The question wasn't aimed at GAS as a bad thing there was no limit put on the number of guitars someone may need the need was meant to relate to the number of genuinly different guitars wou have to have to give you all the playing styles you want to play and how many guitars are there for some other reason. So someone may need 3 LPs one with bluesy pickups, one with a vintage tone and one contemporary to cover a range of styles they may also need a heavy metal jackson etc. Having got this range it is perfectly legitimate to improve one for a better tone or closer simulacrum.
Some people will be happy with the approximations to tone they can get with a single guitar and digital emulators or effects where others are not. So the question goes back to how many do you need to play what you want to play.
I could have asked another question with a similar feel which is how many of the guitars you own have significantly different tone or are significantly different to play. Or how many guitars can you group into genre clusters.
Some one with 11 guitars - an acoustic, a semi acoustic, a classical, a flamenco, a strat style heavy, a strat style 50s, a metal master, a vintage LP, contemporary LP, a super strat with trem, a tele
Would not classify the same as someone with 11 strats in different colours.
/Ontopic
actually I have 13 strats:
1957 White maple neck - Apaches
1957 Sunburst Bravewood - a copy of my real 57 so that I can play it out and it has a slightly wider nut and A5 Apaches*
1957 Sunburst reissue - 1969 original fender pickups
1961 White Slab board - 2 original pickups - 1 BKP AV Apache
1963 Burgandy Mist - all original
1964 Fiesta Red Bravewood - HSS RY & 2 Mothers Milks
Shell Pink Hardtail - Pau Ferro fingerboard - BK 1962 Strat set **
Black HSS - Ebony fingerboard - HSS Stormy Monday & 2 Sultans
White - Aframosia Neck - Apache set with baseplates
Sunburst Wenge/Bloodwood neck - large headstock - BK 69 Strat set **
Flamed Redwood rear cavity warmoth with half scalloped ebony fingerboard - HSS - Holy Diver & 2 Trilogy Suites
Sunburst Rosewood board HH - will have VHII's soon
hollow quilted maple, maple neck, lh neck pickup slant, reverse vintage stagger Irish Tours
* due next month
** waiting for these pickups to arrive.
I put the colurs in to show that I do have some the same :)
They all play differently, sound very different, make me play in a slightly different style and are suited for different styles of music (though I admit on this there is quite a lot of crossover). Do I need all of them - probably not, but I want all of them and I would miss one if I sold it. I don't have kids and I was able to buy the guitars I wanted at decent prices, so they've all come along over the years. However several people on the forum have played them and I am sure they will say the same as I do, they all play differently and sound different.
