A bard not equipping instruments is worse than a knight not equipping their shield while tanking. It's only done well if any of the classes have their epic or something very epic-like to compensate for the loss.
Looking through old screenshots, all of the bards in groups 35+ are swapping between different instruments and occasionally adding in a nivs sword click. My bard alt only has crap ratio claw weapons bagged for fashionquest and one equally bad dmg/dly weapon with tash proc. Spare platinum has gone a lot farther when spent on upgrading instruments so group benefits accumulate faster, and then armor/hp gear for survivability. With a few exceptions, weapons on a bard are just hood ornaments/vanity plates; instruments enhance what's under the hood.
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