There's technical issues as well. Richard Thompson has dropped his guitar a bit over the years because of an injury to his right elbow (which he says is from playing lots of tennis, not from guitar playing). He said that he had to relearn certain techniques after he adopted the lower playing position. The example I remember him giving was a fast tremolo pick.strataxe wrote: My 2c is if you're tall you can probably have it lower because you have the arms and fingers to deal with the guitar that low, if you're shorter, keep it higher. Like James Hetfield and Kirk Hammet, Hammet has a medium height, Hetfield very low.
Thompson is tall, BTW, and even now doesn't have the guitar down in Jimmy Page territory.