It depends on who gets to play my guitars. My friends take great care of their own gear and take even more care with someone else's. They can walk in and grab one anytime. Had a guy stop by the other night to pick up an amp that I repaired/rebuilt for him. I wanted him to play through it just to verify that he was happy. What started out as a 15 minute run through using my '96 CE24 turned into several hours of trying other amps and other PRS guitars (including my WL DGT). He took great care with my guitars, and bit by bit, I trusted him with more expensive stuff. Now I've got him on the hook to have me commission an amp for him and he keeps asking about PRS. I'm all about getting these guitars in peoples hands. However, I don't let people near my gear typically. There is a level of trust. Hell, I don't let my kids near most of it.....and the oldest is 18!
I think it might have been in the Ferrington guitar book from the early 90s...there was a story of Todd Rundgren playing another professional guitarist's guitar. He was trashing the guitar - playing it without abandon. Everytime I see Todd Rundgren, I think, "what a jerk for doing that!" That said, I would never touch another's guitar without being invited to, and then I would also be extremely careful when doing so.
Once you've handed a guitar off for someone to play you have no control and never know what might happen. Whether it be rude abuse such as Mike describes or just a mistake in backing into something causing damage, s--- just tends to happen. Murphy's law maybe. So in order to prevent bad feelings if something did happen, handing my guitars off to others is the exception for me not the rule.
I’m a bit surprised by the amount of people who aren’t down with letting people play their guitars. I mean, it’s not like we aren’t all going to buy another one anyway.
One man's 'trashing' is another man's 'with wild enthusiasm'. Assuming it wasn't abusive, it's hard to judge what Rundgren did. But what Prince did to Kirk Douglas's guitar on the Tonight Show, tossing it up in the air and walking away - no, just no. Kirk handled it with class, but that's just wrong. I love Prince, but man, even if it was Prince, I'd be livid if someone did that w/a guitar I couldn't replace. I searched for video, but couldn't find it.
I saw that video, just thinking about it gets my heart going. If somebody did that to one of my guitars they'd be wearing their ass for a hat. I don't think I'd care about being arrested.
Agree on Fallon. If it was a stunt, either Kirk wasn’t in on it or he’s as good an actor as a guitarist.
Carson, early Letterman, and Craig Ferguson. Nobody interviewed like Ferguson - he made people I had no interest in more interesting than they should have been. The one who stands out was a young woman from Alaska who was a pilot or something on a reality show. Unlike everybody else in late night, with the possible exception of Conan O'Brien on occasion, he had zero interest in promoting someone's project - he had conversations with them. Contrasted with Leno/Fallon who were all about the promotion. But man, Carson was king.
I love coming across old Carson re-runs on those channels that only show old TV shows. I even leave the channel on if I run across a program that is trying to sell Carson DVDs. Classic stuff.
As far as I can tell, I would feel comfortable let you guys try one of mine without worry. Everyone here seems to be respectful of their equipment and I'm sure of other people's also
I tried to get people to try my equipment at Experience. Almost got escorted off the premises. Fortunately, someone tried to steal's Paul car and created a distraction.
My band mates can play any of my gits because they take great care of their own instruments so I know that they understand proper instrument care. Some key family members that are players, sure, and my tech...but no one really outside of that circle.
I like this because I don’t even know who Andy Cohen is. “That’s how out of touch you are, Les.” “Exactly.”
