This topic I am sure will draw lots of fire (mostly people flaming me back or vehemently disagreeing with what I'm about to write,) but what the hell. (grin)

I was over at my guitar teacher's place a couple of weeks ago. This is a person who is very well respected in the Toronto (where I'm from) acoustic community and one who has been playing guitar for 35+ years. As well as being a very fine guitar, banjo, mandolin and dobro player the man is also an ''encyclopedia'' of acoustic music and music trivia going back decades. (Any guesses as to who this might be? (grin))

We got into a discussion about muting strings to achieve a certain sound when playing thumb or finger style.

I told him that while I understood the relevance of muting the strings to achieve a certain desired sound, I just refused to do it when I played.....on principal. (Read on.)

Not because I can't do it(I can) but my argument to him was, ''Look, if I've spent X number of thousands upon thousands of dollars on my vintage guitar collection (mostly Martins) with Brazilian rosewood bodies and spruce tops, I damn well didn't spend the money for these guitars so I could MUTE them. I WANT to hear them ring. I WANT to hear every damn wood cell reverberate while I'm playing the guitar! If I was going to mute the strings, I could buy a 200 dollar guitar, mute it, and get the same sound.'' I know this is an ATTITUDE, but I feel justified. (grin)

He thought this would make a very intersting discussion as he could see my point, but I think we agreed to disagree.

Reactions? Thoughts? Comments? Flames? Let 'em rip.