Hey Bert,

Wow! That's a whole new slant on things. I didn't realize that things got so bad that the English were eating guitars! Which brings to mind a whole other issue. You will remember the poor soccer/rugby team that crashed in the Andes and had to cannibalize their teammates (already dead) to survive.

All kidding aside, after burning the guitar I moved on to begin learning tenor banjo and octave mandolin. I am not great at them, but I have attained a level of understanding that I never had on that guitar. I attribute that to the sense of closure that my cermony made possible for me.

I will never intentionally harm any of my present instruments. (Although, now that I think about it, my first bodhran has been supplanted by a much better one made by a friend of mine. The old one is really atrocious. You know, I think I can smell the goat skin burning now....No, actually I have promised it to my roomate who wants to play an instrument but has arthritis and needs something with minimal impact on his joints. Of course, some would argue the identification of a bodhran as a musical instrument at all. Others might say that burning it would be a blessing, as long as the bodhran player was burnt at the same time!) The banjo and the octave mando are both mid-level instruments. But the banjo was my grandfathers, and it is an honor to have such an heirloom, and a priviledge to play it, even if I only play it badly. The mando I might end up selling. Who knows, I may end up taking the money and buying a guitar.