Whenever I buy a new guitar, I deliberately damage it - a quick scrape against a belt buckle or a dent against the edge of a table. Even if you know that the gu

Whenever I buy a new guitar, I deliberately damage it - a quick scrape against a belt buckle or a dent against the edge of a table. Even if you know that the guitar will have a hard working life, you can't help but handle it with kid gloves when it's still all shiny and new. The first ding always hurts, so you might as well get it over with. I wonder if this has any bearing on the popularity of reliced guitars. Aesthetics is undoubtedly a part, as with pre-distressed jeans, but I can't help thinking that some players are more comfortable with an instrument that has taken a beating before it left the factory.