Did you ever lend out a guitar... then wonder where it went?

[This_Dying_Soul]

I will never lend a guitar to anyone. I may let someone use one if they are very careful and I am present but I have a no lending policy. As careful as everyone is accidents happen and if an accident happens I want it to be my accident.

 

This for the most part is my lending policy. Anyone who argues with it, I ask them if they have the disposable income to replace whichever guitar they want to borrow on the spot should an accident occur while it is in their care. Even if they do, the answer would still be no because I spent many hours in most cases searching for the right guitar.

 

In past bands, I have loaned a cheap Profile bass I used to have to people coming into the band. Usually guitarists that converted to bass to get the gig and had no bass gear, but we got along good and offered to set them up with a temporary rig. This also came with a condition that with a specified time they either buy the bass off me for the price I paid ($100 at a pawn shop) or go out and buy a quality bass somewhere. The first guy I did this with played my bass for over a year and when pressure was put on him by the band to get his own gear, he quit. The second guy eventually bought my bass... I was patient with him since he was unemployed and on social assistance. After 4 years of rehearsing and heavy gigging that cheap Profile bass gave up the ghost. A couple of it's pole pieces were falling out and hot glued back in place, the volume pot was intermittant, the truss rod was broken and the tuners were ****ed. He'd just gotten a job a few months prior and upon realizing how bad the condition of that bass was, he went out and spent $2000 on a new bass rig.

 

Even with cheap instruments like that bass, no longer would I lend someone equipment so they could join a band with me... you want the gig, you have to own the rig. These cases were exceptions because we were in a bind and knew the guys would be a good fit with the group and we offered. The thing that I hate is when someone tells me they are a bassist/drummer/guitarist and asks to join a band, then adds "got a (insert instrument here) I can borrow?".

[Andy R]

What part of Indy, Andy?

 

In Illinois when you get south of I-74 (Peoria - Bloomington - Champaign) the accents of the locals become more decidedly drawl-like. There is a historic reason for this. Illinois was settled from the bottom up and the top down. From the Ohio River north by more rural folks. The northern part of the state was settled by more urban folks coming across from New York State. The differences in accents, mores, and social practices are striking.

 

That southern drawl is contagious. I grew up in the northern part of Illinois, but picked up my wife's accent which she acquired from her Arkansan folks.

 

About Smack Dab in the middle. I grew up about 20 miles north of downtown Indianapolis. I live in a little town Called Pendleton now.