cbrown86 Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Hi all, I'm new here but I was wondering if anyone could try to help me with a problem I have with my hummingbird. I've had it for 2 years and I set it up myself (changed saddle, nut, action etc., and basically just got it like I wanted it) and was very happy with the tone up until july 4th of this year when I dropped it on the ground while playing with some friends and having too much to drink :(. When it fell, it hit a beer bottle on the way down and also a chair and now it has 2 dents in the back of the neck and one on the headstock, although the finish on the ebony h-bird is Extremely thick. Since this happened the tone of the guitar just isn't the same at all anymore. The tone is dull and the sustain is bad now. Even when playing just simple chords it doesn't sound right at all even though it's 100% in tune. I used to play like 2-4 hours a day but now i cringe when i even pick it up because it sounds so shitty compared to what it was before i dropped it. I've tried like 4 sets of new strings, changed saddle and nut back to the originals, checked for loose braces in the body, even removed the tuners and put them back on, but it still sounds the same... Oh, and also when I put a new set of strings on it, it sounds just like it did when I had a year old set of strings.. no change in tone what so ever, and before, I would dramatically notice the new string sound whenever I changed them, but now no change in tone when putting on new strings... I don't get it. I guess the best way to describe the sound now would be... muffled and dull. It's basically lost every bit of it's brightness, even on the treble strings.. Does anyone know what could have happened when I dropped it to make it do this? This sucks really bad because it's my only guitar and I don't have the money to take it to a luthier to check it over or buy a new guitar so i'm pretty much **** outta luck unless i can figure out what's wrong with it. :( If anyone has any ideas at all as to what it could be, please post!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill67 Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Hi all, I'm new here but I was wondering if anyone could try to help me with a problem I have with my hummingbird. I've had it for 2 years and I set it up myself (changed saddle, nut, action etc., and basically just got it like I wanted it) and was very happy with the tone up until july 4th of this year when I dropped it on the ground while playing with some friends and having too much to drink :(. When it fell, it hit a beer bottle on the way down and also a chair and now it has 2 dents in the back of the neck and one on the headstock, although the finish on the ebony h-bird is Extremely thick. Since this happened the tone of the guitar just isn't the same at all anymore. The tone is dull and the sustain is bad now. Even when playing just simple chords it doesn't sound right at all even though it's 100% in tune. I used to play like 2-4 hours a day but now i cringe when i even pick it up because it sounds so shitty compared to what it was before i dropped it. I've tried like 4 sets of new strings, changed saddle and nut back to the originals, checked for loose braces in the body, even removed the tuners and put them back on, but it still sounds the same... Oh, and also when I put a new set of strings on it, it sounds just like it did when I had a year old set of strings.. no change in tone what so ever, and before, I would dramatically notice the new string sound whenever I changed them, but now no change in tone when putting on new strings... I don't get it. I guess the best way to describe the sound now would be... muffled and dull. It's basically lost every bit of it's brightness, even on the treble strings.. Does anyone know what could have happened when I dropped it to make it do this? This sucks really bad because it's my only guitar and I don't have the money to take it to a luthier to check it over or buy a new guitar so i'm pretty much **** outta luck unless i can figure out what's wrong with it. :( If anyone has any ideas at all as to what it could be, please post!! If the neck is good and tight ,I would check the bracing in side the guitar maybe one snapped loose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyK Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Has the action changed at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 I agree with the above post - check the bracing. You might have knocked one loose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red 333 Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 I wonder if the wack on the back of the headstock didn't unseat or crack the nut in some in way, or maybe crack the neck internally around the truss rod cavity (in such a way that it can't be seen below the finish). Red 333 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbrown86 Posted September 4, 2010 Author Share Posted September 4, 2010 The only way that I know how to check for loose bracings is to take the strings off and put my hand in the soundhole and check them all but none of them seem loose when I do this. Maybe there is a better way to check for loose braces? Does anyone know what effects a loose brace could have on tone though, and also what effects a crack within the neck (or headstock) could have on tone? I ask because I have the same thoughts as red, ever since it happened I've had a feeling that maybe it cracked the neck below the finish, but I can't see any cracks even with a magnifying glass because the finish is so thick and also jet black colored, there are just visible puncture marks. I was thinking about maybe stripping the finish off the whole neck down to the bare wood to check for cracks but that would be last resort because I don't know if a crack could even affect the tone this much. I don't really care about how it would look after I stripped it and refinished it or whatever, I'm just concerned about the sound more than the looks of the guitar. Also, I wonder if dropping the guitar could have affected the intonation somehow. The intonation seems fine because I checked it with a tuner on 12th frets, but for some reason, I think it sounds a lot closer to concert pitch when I use a capo on the first fret... and when I put a capo on the third fret it sounds like it used to sound when it was capo 2, even though it's perfectly in tune...if that makes any sense to you guys lol... just trying to put all this out there because maybe there's something you guys know that I'm not aware of that is making all of this happen. I actually have it tuned a half step down right now and the tone sounds much much better for some reason even though it's out of tune, then when I tune it back to concert pitch it sounds all muffled and muted and crappy and dead again which is weird... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiggy Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 Have you checked to see if the bridge has lifted slightly. This could account for the loss of resonance and the slight drop in pitch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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