As to you, Don Firth, I feel truly and profoundly sorry for you.

You've deprived yourself of the joys a multitude of sounds and expressions. No twang, no reverb, no echo or delay. No overdrive, no decay.

You've never experienced the clear snap of a Strat--never played clean, cascading melodies on a Les Paul. You've never shuffled through the circle of fifths on an ES-175, or played Scotty Moore licks through a couple of P-90s. Never played the into to "Mr. Tambourine Man" on a Rickenbacker 12, and never played "Johnny B-Good".

You haven't been able to be the lead instrumentalist in an ensemble, never been able to trade fours with a sax player or trumpeter, never vamped chords while the piano played a break, never traded off rhythms with a drummer.

Make all the excuses you want, but the fact is that you've shut yourself off from playing a lot of the great music of the last 75 years. And that's a pity, because it was all right there at your fingertips.