I suspect that all instruments have their myths. These unlikely stories are perpetrated endlessly from ill-informed musical dictionary entry to record sleeve, from mistranslated anecdote to hasty programme note and on into the collective understanding of a subject on the part of musicians and the musical public at large. It should perhaps be a source of comfort that the guitar is not alone in this regard, however I would submit that it is neither necessary nor desirable for such myths to be perpetuated when a better, fairer and more honest understanding is...