The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

I have what many would consider to be a good problem to have: too many guitars!
The number currently stands at 18, with 9 of them having been made by Uncle Mats his self. Actually, it ain't so much too many guitars as too many guitar cases and I'm seriously running out of creative ways to deal with them.

I have a small'sh but serviceable music room which I've had to "share" with my son, who was beaten and whipped into playing piano for his Royal Conservatory of Music certification. He mostly disliked it all (classical you know) but ended up with his Grade 7 level. All this by way of indicating that one side of the room has his digital piano, plus a synthesizer, and my old keyboard...plus some of my amp gear...plus speakers for my little PA....plus my son's guitar on a stand (he's still taking lessons).

The long wall of the room has end to end shelving which holds: books(!); more amps up against the wall under the bottom most shelf; small stereo amp / CD player / speakers; odds and ends; and, the PA amplifier!

On the "guitar" side of the room, I have a mic set up in the middle of the room on a boom stand, and behind that a 3-tree guitar stand plus a single stand, and my '65 Danelectro amp. Finally, starting behind the door and running the remaining length of the wall are...cases!!

Typically, I rotate my guitars four at a time, maybe once a week, which of course means pulling out the appropriate empty cases from the stack, returning the current guitars and taking out the replacements. It's a royal pain in the arse, and the wall is getting scuffed as well.

Being mostly "vintage" guitars they come with an assortment of case styles too which makes it doubly hard to manage. I have everything from big ugly rectangular hard shells to custom hard shells, to "tear drops", to gig bags. I'd really love to put them all into padded gig bags, but I have too many custom cases (Gibson, Westone, Ovation) to do that completely.

I considered hanging the guitars on the wall, but:
a) not enough space! the only wall long enough to handle them all is already covered up
b) the room is not climate controlled so potential damage is possible, especially to the acoustics
c) I don't want to do major surgery to the room

So, I'm open to ideas! What do you do with those %^#*& cases!?

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Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com

I feel your pain Brotha....

I also am living with that situation... I am lucky to have two 8 foot closets to stack some out of the way and have the same as you in a spare room that just lines up the entire wall in cases.... Since I do not have cases for every intrument that I have (thank God for that, mind you I pickup cases every chance I get) I found that my Wall hangers are the best solution for part of the problem.....

Like I mention somewhere else, in my office, I installed slat wall hangers were I can hang instruments sideways just like in music stores.... This way, you have all or most of your amps under the instruments and a good portion of your instruments hanging over them.... Keeping the blinds almost shut at all times not to have direct sunlight on any instrument is also key since you dont want the sun to burn the color of your prized instuments... I would not leave my acoustics out like this since not the same construction as solids.... The rest are in the cases....

In my opinion... The shelves and books will have to go if you really want to call this a Music Room. How long is the wall where you have those shelves?

P.

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MAA Member since June 29th 2009, taking one baby step at a time..... and failing miserably!

I suppose so, but I don't have much choice, there's too much stuff on them that's relevant to the music--music books, speakers, PA and stereo amplifiers, CD player, reel to reel tape, etc. No place else to put this stuff if the shelves disappear. And they're only 10" deep. The wall is the longest in the room at about 12 ft.

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Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com

Don't have that problem anymore - all my gear stored...yada yada yada but when I was playing gigs, the only electric guitar I had out was the one I used - normally the VA900, but when I stopped gigging, it was the Spectrum ST - plus the lap steel and the synth, and they were all set up in my shed, which was an old woolshed, so I had plenty of room to set everything out should I have wanted!!


Does that help?

Gig bags suck; HSC rule!!

Yeah, um, well, er, thanks for that penetrating analysis...I guess.

When I was playing 'semi-regularly', you know, fer money, I had a hell of a lot less stuff to worry about! I could shove the whole works in a closet or under the bed!!

Now? I'm totally GAS afflicted, and I can't even friggin' find the bed!

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Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com

You could have 20 to 22 instrument hanging....



I agree... I get rid of my gig bags everytime I sell an instrument..... Suckars.....



If you make your own bed frame, you could make it high enought to put 2 rows of HSC under...... Wow, that just gave me an Idea .....

P.

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MAA Member since June 29th 2009, taking one baby step at a time..... and failing miserably!

Now, see; someone's thinking!!

Feel your pain Barry,and TBH it works the same way around here.
See...me and the mrs live in a condo..and that sure sets a limit to the amount of space available.
Now i´m one of those that have been blessed with a mrs that basicaly says nothing about an entire wall of guitars in the living room as long as they are "in order",but...then arises the situation with the hardcases.
Dayum..there´s friggin hardcases EVERYWHERE.
I mean...behind doors...under the bed....in corners...you name it.

As most of these guitars are at least closing up on vintage status for better for worse i for one also feel that the OEM hardcases are important to the guitars to remain their status as complete units so to say.

...and FWIW i also wish someone would come up with a feasable idea of storage.
The thing in my case is that indeed rotate the guitars as well in as much that i play them all.
Ie;i feel the hardcases needs to be at hand.
I´ve given thought to just caving in and making a neat pile in a square foot or so in the bedroom.
Just stacking them ontop of each other,but that simply doesn´t feel like the right way of doing it either...so..honestly...i have no idea.

You have too many guitars. Donate half of them to me. If that doesn't give you enough room, I'd be glad to help you make more space
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Actually, I was up to 14 at one time, which was too many for me. I've let a few go, a few more will be going. They may eventually be replaced by 2, maybe 3 projects. Maybe not.
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I personally don't think gig bags are worthless--especially the padded ones that have retractable hangers that allow them to be hung from closet rails. With a vertical support or two, you can have 10 guitars hanging vertically in a medium-sized closet, with enough room for several hard cases underneath. A large closet will come close to holding them all--but then you have to find a place for all that other stuff. If you don't want to hang them all in one closet, scatter them around.

There are some very cheap & sturdy plastic "elevators" or "risers" (they look something like small traffic cones with the narrow top cut off) that you can put under the legs of your bed to elevate it enough to hold stacks of cases at least 2 deep (they're in home stores, some department stores, & some building supply stores around here; 1 set costs about $10 US). If your bed is a double, it should accommodate at least 6 electric cases. The more beds you have, the more room you can make. Once you see the design, you may be able to make your own out of wood (if you have access to a lathe--& if you don't want to get fancy, you can make simple ones out of blocks of wood with a drill & a large spade bit). Do you have a sofa against a wall? Put 2 more behind that. Armchairs are good for at least partially hiding 1 case.

I used to have some hard cases hanging from my (unfinished) basement ceiling by the handles (only the ones with very sturdy handles).

Let me know what you come up with .
My current count is around 40, with over half of them in hard cases.
4 bedroom home and only one cupboard without at least one guitar in it, most have 3-4 in them..
6 in a stand +amps and saxophones in the music room.
4 under the office desk.
3x saxophones in another cupboard.
And cases scattered from A@#!hole to breakfast time. Overflow usually ends up in the shed.

+ one very understanding wife.

I'm starting to think I might need a bit of professional help
It's all too much, I'm off to bed to dream about the next one