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

[pastorchuck]

The bigger question is this: Do we own them or do they own us.

A big question that can be applied to all of our "stuff".

[stephenT]

Originally Posted by RustyAxe

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.

Yeah, I was thinking of your post. Using the car metaphor, do you have pride of ownership or is your car a disposable hunk o' potential scrap metal? Wash and wax or not according to your emotional involvement and possible consideration of future value.

But sure, you're right of course. Yours to do with as you see fit.

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by pastorchuck

The bigger question is this: Do we own them or do they own us.

A big question that can be applied to all of our "stuff".

A VERY good question, indeed.

[RustyAxe]

Originally Posted by stephenT

Yeah, I was thinking of your post. Using the car metaphor, do you have pride of ownership or is your car a disposable hunk o' potential scrap metal? Wash and wax or not according to your emotional involvement and possible consideration of future value.

I'm not done with a car until it's done, and yes, it's a disposable piece of (s)crap metal by that time (for me). 160K on one now and running strong, both previous cars went over 250K ... and went many miles after I sold them. Wax? Nah, that's what the clear coat is for. Like my cars, my guitars get what they need in the way of maintenance and care ... so they can serve ME well.

All your friends will be thinking, "I wonder who's gonna get his axes?"

[justonwo]

Originally Posted by pastorchuck

The bigger question is this: Do we own them or do they own us.

A big question that can be applied to all of our "stuff".

Boy, isn’t that the truth.

[PiousDevil]

The bank owns my guitars, just like everything else I pretend is mine.

[Rosewood99]

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

Not if you are buried with them.

[Pitar]

Air, land and water, the native Americans could never get their heads around the way the Long Knives thought it could be owned.

[nitram]

I'd write a song along these lines but Neil Young beat me to it-"This Old Guitar." Emmy Lou doesn't hurt singing back-up either.

[Picker24]

Originally Posted by Acousticado

A very warm, fuzzy, philosophical notion, but I own my guitars. I have the receipts to prove it.

Yeah, it’s a nice, warm and fuzzy philosophical thought that we’re just caretakers, but I have a lot of receipts too! . Caretakers by definition are people employed to take care of children or plants or whatever and I’ve never found a dollar bill in my guitar’s soundhole as caretaker payment

[printer2]

I doubt I will own another factory built guitar unless something falls in my lap and it is just waiting till its next owner shows up. I have been learning to build guitars and they are starting to be good enough for others. I hope that people pass them on to others when the time comes. I see them as tools to make sound and not closet queens. Use them as you would any other guitar, if they get too beaten up to play, hang them on the wall.

[jpd]

I own mine

[jpd]

Originally Posted by jpd

I own mine

They've been weaned

[Silly Moustache]

I am fortunate to have accumulated a modest collection of very fine instruments (although I've never thought of myself as a collector) and I very much consider my self the caretakers of them.

I have instruments that don't get played much because I'm not in a band that requires my modest dobro, mandolin, jazz guitar, Hawaiian etc.

I know I don't "need" my four dreads, and two 12 strings, but I'll play them out in rotation when I have the opportunity (and when I'm well enough).

In the meantime, I keep them clean, ad well maintained.
I am of a generation that grew up without stuff we now take for granted.

I grew up in a country where much of our infrastructure had been destroyed by war and the nation was bankrupt. Income tax was about 50% and purchase tax was up to 100% to pay back war debts (which went on until 2006).
My early playgrounds were bombed out factories and a golf course full of bomb craters.
We couldn't afford luxuries like well made instruments and things like Fenders, Gibsons and Martins weren't even imported due to necessary embargoes on US made goods.
We learned that what meagre property we had needed to be worked hard for and treasured.

I am aware that most of my instruments being late 20th and early 21st century are not yet at their best and won't be until after I'm gone.

They are finely crafted items made of increasingly rare woods, and I don't consider them disposable items any more than well made furniture or works of art.

An aside thought :wouldn't t be great if guitars (etc) had "log books" like cars used to - so you could look back t see who played them and where, when etc.

I have one "older instrument" a '34 Gibson archtop, and it would be great to know who played it. I was told by the dealer in Seattle, that it was owned by a famous New York based songwriter but he wouldn't tell me who ???

It has obviously been played in a band at some pot so he may have lied.

[RP]

It sounds like it should describe land "ownership" but I suppose works equally well for guitars...