"I only have one and I've had it for the last 12 years - a Lowden 010C."

A man after my own heart, an instrumental monogamist! We don't see to many Lowdens here in the states (not in area, at any rate), but I know how very nice they can be. The only guitar I've every played (when pretending to shop in a music store) that sounded as good to me as my own old Martin was a Lowden.

"Yes I could pay ten times the price and get 10% better sound, but I would not dare get it out of the case for a gig."

I certainly understand that sentiment, but for those of us who are true to one and one only guitar, we simply can't worry about it.

When I acquired my D-18 upon graduation from college in 1969, it was the very best instrument I could afford, the bottom-of-the-line choice among Martin dreadnaughts, priced at $299. It served to replace my first guitar, a no-name nylon string model; I never gave a moment's thought to keeping that instrument as an "extra" or "banger," and certainly not as the beginning of a "collection" ~ I needed whatever money I could get and sold it immediately. I then set out to refine and "re-learn" my technique, adapting to the steel-stringed instrument.

Within a year, I was playing incessantly and obsessively. The only performing I was able to do was outdoors, as a streetsinger. (I was not familiar with the word "busker" back then; we didn't use that terminology in the US.) Needless to say, that D-18 didn't look "brand new" for very long at all.

The first tiny little scratch on a new guitar can horrify you, since it is so very evident ~ it "sticks out like a sore thumb." My advice is not to fret, and to start collecting more little dings and dents. By the time the number of imperfections is more than you can count, most of them will appear in natural patterns and your instrument will have acquired a "patina" that certifies it as "vintage."

Of course, it helps if observers see your battlescarred guitar while you're playing it; if it sounds really good ~ as it should, if you and your instrument have been discovering each other's characteristics over the years ~ a well-worn appearance only makes it more impressive than any shiny new showroom model, or even more than an untouched, "preserved-in-amber" collector's item.