It combines low entry cost with high status and musical adaptability, and widespread availability of cheap instruction. Because of its ubiquity, expectations and standards of playing are generally fairly high (compared to many other instruments).

It could easily have stayed an instrument associated with "cowboy" music, specialist jazz and Flamenco, had it not become associated with skiffle and R&B in the fifties, and had the classical enthusiasts like Julian Bream not been around. The redolence of adventure and rebellion (in a very uptight society) on the one hand, and high sophistication on the other, in the age of mass media, cheap recordings, and disposable income, led to a virtuous circle in which it became dominant.