Would you let someone else play your guitars?

[Farmjazz]

I routinely have the other guitar/mando player in the band play one of my instruments, (guitar, mandolin, dobro), to evaluate the tonal mix in any given song. I find that you can only really hear the timbre of an instrument when you're in front of it, not playing it. I'm speaking acoustic instruments, of course.

That being said, I don't let just any dingleberry play my instruments. Greasy fingers, slashing knife-edged-pick rhythm techniques, drunken drooling stumbling bumblers, etc. are all off limits. Unless its me.

[Ferryman]

I've generally only ever had one guitar (couldn't afford more). So when playing in a band I would hesitate to let anyone use them.Last time I did my Ibanez Iceman got covered in blood. First time (about 1980 IIRC) I used it the guitarist of the band we were supporting took a shine and wanted to borrow it for their set. I foolishly let him use it, he cut his hand on the strings and covered the body in blood. Looked cool but I had to clean it out of the pickups and change the trings (which were brand new).

Cheers,

Nigel

[Ferryman]

I've generally only ever had one guitar (couldn't afford more). So when playing in a band I would hesitate to let anyone use them.Last time I did my Ibanez Iceman got covered in blood. First time (about 1980 IIRC) I used it the guitarist of the band we were supporting took a shine and wanted to borrow it for their set. I foolishly let him use it, he cut his hand on the strings and covered the body in blood. Looked cool but I had to clean it out of the pickups and change the strings (which were brand new).

Cheers,

Nigel

[Greeny]

I guess this is all coming down to a question of trust. I do have a friend who I've trusted enough to play with one of my guitars in my presence  ), but that's partly because he's allowed me to do the same with his guitars. Not sure how I'd react to someone getting blood on one though 

[tkofaith]

I guess this is all coming down to a question of trust.

I totally agree, Greeny.  There are friends of mine that I would trust with anything I own....  And then there are those I wouldn't trust with my cheapest equipment. 

When my son have friends over to jam they have been put on notice as to what equipment of mine may be used (I have four guitars, a bass and a drum set in my bedroom ).  So far I haven't had to kill anyone, which is a good thing!   I've found that I can position picks (or other small things) in places between my axe and stand so that if my axe is moved I have evidence (I know, I'm a sneaky, distrustful bastard but it keeps my stuff nice)!

[Tony]

There's a subquestion in here.  What about when you sell a guitar?  I recently sold a Gitane D-500 to a friend for her son who has just got into music school to study jazz guitar.  It's a lovely guitar but I never played it that much and I was offered something else but that fell through (another story, let's not go there). 

The kid (18 yrs old) came over and I said he could borrow it for the weekend to see if it was what he wanted.  He picked it up and played my guitar 1,000 times better than I ever could.  That was cool, apart from having talent he probably practices more than me, but along with it came the knowledge that I would never get to play it that well.  It was bittersweet.  I knew it would get played a lot more and produce some really lovely music but I did actually feel an emotion whilst he was playing, a real one, wow.

[Dmann]

 I let my son try my ESP once, when he left it leaned up against the couch, and failed to wash his hands prior to picking it up after eating dinner, I promptly banned him from using it again.

 When I jam with the band, I don't let anyone touch my gear, I even prefer to carry it all myself when setting up/ taking down / moving which is a pain because I own 80% of the gear including the PA, and because I bought it all I tend to be a lot more careful. Being my gear is mostly vintage and tube driven, I baby it more than anything else I own. Last weekend I was running late and the Bass player called me asking if he could plug in my marshall so it could warm up, I wouldn't even let him do that... ya I'm that paranoid  

 The rare exception is when I bought my new Acoustic, I let the other guitarist we jam with check it out, which also allowed me to set it up in the PA mix while he played. I literally had to pry it out of his hands to get it back though... and everytime we went for a smoke break I'd come back and he'd be playing it. I don't like that, call me greedy, but it's just the way I am.

[guitarron]

it depends on who it is and which guitar
btw-
when i was 15 i was in a band where we would share the bass duties.
while i was using my friends cherry sunburst Lp custom, the strap came loose-(pre strap lock days i'm afraid)-the les paul body landed squarely on my foot and the headstock hit the stage breaking the headstock-that was a tough one for both of us to get over-guilt hurt more than my smashed toes.

[Flash Harry]

I have one guitar that I let kids play or lend out, anyone can play my guitars in my house, but I wouldn't lend them out.

I'm ok as long as I can see them.

That doesn't apply to my 335 though.

Or my Godin,

Or my Aria II bass.

Or my 12 stringer.

Or my acoustic.

[rythmking24]

i never used to mind people playing my guitars. i would have guitar playing friends round, and because i have numerous guitars, we used to jam with them all the time. but all that changed one fateful evening...

my dad, for no reason whatsoever, had just bought me a brand new guitar. it was a 'turner' acoustic, not the most expensive, about £300, but it was really nice nevertheless. i had just upgraded to some nice expensive 'elixer' strings, and it was sounding beautiful...

then my mate came round the next day, saw the new guitar... 'that looks really nice... can i have a play?' he asked. 'sure, but be careful' i replied. he twiddled about with it for a few minutes, then put it back on the guitar stand. seconds later... i hear a loud bang and turn around to see it had fallen, fretboard first, onto my hard wooden floor. i rushed over to pick it up... examined it for marks, discovering a few scratches and dents, then i played it to see how it sounded... and it sounded fuckin awful! it was buzzing like a bitch and horribly out of tune. i got an expert to look at it the next day, and it turned out that the fretboard had cracked away from the neck, very slightly, but enough to ruin it. i could have got it fixed, but apparently it would have cost two thirds of what the guitar was worth... so i didn't bother.

to be fair, my mate did offer to pay for the damage, or buy a new gutar for me if necessary. the only problem with that was that he didn't have a job and therefore had no money. it took literally 3 years for him to give me any cash.

so there ya go. a rather long winded story... not a great one either.