I think that this is especially good advice.

“When someone asks me what kind of guitar to buy, I say one that makes you want to pick it up. That you’ll leave lying across the bed, on a chair, within easy reach. The one you’ll keep playing.”

That quote is from guitarist, composer, record producer and music journalist, Lenny Kaye.

It is taken from the foreward that Mr. Kaye wrote to Dangerous Curves: The Art of the Guitar by Darcy Kuronen and published in 2000 by MFA Publications, Boston, Massachusetts.

I rediscovered Mr. Kaye’s advice while doing some research for my last post, Three More Guitars.

He goes on to say…

“A decade or two down the line, the guitar that you bought new in a music store hanging on a rack with a dozen others will have opened up its resonance, stretched its wood in appreciation of the music that has been made, and accommodated all willing hands, or just yours alone.”

…and concludes:

“An instrument requires respect, give and take. You should get to know each other.”

That is very good advice indeed.