paul Custom that was retired for years as I collected other guitars.. It's recently come out of retirement once I put EVH Wolfgang pickups in it and has a monster tone the others don't have

 

[AlexR]

Re: Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

Yes, I have one that is somewhat "retired". It's my 1988 Kramer Baretta.

Even more special now that the skyline of New York no longer looks like that

 

[jake_xms3_punk]

Re: Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

Most of my guitars! I have about 15 retired guitars in my attic lol I can't sell them, well they aren't worth anything anyway, and I can't bring myself to bin them and there's no room for them so

Every now and then ill check on them, maybe steal a knob or screw or something lol everyone of those guitar holds so many memories so I want to keep them and maybe have them on display someday.

 

[sixstringsamurai333]

Re: Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

Let me bring that one out of retirement for you? Looks awesome. I really like the switch placement.

Marty friedman ftw

Haha thanks dude. That was one of my functional tweaks, as well as wanting a 5 way switch (wired PRS style) to get in between tones. All in all it's still a monstrously versatile guitar!

I also really dig the flat top look of Marty's Kellys (versus the bevelled edges of normal ones) so I put that in there too.

I think it's still something worth having, especially as a "snapshot" of who I was, musically, at that time.

 

[aleclee]

Re: Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

This '82 Aria was my second guitar but my first non-POS one. That first one got dismantled about 30 years ago. This one got upgraded with a Kahler trem, Screamin' Demon and Pearly Gates. It's still a solid guitar but it pretty much got retired when I got my first PRS back in 2001.

Probably the most notable thing is that in all the years it was my #1, it always played like buttah and never needed a truss rod adjustment. I now live in a place where the humidity swings have me adjusting relief every couple months.

 

[ErikH]

Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

Even more special now that the skyline of New York no longer looks like that

Yup. Another reason why it doesn't go out much.

 

[Mr 9finger]

Re: Have you ever "retired" a guitar?

Erik, if you ever get rid of that Baretta, it better be a life or death situation. If not, I'm flying down to TX to slap you on your bald head a few times.