Hi, Gabe & All--
Thanks for your comments, you make some sound points and I don't necessarily disagree with you.
But in reference to your statement about my comments, I don't believe that you can infer from what I wrote that I advocate creating a group of wall-hangers per se---I was just pushing the concept of somebody sponsoring builders to do their best work in a single, coordinated effort.
And I see no incompatibility with bikes being both in a display sometimes and on the road sometimes (or even ALL the time). And, actually, the guitars in question have been played both privately, in recording sessions and in public performances, etc., so they have been used. It's just that they also are part of an "art" display.
I love pristine bikes, I love beat-up bikes, and everything in between. They all have their unique beauty and I can appreciate them both as functional machines and as objects d'art. If somebody wants to keep them as they would keep a Picasso, fine. If they want to ride them in L'Eroica, fine. There are no stone tablets pronouncing the rules, as far as I see.
Cheers,
Peter Jourdain
Whitewater, Wisconsin USA
> Obviously, Peter loves guitars as much as me. unlike
> Peter, I think that
> guitars hanging in a museum collection is about as
> unfulfilling as it can
> be, and rather uncomplimentary to the evolution of
> tone that a guitar
> can acquire with being played. [edit]
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