So many guitars!

It seems like a logical question for an amateur to ask a guitarist: "Why do you need so many guitars?", but for the guitarist it may be a question he/she has never even thought about. Of course different guitars sound different, especially when you're talking about 6 string versus 12 string or acoustic versus electric, and there are many guitarists who have a favorite brand of guitar and will play nothing else, whether it's a Les Paul or a Martin D-28. For me and for a lot of experienced guitarists, the main reason is alternate tunings: you can keep one guitar in standard tuning, one guitar in Drop D, one guitar in double drop D, and one in open C. This way, you can switch from one song to the next by just substituting a properly tuned one, and not have to bother with retuning for every song.

While some of these tunings are simple (in Drop D for instance, you change only one string) but in some tunings, like the famous one for Led Zeppelin's Rain Song, four of the strings have to be retuned (there's a live tuning that requires only two strings changing, thankfully) and the open C tuning mentioned requires retuning three strings. Thats a lot of droning offkey strings being heard in between songs. Multiple guitars alleviate this problem.

Not to be discounted is the simple pleasure of owning a beautiful or particularly lovely sounding guitar (not always the same thing). I have a stunning Crafter acoustic electric that is just awesome cosmetically, and while a nice sounding guitar (and my only pluggable acoustic) it cannot hold a candle sonically to my super-ugly Alvarez 12 string, which can sound like angels singing when played.
And it isn't a matter of cost...I paid only $125 for the Crafter and $145 for the Alvarez, making them the cheapest guitars in my arsenal, yet possibly the guitars most often played!

Finally there is the possibility of collecting guitars for their resale value, which is a tricky proposition. If you have a Les Paul or an old Guild acoustic with a serial number in the teens, you could make a fortune (there was a very early Fender Strat that went for $350,000 on Antiques Roadshow), but most guitars don't greatly increase in value unless played by someone famous or used in a notable concert or recording session. Add to this the simple fact that guitarists do not like to sell their guitars no matter how many they may have. I have bought almost a dozen guitars over the years but sold only two of them - the rest were bartered away in the course of purchasing other guitars. I have in fact been offered three times what I paid for my Norman B30 (around a thousand dollars) but didn't even consider it, since I doubt I could find another that sounds as sweet for a grand.

Some will argue that these multiple guitars don't get used all that much, and that there is only one main axe that is irreplaceable, but I personally have played four of my guitars (and my mandolin) in the past week, and that is not at all unusual. For some, one guitar is enough and more than enough (I don't think Willie Nelson has put his down in 60 years!) while for others, there is no such thing as too many guitars. Count me among the latter! And by the way, would you be interested in selling that old guitar?