13 March 2008

Basic Guitar Repair: An Illustration of the Mental Phenomena I attempted to describe in the last post

Suppose I saw a Google search that said "How many pegs do I need to put on this broken guitar?"

Such a question implies that:
a) The searcher knows what a guitar is.
b) The searcher has a guitar in hand that needs repair.
c) The searcher does not know how many strings a guitar is supposed to have.

Would you want this searcher to repair your guitar?

Posted at 19:56
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"How many pegs do I need to put on this broken guitar?"

If the guitar is broken there is no use to put on any pegs unless it's the actual pegs that has broken.

*is in a very silly mood*

OK, OK, I get it...

*stumbles off*

13 March, 2008 20:31
Eric said...

Okay, two interesting and related points:

1) When I do a Google search of "How many pegs do I need to put on this broken guitar," I get this suggestion: "Did you mean: How many eggs do I need to put on this broken guitar?" Which is abso-frickin-lutely awesome. How many eggs do I need to put on this broken guitar? Cooked or raw?

2) When I click on the alternate search, this blog entry comes up as the first hit. You, MWT, apparently hold the key. How many eggs do I need? Why don't you tell me, then! Hm?

(As an incidental, purely pedantic note, might I add that "How many strings does a guitar have?" could be seen as a trick question, as there are 12-string guitars--and how I would love to have a 12-string Rick someday!--and a few 7-string variations floating around out there? But never mind that: how many pegs isn't nearly as good a question as how many eggs. A guitar is shaped a little like a pan, 'tis true, but I think only a dobro has any hope of surviving your campfire....)

31 March, 2008 22:02
MWT said...

Well Eric, it depends on the size of the eggs in question. You would obviously need far fewer ostrich eggs than sparrow eggs, for example. As a general rule of thumb, though, I recommend that you use enough eggs to completely immerse your guitar. Raw would be simpler for its better immersive properties, but cooked might be healthier for the guitar if you're worried about it catching salmonella in addition to having broken pegs.

As for the rest, well ... what do you expect from an on-the-fly metaphor in a field of knowledge about which I know almost nothing. ;)

01 April, 2008 18:12

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