My ultimate fear

[Mike1412blue]

I must admit, all my Gibson's are immaculate, total case queens. My fear is dropping one or doing something to break the headstock. I've had a few close calls, my 94 Les Paul studio has tipped over while in its case totally on its back, no damage. That is the only (knock on wood) incident I've had. Any similar stories or freak accidents you guys have had? I've heard a headstock can be repaired over and over again if it's done right.

[pippy]

...Any similar stories or freak accidents you guys have had?...

A few summers ago I was sitting on my garden swing noodling on my R0 and when I got up to go back into the house I noticed the swing's chains had done this to the back of the guit...

 

 

Doesn't bother me at all but it was a pretty stupid thing to do nevertheless.

 

P.

[Jimi Mac]

I mostly get little nicks and dings that I can't explain...

 

I never remember how they got there... Nothing big, and it bothers me that I have no clue how or when it was done...

 

But I really don't think about it...

[OldPlucker]

My fear is dying and my wife selling my guitars and other goodies for what I paid for them.

[kidblast]

Someone walked by and tripped on the cable that 95 Wine Red Standard was plugged into at a gig. I was about 25 feet away and saw it all unfold before my eyes.. heart stopped beating as I helplessly watch my LP start to succumb to gravity and head for the stage floor. my brother in-law who was also the bass player, was standing just a few feet away tuning up, and saw this all happen, and he reacted quickly, reached out and caught it before it hit. Whew!!! my hero! That was the closest it's ever come so far anyway (knock on wood).

 

Lesson learned: I never leave any guitars plugged in if they're not strapped to my shoulder.

 

My Fender strat took a horrendous fall one night at band practice about 10 years ago, that was going to be bad, but those suckers bounce, beyond a little ding in the headstock it was fine

[davidl]

One evening a while back I was playing my LP robot and the strap fell off. I barely caught it in time but did. Not 20 minutes later I was playing my brand new 1960 re-issue LP and the same thing happened. Different strap too. Just caught that one as well. Now strap locks all around.

[davidl]

One evening a while back I was playing my LP robot and the strap fell off. I barely caught it in time but did. Not 20 minutes later I was playing my brand new 1960 re-issue LP and the same thing happened. Different strap too. Just caught that one as well. Now strap locks all around.

My other big fear is heights. So I guess my ultimate fear would be playing one of my guitars while standing on a ladder when the strap lets go.

[Riffster]

I learned to let go of the expectation of having clean immaculate guitars long ago.

 

Guitars will get dinged, it will happen, I just happen to ding them real quick.

 

Look at old guitars, most of them show signs of being played but most of the wear comes from transporting them or having them laying around, I mean some of thos old Gibsons have wear all around the headstock.

 

My biggest fear is a broken headstock I also do not like buckle rash, if I ever put buckle rash on one of my guitars I will finish it off and relic the whole thing.

[chewy60]

yeah, i got the normal dents and scratches on my lp that's expected from a 20-year old axe. greatest damage i've done is chipping the flame paint job where the neck meets the body below the pickup switch which was caused by sloppy right-hand picking technique. oh well, just adds to the character and gives it that special mojo i guess....

[surfpup]

I must admit, all my Gibson's are immaculate, total case queens.

 

I thought they were musical instruments meant to be played. Guess I missed the memo on the case queen thing and I'm glad I didn't. Anything that doesn't affect the sound doesn't really bother me.

[surfpup]

...if I ever put buckle rash on one of my guitars I will finish it off and relic the whole thing.

 

Just move the buckle around enough and the back will be reliced.

[Dennis G]

My fear is dying and my wife selling my guitars and other goodies for what I paid for them.

I was going to chime in with that if no one else did. I think the actual quote was about guns, and something to the effect of "her selling all of my guns for what I told her I paid for them."

 

As for dings, they're just gonna happen. The first one hurts, and after that, they're battle scars.

[deeman]

I thought they were musical instruments meant to be played. Guess I missed the memo on the case queen thing and I'm glad I didn't. Anything that doesn't affect the sound doesn't really bother me.

 

I agree, while I keep my guitar in the case i do not freak out about nicks and scratches. Mine is definitely a player guitar and things like that happen. I take care of it and never let it fall or anything, but sometimes things happen while gigging and such.

[Karloff]

I try to take care of my guitars. But I don't sweat the normal wear and tear.

[NHTom]

knock on wood........I have never seriously dinged one.....

 

Since I buy most of mine used, they all have some nicks and dings. I'm ok with it and still clean/polish them and try very hard not to add to the dings, but as long as its not structural or something really ugly, I don't worry too much.

 

I have one "mint" guitar.....a charvel. It is simply as clean as the day it came off the factory line. I take care in keeping it nice, but it was my main guitar for years.......just paid attention to it and never put it in harms way. It's not valuable or collectible, so its more about luck that its mint than babying it.

 

My years of being a roadie and working in a guitar shop, I've seen some real horror stories. I sold a similarly mint charvel to a guy and he got home, plugged it in, strap fell off and snapped the head stock. He called me almost in tears. I was sick because I knew how clean and nice it was. We were able to put it back together with some dowels, etc and you could barely notice the split. Played as well as new.

 

My problem is that when I keep a guitar long enough for it to become beat up, it's because it plays and sounds great and I play it all the time........I'd never trade one of those for something pretty, so I guess I'm destined to always have guitars with some nicks and scratches...lol.

 

NHTom

[Mike1412blue]

I thought they were musical instruments meant to be played. Guess I missed the memo on the case queen thing and I'm glad I didn't. Anything that doesn't affect the sound doesn't really bother

 

Case queens can be played, I just prefer mine without broken head stocks, that will effect sound for sure, LOL!

[Mike1412blue]

My 94 studio is slowly showing some age, anything that was white is now yellow, some buckle rash and a few swirls, and a few very small dings, mostly on the back. Feels more broken in than anything.

[bonzoboy]

I never put my Les Pauls or SGs or my Firebird in any situation where their safety could be any way compromised,they are always in the cases when not in my hands.Having said that though my Firebird has been propped up on the chesterfield as my living room guitar for 3 week now,but I make sure that it's securely propped up,and where it's just me and the missus,it's in little danger of being damaged-even by the dog and cats.One of my oldest buddies bought a 66 SG back in 1974 that had the neck broken at the usual nut/headstock area.My tech buddy who worked at a guitar store had taken the SG,which the previous owner had condemned and took some Elmer's wood glue and put the clean break of the two neck pieces together and bound them with heavy 1/4" rope-he put the guitar in a corner of the workshop and actually forgot about it until doing a cleanup some months later-that was in late 1974 and that guitar is still being played daily with absolutely no issues whatsoever.

 

I suggest that if anyone has morbid fear of doing irreparable damage to any guitar that's prone to a nut/headstock break,that they invest in a top quality guitar case that's certified for airline travel-they cost a pretty penny but it depends on what your peace of mind is worth to you.It's also a good idea to go the extra money in buying a guitar stand with an extra stable base that locks the guitar to the stand.

[rct]

It's just a guitar, the store is full of them. My only fear is that in my lifetime the Three Great American Guitar companies will go away. That would be tragic. But everything changes, and that's a fact.

 

rct

[rocketman]

I beat the hell out of my Sonex when I was gigging on a regular basis. It fell on the floor, had beer spilled on it, and I broke almost everything on it at some point. But I took the good with the bad. The good part is that I learned how to fix guitars. I'm not like Searcy, not by a longshot(!), but I can do enough to keep my guitars going. It sat idol for many years and the Texas humidity killed it. I replaced the pickguard, cleaned the metal parts, dressed the frets and replaced most of the electronics. The coil tap is not really a true coil tap and that took me a while to fix (forgot the details). The only thing I could not fix was the neck, which had a torsional warp on it. I have NO idea how that can even happen but it did. Luckily it has a bolt on neck. My tech fixed it by shaving various parts of it. He said that I did a pretty good job with the rest of it. Now it plays like new. Looks pretty good too, even with the battle scars.

 

[quapman]

Mmmm,, well,, my ultimate fear is not guitar related.

 

But if it were,,, mmmmm.

 

rct makes about the best point yet.

 

But on a more selfish shallow level,, I would have to say that I have already lived my ultimate fear.

I had my 69 Custom Black Beauty stolen from me in the late 80s... I really liked that guitar.

I had 2 other guitar stolen at the same time which I can barely remember.

So ya,, I really liked my Custom.

 

Any thing after that is petty,, especially a frickin ding on my guitar,,,.

 

Ya,, put me in the,, "I don't care about dings camp"

In fact,, I kinda like my dings,, and not only that,, now they are fashionable.

[daveinspain]

Yeah hate the first ding but sh¡t happens and there's not mucho one can do… My closest call to a total disaster was one day at band rehearsal while on break, the other guitar player gets up to walk across the room and some how got his foot tangled in my 2007 original Robot's guitar cord. As he started to stumble the guitar cord yanked at the base of the guitar pulling it up into the air. Luckily it had been sitting in a Hercules guitar stand. The sudden jerk from the cord closed the headstock fingers grasping the guitar like an iron fist. The guitar was suspend in mid air from it's base. As the entangle cord pulled tight the embattled guitar stand held its ground but was starting to lean forward... I jumped up and grabbed the guitar in mid air. Close call for a broken head stock. Thank you Hercules for saving my guitar. If it had been in any other stand it would have been on the floor in pieces before I had time to react...

[Karloff]

 

Ya,, put me in the,, "I don't care about dings camp"

In fact,, I kinda like my dings,, and not only that,, now they are fashionable.

 

[Rosemarie]

My LP has a mild scratch from when I played it in HS. I had it on its stand (admittedly a cheap one - hey! I was 15 and not rolling in money exactly!) and my fellow percussionist (I was a percussionist in the Orchestra and we were performing our Spring Formal Concert.I had just finished playing "And I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" as the instrumental ininterlude so that the Jazz Band could get off the stage) got her heel stuck in the stand somehow and didn't realize it. When she got up to get the music out for the next piece, my LP went to the floor. Luckily another percussionist, who is also a guitarist, was close enough to catch it before the headstock hit the floor. I was heartbroken when I saw the scratch because I was very obsessive with keeping my guitar clean and well taken care of. It took a lot of hard work for me to earn the money to buy it and I was hell bent to keep it the way I bought it. Years later, when I worked at my local music store (Zapf's), the manager of the guitar department looked at it and said that it wasn't a bad scratch and could be buffed out, which I did by hand. Now I can barely see it, if at all. Even if it noticeable, it has a story - a battle scar, proof that it is loved.

 

My biggest fear may be stupid to some, but it is waking up one day and no longer having the little bit of vision I have. I battle every day to keep it, but know that having a degenerative disease like I do, the deck is stacked against me. I know I can adapt - I did when I lost my left eye - I am just afraid of not being able to see anything at all. I know, its stupid, but its what scares me more than anything.

[davidl]

My LP has a mild scratch from when I played it in HS. I had it on its stand (admittedly a cheap one - hey! I was 15 and not rolling in money exactly!) and my fellow percussionist (I was a percussionist in the Orchestra and we were performing our Spring Formal Concert.I had just finished playing "And I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" as the instrumental ininterlude so that the Jazz Band could get off the stage) got her heel stuck in the stand somehow and didn't realize it. When she got up to get the music out for the next piece, my LP went to the floor. Luckily another percussionist, who is also a guitarist, was close enough to catch it before the headstock hit the floor. I was heartbroken when I saw the scratch because I was very obsessive with keeping my guitar clean and well taken care of. It took a lot of hard work for me to earn the money to buy it and I was hell bent to keep it the way I bought it. Years later, when I worked at my local music store (Zapf's), the manager of the guitar department looked at it and said that it wasn't a bad scratch and could be buffed out, which I did by hand. Now I can barely see it, if at all. Even if it noticeable, it has a story - a battle scar, proof that it is loved.

 

My biggest fear may be stupid to some, but it is waking up one day and no longer having the little bit of vision I have. I battle every day to keep it, but know that having a degenerative disease like I do, the deck is stacked against me. I know I can adapt - I did when I lost my left eye - I am just afraid of not being able to see anything at all. I know, its stupid, but its what scares me more than anything.

 

Rosemarie, your biggest fear is not stupid in any sense of the word. It would scare the heck out of me. All the rest of our fears listed above pale by comparison. My heart goes out to you and my wishes for modern science to help the situation go to you as well.