I've never liked the notion of the "collectible" market, whether its beany babies or vintage Martins that get stuck behind glass.

When it comes to buying instruments on sound only though...
I don't think that we will ever judge our instruments soley on their sound

I find that much of what we want in the appearance and style of our guitars (I guess I should limit the assertion to myself) is.....well...
We'd rather have a neutral reaction to the appearance of our guitars (when we perform) than a negative one.

You're swimming upstream if you think your audience won't draw certain conclusions about your music by the visuals you give them – hell, music is full of "costuming" whether it's hats/no hats country or a bandana to show you don't give a damn (when in fact you've just illustrated that you do)

One way we do this is by going the traditional route------Collings, SGC, H&D. We know that, if we play one of these, we aren't likely to elicit negative thoughts about the appearance of our guitars------especially as it might imply more about our music than we want it to.

The converse is true to some extent. If we play a Breedlove (a guitar with a high degree of idiosyncratic design) we might fear alienating our audience before we even begin. Now, if we are of a confident nature, we make take this as a challenge----that people will appreciate the difference in our guitar and us

. One other way to avoid being taste-commited in our choice of guitars is to have one that is well worn. this conveys to others that we have more important things on our mind than the appearance of our guitar-----but it also takes away the fear of them thinking more highly of us than we're comfortable presenting.