Dingwall wrote
For me it is not about the guitar or the time wasted with any such 'goon', it's the "ethic" in question - a real guitarist/musician would never approach another musician at a gig and ask to play (in this context) !
True this: I've never had any desire to ask to play another muso's instrument at their gig, I only ever want to play MY guitars... I've got the guitars that I have because those are the guitars that I want, that I identify myself with, they're part of my self-defined "image", for want of a better word... When I think of me playing in a band, I don't see myself with someone else's guitars, I see myself with my guitars, plain and simple.
I often wonder about the mentality of people who do ask though: I think the reason they do this is because they want to be seen by the other punters at the venue as a "guitarist", or "muso"... it's a sort of impotent "I can do this too, see?" display. For those of us who play out regularly, or who have played out a lot over the years, maybe we don't feel we have anything to prove in this way, or, if we've got something to prove, we'll do it at our own gigs and not anyone else's.
