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Would It Be Wrong To Be Buried With An Instrument?


ggm1960

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Considering I'm pretty adamant about wanting to be cremated as opposed to letting my corpse being pumped full of formaldehyde and then left to slowly rot and be eaten by worms...no...I haven't had similar feelings.

 

And...I don't have any big attachment to any musical instrument...but I think if I did I'd want that instrument to "live on" in the hands of somebody else. I'd probably will it to somebody I either really want to see play it or leave it to my kid and hope she respects it in my memory.

 

I read recently that Bernard Edwards left his classic Music Man bass to John Taylor of Duran Duran. I thought that was a pretty cool story.

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I guess you could. Is there a loved one that it would mean more to? My grandfather gave me his road warrior 62 strat, with a date book of every place he'd played with it just before he passed. It might be the most special moment of my life, and if you can do that for someone else, I would strongly, strongly advise doing so. It will mean more to them than it will to you.

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I'd want that instrument to "live on" in the hands of somebody else.

 

 

Yeah, that's the thing isn't it. It sorta seems like it would be selfish and greedy to take such a nice instrument to the grave. Perhaps though it would be like a time capsule that someone would dig up in a 1000 years!

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Is there a loved one that it would mean more to? My grandfather gave me his road warrior 62 strat, with a date book of every place he'd played with it just before he passed. It might be the most special moment of my life, and if you can do that for someone else, I would strongly, strongly advise doing so. It will mean more to them than it will to you.

 

 

It's not the oldest, or most valuable guitar, I have. My only offspring is a daughter (currently 18 and in college) who doesn't seem to have any interest in playing instruments. Regardless, she'll be left with everything else I own including several other valuable instruments.

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Yeah, that's the thing isn't it. It sorta seems like it would be selfish and greedy to take such a nice instrument to the grave. Perhaps though it would be like a time capsule that someone would dig up in a 1000 years!

 

 

Nah. More likely it would just get bulldozed over for a new shopping center in a couple of hundred years and nobody remembers who is in that cemetary anymore.

 

You have a kid(s) right? I can't imagine not loving to have my dad's favorite guitar if he were a player.

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It's not the oldest, or most valuable guitar, I have. My only offspring is a daughter (currently 18 and in college) who doesn't seem to have any interest in playing instruments. Regardless, she'll be left with everything else I own including several other valuable instruments.

 

 

I would ask her. Regardless of value, the one you loved most will have the most sentimental value. If she isn't a musician, she might just as soon you take it with you. Funerals and burials are solely for the living.

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Sentimental appreciation by your loved one or not....even if they only sell it off wouldn't you rather see the living derive SOME kind of benefit from the fruits/tools of your labor ? I think to take anything of value to your grave is a somewhat selfish and foolish act. I wouldn't blame any relative/loved one for disregarding that burial request. Just my opinion though.

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Sentimental appreciation by your loved one or not....even if they only sell it off wouldn't you rather see the living derive SOME kind of benefit from the fruits/tools of your labor ? I think to take anything of value to your grave is a somewhat selfish and foolish act. I wouldn't blame any relative/loved one for disregarding that burial request. Just my opinion though.

 

 

As they say, you can't take it with you.

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I gotta ask--what's the basis for the feeling of wanting to be buried with it?

 

A sense that somehow you and the guitar will be attached together for eternity if it's buried with your body?

 

A sense that you don't want anyone else to ever play something that was always YOURS?

 

That it might just be cool for people to say "he was buried with his guitar"?

 

Or something else?

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I gotta ask--what's the basis for the feeling of wanting to be buried with it?


A sense that somehow you and the guitar will be attached together for eternity if it's buried with your body?


A sense that you don't want anyone else to ever play something that was always YOURS?


That it might just be cool for people to say "he was buried with his guitar"?


Or something else?

 

 

That's a tough question to answer, probably mostly the idea that I'm the only one who's ever owned it and it just feels like such a part of me after having spent so many years learning to play it, taking care of it and using it. It was even stolen once but was returned after applying some.....um....coercion.

 

Sure it's a nice guitar but again it's not the oldest, or most valuable one I have. God willing I live for a while yet I'm sure to acquire more valuable instruments. My daughter will be left with a great deal of valuable assets upon my demise even without this one guitar. More than I was left with to be sure!

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That's a tough question to answer, probably mostly the idea that I'm the only one who's ever owned it and it just feels like such a part of me after having spent so many years learning to play it, taking care of it and using it. It was even stolen once but was returned after applying some.....um....coercion.


Sure it's a nice guitar but again it's not the oldest, or most valuable one I have. God willing I live for a while yet I'm sure to acquire more valuable instruments. My daughter will be left with a great deal of valuable assets upon my demise even without this one guitar. More than I was left with to be sure!

 

 

If your parent had something like that, wouldn't you cherish it for a little more than the cash value?

 

I mean, imagine when she has kids. Would you rather her tell her kids about that guitar? Or show them?

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Sure it's a nice guitar but again it's not the oldest, or most valuable one I have. God willing I live for a while yet I'm sure to acquire more valuable instruments. My daughter will be left with a great deal of valuable assets upon my demise even without this one guitar. More than I was left with to be sure!

 

 

Read what you're saying here. You sound like you think your daughter will only be interested in the monetary value of what you leave her. She just might cherish your beloved guitar above the other stuff worth more money.

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If your parent had something like that, wouldn't you cherish it for a little more than the cash value?


I mean, imagine when she has kids. Would you rather her tell her kids about that guitar? Or show them?

 

 

That's a good point. Hopefully I'll be around long enough to know a grandchild or two, could change my whole way of thinking. In fact I could even meet a non-family member that I'd eventually feel was worthy of the instrument but that's just not the case at the current time.

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what an odd topic lol

 

I agree there's no sense in getting buried with it. I disagree with giving it to your daughter if she has no real interest in music / instruments. She most likely would never 'tell stories' to the grandkids while using the guitar as a show-and-tell prop, considering the other guitars and assets, I'd bet she might just closet them and eventually CL or yard-sale them (maybe years down the road), or even her kids grow up to inherit the instrument but not the sentimental values and sell or pawn them.

 

IMO, you would do well to find a young player worthy of a gift upon your death.. I know it sounds a little crass toward the immediate family, but I find that my immediate family has no interest either, and I plan to be cremated.. so what to do? for now, I teach a 12 year old girl who has that same youthful lust to learn and grow on the instrument that I had at that age.. so she's the front runner. Not all assets are required to go to immediate family, right?

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It's pretty easy for any musician to understand the sentimental attachment to a favorite instrument, but it seems to me it would be a shame for that instrument to never get a chance to vibrate again. Btw, contrary to popular belief, burial vaults leak, and decomposing bodies outgass. Your LP would be a soggy, slimy mess in short order.

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