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Weirdo Guitar Question

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Umptyscope:
Hi all. First post.

So, I'm playing with an idea for my WIP, and need some opinions.

Let's say a character finds a guitar, and another character casts an "indestructability" spell on it. (Thinking of your basic hollow-bodied acoustic guitar, here.) The main character only knows that a spell has been cast on the guitar -- he (wrongly) assumes it's a spell to make him a better player, etc, but nope, just invulnerability.

The guitar is indestructable -- as it was when the spell was cast. Meaning, it's a little beat up, and slightly out of tune; it can never be less beat-up and will always be precisely as out of tune as it was when the spell was cast.

Questions:
--What would this be like as a weapon? I mean, I've seen a wrestler break a guitar over someone's head, but that's the point, it breaks. Beating up on someone with an unbreakable guitar would be like beating up on someone with a wiffleball bat -- you could hurt them, maybe knock them unconscious, but you couldn't possibly kill them, right? (Unless the guitar was launched at someone neck first, maybe...)

--As to the tuning, the main character would have to relearn how to make certain chords (to "work around" the out-of-tune strings.) On the one hand, it would make his guitar immediately unplayable to any trained guitar player who just picked it up, but on the other hand he'd have to remember the "right" way to make the chords in case he had to play a different guitar one evening. One: is that feasible? Two, do actual guitarists, upon picking up someone else's guitar, subtly pluck a few strings to see if it is in tune or not before playing? And how tough would it be for the main character to remember two different chord styles, or learn to play the "wrong" way? Would this make his music "different"?

What I get for writing a guitar playing character and not playing guitar myself. Interested in your guy's responses...--Umptyscope

LizW65:
I think you could quite possibly kill someone with an (indestructible) guitar if wielded with sufficient force to the cranium.  The very fact that its indestructible would make it harder--it would be like hitting someone with a Louisville Slugger rather than a wiffle bat, IMO.  And yes, guitar players generally do check to see if an instrument is in tune before they start playing.  No idea about the rest of it, sorry.  FWIW, my work in progress also has a guitar-playing protagonist (and I'm a total non-player) but it's OK because he's really a rotten player. :)

Yeratel:
I'm flashing back to cartoon character Quick Draw McGraw's masked avenger "El Kabong", and his six-stringed weapon of choice, the "Kabonger". . .  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmemBa1HAzU

Shecky:
Queekstraw!

Starbeam:

--- Quote from: Umptyscope on December 13, 2009, 06:34:01 PM -----As to the tuning, the main character would have to relearn how to make certain chords (to "work around" the out-of-tune strings.) On the one hand, it would make his guitar immediately unplayable to any trained guitar player who just picked it up, but on the other hand he'd have to remember the "right" way to make the chords in case he had to play a different guitar one evening. One: is that feasible? Two, do actual guitarists, upon picking up someone else's guitar, subtly pluck a few strings to see if it is in tune or not before playing? And how tough would it be for the main character to remember two different chord styles, or learn to play the "wrong" way? Would this make his music "different"?

What I get for writing a guitar playing character and not playing guitar myself. Interested in your guy's responses...--Umptyscope

--- End quote ---
I can't give a fully detailed answer right now; I only had minimal guitar lessons over 15 years ago, but from what I do know about strings, it can be possible to play without being perfectly in tune.  The difficulty is that you can't do anything on an open string, especially the lowest string, because of the tuning.  Aside from the lowest string, there are workarounds, though I'll have to ask my b/f about guitar chords.  Plus from what he's told me, and what I've seen at concerts, most guitarists have at least two guitars, one tuned normally, one tuned differently--the one I've heard most often is drop d(couldn't tell you what that means).  My experience is that anytime a person picks up an instrument, the first thing they'll do is check the tuning, even if they were just using it and set it down a few minutes ago.  There are a lot of factors that can change it easily--especially heat/cold, moisture/dryness. 

As to learning to play differently, every instrument will have some variation that makes each one different to play.  The fingerings will be pretty much the same, the difference will be where exactly they go on the strings.

With the indestructable thing, that wouldn't necessarily make it out of tune, unless it makes the moveable parts immobile, which would be somewhat counterproductive because then the strings wouldn't be able to move and resonate.  And even if the moveable parts were rendered immobile but somehow left out the strings, then the strings would like stretch out over time.  At least that's what I'm guessing.

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