Thinning the hoard

This has been a year of change for me, some of which has included just getting rid of stuff.

When it comes to hoarding, there were three things I was guilty of. Hoarding guitars, hoarding GPSes and hoarding wristwatches.

For watches, I had about 25 watches at my worst. It's down to 17 now, and the plan is to get that number down to under 10 before the year is out.

As for the GPSes, I currently have 6 of them, but did have more. Several have been sold. While technically true I have a legitimate reason to own each, the reality is that I only need 3. One for daily use which is the 51 LMT-S, one as a backup in case my daily fails, and one that operates on two AA batteries if the car charger port fails.

Where guitars are concerned, at worst I had 7. Now I have 3. One Schecter, one Fender, one Squier. The only reason I keep the Fender is because it was an 18th birthday present from my father, and the Squier because it was my very first electric guitar. Both the Fender and Squier don't work and need repair for whenever I get around to it. The Schecter is the only 100% working guitar, and that's all I need.

A hoard is a hoard even if it's small

You may be thinking, "Gee, what you consider a 'hoard' isn't really that much..."

True. The bulk of my watches are just cheap Casio pieces, and they all fit in a shoebox with room to spare. The GPSes barely take up any space. The guitars hardly take up any room either...

...but the practical side of my mind does not like owning things that have no sentimental value. Whenever I start to see stuff piling up and it's not getting used for its specific function, I then question why I even have them. If I can't think of a good answer, it gets sold, traded or thrown out.

Now let's talk about the Schecter

There's a reason I put that guitar at top and I'll talk about that now.

Yes, I still have it. Yes, I intend on keeping it. The Omen Extreme-6 has been serving very well as being my does-mostly-everything guitar. I say that because no one electric does it all, and to search for such a thing is a fool's errand. The closest you can get to is a guitar that does most of what you want, and in that respect, yes the Schecter totally works.

The Schecter has turned out to be the ultimate anti-hoarder's guitar. I totally didn't intend for that to happen, but it did and that's a very nice bonus.

Why is it such a good anti-hoarder guitar? Two main reasons, that being standard equipment and comfort.

From the factory, the guitar comes equipped with a mahogany body, maple neck with abalone inlays, 2-way adjustable truss rod, upper-mid-tier electronics, black chrome hardware and factory upgraded TUSQ XL nut. Everything on the guitar has proper fit and finish.

For comfort, the body is light. How light? Pretty much as light as a semi-hollow. The neck has satin urethane finishing, which I greatly prefer over high gloss. Very, very comfy guitar.

Very few electrics match what the Schecter delivers for its price point. Two that come very close are the Ibanez S521 and Yamaha Pacifica 311 - both of which are great guitars - but still don't give you as much bang for the buck as the Schecter does.

I also never find myself thinking, "Oh, I wish I had [insert-guitar-here], because then I could get the sound I want."

It is very nice to have a guitar where I don't feel I need other guitars just to get specific feel or tonal character. That combined with the fact of it having excellent from-factory hardware, feel and sound makes it the best anti-hoarder axe out there.

Again, I totally didn't intend for this to happen. I thought that I'd get this Schecter now, then pick up something else for what the Schecter couldn't do... but then discovered I don't have to. And that successfully keeps me from creating another guitar hoard. Very cool.

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