I make a distinction between normal wear'n'tear and needless damage. I've been wearing my belt with the buckle next to my hip since I started playing. There's just no excuse for buckle rash. On the other hand, the chrome covers on my Brand X clearly show thousands of tiny pick-scratches between the strings. If the tone I want happens to be directly above one of the pickups, that's where I'm gonna pick. And the pick-guard also shows the effects of 20 years of percussive Townshend-style strumming. That's what a pick-guard is for, y'know? That's part of making music. Buckle-rash is just lame.