hi all, i often see here instruments, usually guitars but also pianos and other acoustic instruments in folks’ listening rooms.
now seeing instruments is always cool, i have a couple of (now rarely played) guitars in my back room, and of course a lot of us have limited number of rooms so they probably can’t go elsewhere in the house, but…
…they can’t help but colour the sound, both due to the bodies resonating and the strings vibrating in sympathy.
anyone noticed this as a real problem, or even as a curiosity?
thanks all 
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Great question Joma…while not related to musical instruments per se…
After setting up my Focals I still had my older but large floor stander speakers sitting along the wall
upright behind my new Focals…everything seemed ok…then when i found a new home and these
were gone the whole sq improved all the way around…
So yes while I had read about deleterious effects of the vibration induce resonances in the cabinets
and drivers of the unused speakers in the room…I found this to be true in my case …
However ymmv…
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My experience is darned near everything in my listening environment, instruments, furniture, wall coverings, you name it can have an impact. The strangest probably being wall mounted art … I have something of a mini-museum as a very serious Japanese woodblock collector … resonating. Yup, I’ve discovered my glass framed wall mounted artwork will vibrate, forming a hard reflective surface that itself has a drum resonance dependent on the dimensions of the frame. On a very loosely related vein, it’s worth pointing out how many of us have a background either as musicians now or in the past. Years ago I was a clarinetist (I’ve played everything with a single reed at one time or another) with a fleeting idea of pursuing music professionally. My thought is passion for high end audio is often rooted in love of music as a musician. Once that seed is planted it is a lifetime obsession.
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this is true i have 2, sometimes 3 pairs of speakers in the “playback position” and i wish i could have just my system with lots of space around it as i’m sure you are right - they resonate too.
not complaining of course it’s not a bad problem to have
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It is a dilemma for sure when space is limited…to sort through what to put where keep or sell off.
Working through some same issues myself…
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Great responses here already. I have a guitar in my listening space since that is where I mainly play it, solo, with another guitarist, or with a tract on my stereo. I’ve found by having one out I play more frequently. That said, they do resonate. I have a number of guitars and the ones with the best sustain seem to be more easily ‘excited’. My jumbo Martin is the biggest culprit. It’s not necessarily a bad thing adding a little harmonic undertone 
There are times I do put them away, especially when I listen loud.
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indeed, if they are packed away, they just don’t get played!
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They were made to be played and enjoyed, not put away…so consider them as works of art
which they represent in the musical genre and deserve to be there resonances or not…
and adapt around them as best you can…
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The guitar would have to be an acoustic guitar; a flat top or archtop and one with a carved, solid top–a really thin one. The type that are a btch to play live, with a band, because of the frustrating battle with feedback, due to the top vibrating sympathetically. Like my Gibson L5. Pia!
A solid body, no.
Maybe something like a cello or larger.
But I doubt it unless you’re playing your hifi at painful levels.
Wait----a sitar! I’ll bet you’d get that going.
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It’s actually a decent way to help break in a new soundboard on an acoustic by having it in your listening room due to that resonance and vibration.
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I have a guitar in my den, but I really don’t hear much resonance off that.
Also a standup bass in the living room with the Magnepans. Nada.
But I do have an instrument/jam room that has a stereo in it. (I mostly use that system to play tracks to jam along with. Very handy during corona with no jam mates.) Anyway, if the stereo is loud, the banjo and the drums (snare, really) can be problematic. If I loosen the snare wire and stuff a sock in the banjo, it’s fine.
Some of you are thinking that should be the default setup for a banjo, I’m sure.
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I agree with Steve Martin. How can you not feel happy listening to a banjo?
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I learned several years ago when the hifi was in a smaller room just how badly things can resonate. I had a pair of Chinese 42" vases and if I stopped the CD during something loud the vases would honk for what seemed like an age. They’re now stuffed with pillows so not a problem. I too had noticed many people have an acoustic guitar in their listening room, I wouldn’t dream of doing that. I now have masses of room treatment and large bass traps in a new very large room - there’s no discernible reverberation in the room (really shows masses of detail in recordings).
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Break in - hadn’t considered that aspect actually
Cool replies, thanks all, I have noticed it often with acoustic guitars, I should imagine a piano would be more, be nice to have a piano again though!
A well treated non reverberant room would be great, but my studio days are long behind me so I’m ok with resonances now, of a musical instrument at least.
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Well there you have it…stereos also serve for breaking in new stringed hollow body instruments…
Y’all just larned me sumptin 
Thanky
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oh yeah, stories all over the guitar forums about new instruments “opening up” and sounding better and more resonant (like “burn in” for stereo equipment)… And many try to accelerate the opening-up process by placing their guitars in front of their loudspeakers.
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Amazing…thanks terzinator
Going in a slightly different application…would this same process serve to break in, settle in a
freshly newly built listening room?
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Interesting question.
With the opening up of a guitar, you’re WANTING it to develop more resonance.
With the listening room, I’d think you wouldn’t.
So, um, ahdunno. 
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Guitars (made of decent wood) improve with age anyway, whether this involves being used or not I’m not sure (though it does kinda make sense, at least below a certain volume!)