Originally Posted by
NursingDaBlues
With apologies, I recently posted the following in a guitar forum. That thread revolved around finding a lifetime guitar. By substituting ‘mandolin’ for ‘guitar,’ the last paragraph offers my point of view of what has been discussed in this thread.
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We age. Our tastes change. And evolve. In fashion, in food, in music, in pastimes, in what we find comfortable, enjoyable, and pleasurable.
As our tastes evolve, so do our preferences. We continually build upon our tastes. What we appreciate, enjoy, and pursue today is a maturing of what we enjoyed “back when. “
Thank goodness.
I still wear jeans But I’m glad that I no longer want to wear bell bottom jeans.
My Lee denim jacket that I bought in 1970 still lives in a dresser drawer. It’s a little worse for the wear, but I think it still looks pretty cool. However, my Patagonia Down Sweater is exceedingly more practical.
I continue to enjoy the occasional glass of wine. But I’m ever so thankful that I moved past the days of Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill.
And I still have my 1967 D-28 that I got new. For years it was everything that I wanted and needed. But as time went on, I found myself enjoying other woods, other sizes, and other voices of guitar. So the D-28 shared time with other dreadnaughts, and grand concert, and auditorium, and other size guitars in mahogany, maple, or other rosewoods. While that D-28 is a magnificent guitar, it didn’t fill all of the needs that I was looking for through the years simply because my tastes and preferences were evolving.
Yet today, as I approach 70, I find myself picking up that D-28 more and more and more. Why? Maybe familiarity. Maybe nostalgia. Maybe because that while it still doesn’t fill all of the wants and needs, it fills enough of them. But even saying that, I continue to play other models simply because I want to.
What we like now, will not necessarily represent our tastes 5, 10, 25, or 50 years from now. So, is there a “lifetime” guitar? Maybe. Maybe not. Just realize that, to me, GAS is simply a symptom of wanting something a little different to accommodate our personal evolution with guitars. Your lifetime guitar may be residing with you now. Or it may surface somewhere down the road. It’s a conundrum. My wish for you is that you never find yourself saying “I wish I had never sold that guitar.”
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