Custom Machine

My new Fender bass is pictured with its Squier (Fender’s budget brand) stablemates. The one thing they have in common is that they have all been modified in one way or another. My Telecaster has uprated pickups and tuners. The Bronco bass has an uprated bridge and a better pickup as well as a different scratchplate. The new bass only has an uprated bridge (for now!) but it’s already been modded by Fender to create the Gold Foil Series.
Wanting a quirky way to reflect these changes, each time I modify a guitar I replace the standard neckplate with one of these that I came across on eBay several years ago. They look very similar to a certain manufacturers Custom Shop logo, but the “F” word does not appear anywhere on them. Obviously, it only works if the neckplates are the same size and, equally obviously, I take them off when I move the guitar on.
Which happens a lot more frequently than I thought. Out of mild curiosity, I thought I’d try and add up how many guitars I’ve owned over the years to see what number the latest one is. A combination of dredging my memory, looking at old photos and going back through my eBay transactions suggests that the new bass is number 68. As a point of interest, the black Tele was number 2. Though, in the interest of full disclosure, it was sold a year or so after I got it and then I bought it back several years later!
Given that some guitars barely made it out of their case before I traded them - and that my memory is a tad hazy - the true total could be quite a bit higher. I’ve been playing for seventeen years so that works out at four guitars per year.
I’m not sure whether I should be proud or ashamed…