The Metaphysics of the Guitar

or Some Thoughts on the Differences Between Handmade and Factorymade

by Ervin Somogyi

Originally published in American Lutherie #85, 2006



It may seem strange to some readers to find an article touching on metaphysics in a magazine on guitar making; it will also seem perfectly appropriate to others that such a topic be included. The metaphysics of the guitar has to do with “that extra something” that’s intangible and possibly even indefinable. Some guitars have it. Some don’t. It is variously called “the magic,” “the soul,” “the allure,” and so on, even though these terms can be elastic and elusive. None of this is exactly news to anyone who knows the guitar.

I’ve thought about this. It seems to me that there are at least two components to “the magic.” The first one has to do with whether a guitar has sufficient “extra oomph” (by whatever standard one wishes to define it: tone, warmth, exquisiteness, subtlety, etc.) to warrant one’s falling in love with it. No mystery in this. This happens at the level of performance/attributes that can eventually be discerned and identified, even if at first the instrument seems magically beyond words. It really isn’t: the words can/will sooner or later be found.