I recently ran into a guy espousing this sentiment: I want a guitar that inspires me and reminds me of my heroes when I look at it.
It had to be this or nothing, apparently.
This is a common but weird idea.
I do not look for inspiration from a guitar or any other inanimate external thing. Rather, I look for guitars that do not interfere with the inspiration in my soul or from an idea communicated to me from another. Guitars are not really additive instruments when it comes to 'inspiration' but many (all?) of them detract from our ability to objectify what we have in our minds and what we want to communicate.
Inspire comes from "the Latin inspirare ‘breathe or blow into’ from in- ‘into’ + spirare ‘breathe’. The word was originally used of a divine or supernatural being, in the sense ‘impart a truth or idea to someone’.
A guitar cannot fill you with spirit -- to think that it transmits anything to you is to transform the self into a tool.
A guitar or any other instrument is merely the vanishing mediator or means that disappears between your and the idea. The best guitar is the one that enables you to forget you're even playing a guitar. It should disappear as the spirit flows from you to the other.
In -- spir[it] -- at -- ion
Inspiration can only come from another spirit or from within you and the point is to communicate with the other (or the other within); it has nothing to do with the junk in-between. If you're looking for inspiration from an inanimate object than you don't know what inspiration is.
It had to be this or nothing, apparently.
This is a common but weird idea.
I do not look for inspiration from a guitar or any other inanimate external thing. Rather, I look for guitars that do not interfere with the inspiration in my soul or from an idea communicated to me from another. Guitars are not really additive instruments when it comes to 'inspiration' but many (all?) of them detract from our ability to objectify what we have in our minds and what we want to communicate.
Inspire comes from "the Latin inspirare ‘breathe or blow into’ from in- ‘into’ + spirare ‘breathe’. The word was originally used of a divine or supernatural being, in the sense ‘impart a truth or idea to someone’.
A guitar cannot fill you with spirit -- to think that it transmits anything to you is to transform the self into a tool.
A guitar or any other instrument is merely the vanishing mediator or means that disappears between your and the idea. The best guitar is the one that enables you to forget you're even playing a guitar. It should disappear as the spirit flows from you to the other.
In -- spir[it] -- at -- ion
Inspiration can only come from another spirit or from within you and the point is to communicate with the other (or the other within); it has nothing to do with the junk in-between. If you're looking for inspiration from an inanimate object than you don't know what inspiration is.