I was playing with a very experienced friend who asked me to play a weeknight Church function. He said there would be two other guys there who were going to play some songs as well. One of them brought a guitar that didn't have a pickup so I thought, in the spirit of Christian giving, that I would offer to let him use my GS8 so that he wouldn't have to go to the trouble to mic his. WRONG! He was a younger guy who really didn't know how to play, or better said, in my experience, all certain teens seem to be able to is to hit the crap out of it and then some! My Dad was with me watching the mortified look on my face as I wondered if the pic was just digging into my pic-guard-less GS8. I resigned then to be careful about letting anyone play my guitar, and not to assume just because they're playing a Church event that they're a capable, experienced musician. I thought I would be less protective of my new GS Mini Mahogany, but a friend played it the other day for way over an hour and all I could think was, "man, I'm going to have to buy new strings now..." Those Elixirs are expensive! HA!