"We Don't Own Our Guitars, We Are Their Caretakers"

[ChrisE]

Originally Posted by Mycroft

Tony Rice plays Clarence White's '35 D-28. Neil Young plays Hank Williams '41 D-28.

Marty Stuart plays Clarence White's Telecaster.

[stephenT]

It's highly likely someone will own that guitar or those guitars after you're dust. I think that bestows some degree of a caretaker's responsibility to do no harm.

But I do own my guitars.

[JayBee1404]

Originally Posted by Tico

I own mine.....I've never been much for invented feel-good ideas. What's real is enough for me.

Yep, sums up my feelings perfectly. My money, my guitars - mine, no 'caretaking' involved.

Usual disclaimers apply......IMHO, YMMV etc.

[Nymuso]

No, they are mine, I own them. If the power goes out, it's cold and there's nothing else to burn - well there you go.

[RustyAxe]

Originally Posted by stephenT

It's highly likely someone will own that guitar or those guitars after you're dust. I think that bestows some degree of a caretaker's responsibility to do no harm.

But I do own my guitars.

Yeah, someone's gonna own my old car, too ... should I keep it washed and waxed for them? As with my guitars, I keep it in good running order, ready to do what I need it to do ... for MY benefit, not the next guy's.

I have zero responsibility to the next person who owns what I own now.

[ataylor]

That’s a sentiment I’m more likely to reserve for my kids as opposed to my guitars.

I see guitars more as a functional, usable work of art, not unlike a fine automobile or a well-made article of clothing. I take care of them because of the craft that went into making them and because I try to take care of nice things, not necessarily because I see any kind of debt or duty maintaining something that will be someone else’s someday.

That said, I’d love for the kiddos I mentioned to play and enjoy my guitars someday, and if they do, they’re likely to love the guitar simply because it was mine.

[Toby Walker]

My guitars are my tools. I use them, make my living with them and make sure they are functional, but I'm not going to pamper them with the thought that they will be passed on to future generations. I don't consider them to be museum pieces. I'll leave that for the collectors.

If they survive me - which I'm sure most of them will - then I hope the next person that owns them gets just as good use with them and does what they want with them.

[Pickcity]

Originally Posted by Tico

I own mine.
When I die someone else will own them.

I've never been much for invented feel-good ideas.
What's real is enough for me.

LOL...Indeed. I paid for them, I own them. When I croak my son will own them, unless he sells them.

[Tony Done]

I'm very much of this view. I don't like the "use once and throw away" attitude to anything. That is why I am more than a little OCD about easily resettable necks.

[Goat Mick]

My guitars are working guitars and they're definitely not case queens. However I look at them and I know there is a lot more music in them after I'm done. I'm also a bit of a romantic about most all musical instruments so I do kinda feel like they have a life in them and are just passing through me for a while. I'll make sure they are passed to hands that will appreciate them before I'm gone. The only ones that I really think about a lot are my Dad's old J-45 that I can't see or touch without thinking of him and my Taylor 710 that my wife got me when she was pregnant with our daughter. I hope there is someone in my family that will feel the same about those two as I do. They're not really guitars as much as they are a part of our family heritage, most of my memories of my Dad involve that guitar in his hands.

So yeah I'm a silly sentimental old fool, but they're my guitars so I'm allowed to be.

[justonwo]

I guess that’s kind of a poetic way to look at things. You could apply that sentiment to any inanimate object you expect to outlive you. It’s a nice idea to think they might be passed down in my family, but I doubt that’ll happen. In the meantime, I think I just own them.

[charles Tauber]

In my opinion, it depends on the instrument.

If the instrument is a truly one-of-a-kind piece that has important history, then if one acquires that, sure, preserve it for the culturally significant icon that it is.

If the instrument is just another mass-produced commodity, not so much, regardless of whether or not it survives you. I have a bottom of the line plywood Yamaha classical guitar that I've had for 40 years. It wasn't worth much new and it isn't worth much now, 40 years later. Am I doing to purposely abuse or destroy it? No, but I'm not pretending that I'm a custodian for its future owner or future use any more than any other commodity object that I have.

One can feel sentimental, or not, about any object. Guitars aren't "more special".

[Guitaurman]

My friend died three years ago and left me his Guild 12 string. While I don't play it a lot, I remember him fondly every time I play it. John Hyatt had it right about "Smashing those perfectly good guitars."

[LyleGorch]

The wife knows when I go the git’s get gone in the burn barrel.

[robey]

That's a fine notion for an ABC after school special, but I own mine and if I want to build a bonfire with them, I will.