Any guitarist worth their fingers knows that an instrument’s power has nothing to do with its appearance. It is the resonance of the instrument, its capacity to speak, to project, to ‘sing’. To mesmerize, to hold taught with expectation and to release into awe. It is the soul of the instrument that the player seeks to awaken, and this soul must be present to be evoked. It does not lie in lacquer, shape, or superficial appearance. It is not in the hardware, or strings. In the crisis of the moment of performance it will emerge, and if it does not, what might have been performance is mere hyperbole.