ajay Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 One of my friends back home used to get together with me back in the early 80's and play what we knew on a regular basis. He had a Cherryburst Dove that I used to drool over, as I was playing a '73 Epiphone dread. I was much poorer at the time. Every time I played that Dove the sound just jumped out of it, and especially compared to my Epiphone. That guitar is the reason I layed out the coin for my Brazilian AJ. A few days ago, I was back home and ended up playing Paul's old Dove for the first time in 30 years. I finished playing it, and handed it off. Paul showed me a few songs that he was working on. As he finished, he set it with the lower bout on the carpet and the top facing a computer chair, which he leaned the strings against. I remember thinking, I would never put my AJ in that position. The only time I have ever put down my Gibson, it has been in the case, with the case closed and latched. We got up and walked in the next room to get a beer. Just as he was opening the refrigerator door we heard a sickening sound. The computer chair had spun around enough to send the Dove flying to a spot face down on the carpet. The "BONGGGG" of the landing was like a pocket knife being jammed into each of my ears. For a moment I tried to tell myself that it was not what it was. I tried to make the sick feeling in my stomach go away, but it would not cease. I called him last night, and he said that it was fine, with no cracks. He pulled the strings, and had his younger and thinner-armed boy put his arm inside the soundhole to feel for loose braces, but apparently everything was still tight and in place. The carpet had been vacuumed that morning, so the top didn't receive any little dents or scratches. The neck was still very tight, with no finish separation at the heel. All in all it appears that disaster has been avoided. I still have a sick feeling in my stomach every time I relive the moment in my mind. I'm sure that with time the gravity of the moment will pass. I just think that if it were my AJ I would never feel quite the same about it. I would feel that it was no longer a cherished virgin. I know that I had nothing to do with it, but I keep thinking that I could have suggested a safer resting place for the old box. But I didn't. Anybody else have a similar event occur to a beloved acoustic? Maybe a few success stories could take this haunting feeling out of my guitar soul for good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry K Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Ren Ferguson tells this hilarious story of himself as a young feller, playing an expensive guitar (was it a hummingbird? Can't remember). Anyway the strap broke or came off so he tried to pull up the other end of the strap and the guitar went off into an even wilder orbit and finally crashed on the stage from a considerable height and exploded. The crowd erupted in applause and cheers and Ren has a fabulous description of the thoughts going through his mind at that moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-1854Me Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Ren Ferguson tells this hilarious story of himself as a young feller, playing an expensive guitar (was it a hummingbird? Can't remember). Anyway the strap broke or came off so he tried to pull up the other end of the strap and the guitar went off into an even wilder orbit and finally crashed on the stage from a considerable height and exploded. The crowd erupted in applause and cheers and Ren has a fabulous description of the thoughts going through his mind at that moment. Haha! That's funny! Maybe that's the original "twenty-four foot radius", eh? Fred Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buc McMaster Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Here's a horror story for ya........ Back in the 90's I worked for a local music retailer and every year we made the trek to Dallas for the big annual guitar show there. The road crew had a couple of those six-guitar rack displays - aluminum tubes with nylon end fittings and hand screw tensioners. The rack was assembled and loaded with six brand spanking new Les Pauls. (You know what's coming.....right?) The whole thing collapsed, breaking the headstock off every single guitar. The whole lot was sold to the Japanese for pennies on the dollar and the poor fellow that assmebled the rack was sent packing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinder Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 My poor former SJ200 had its fair share of El Kabong during the eight years I owned it for. My Dad was helping me pack up after a gig, and the '200 was still on its stand. He stood on the strap by accident, and the guitar rocked forward and came crashing to the floor, landing nut-first against the foot of my mic stand. You can imagine my horror as I watched it happen, powerless to help, from across the room as I was lifting a speaker from a stand... The sound was sickening, the headstock sprang free of the rest of the guitar, in a shower of maple splinters, and my heart just about did the same thing from my body. My poor Dad was speechless with guilt, and the next day went straight out and bought me a brand new Hummingbird, despite being badly off financially at the time. I still can't believe he did that, and I tried to give the 'Bird back to him several times. In the end, I claimed on my insurance for the damage to the SJ200, was awarded the cost of a new SJ200 and was told to "keep the scrap", so I paid my Dad back the money he spent on the 'Bird and had my luthier fix "the scrap", which he did beautifully and invisibly, for £80! In that situation, it wasn't so bad. Four years later, whilst having a bed delivered, the same guitar was knocked down the stairs by the delivery men (in its case), who opted not to tell me about the little "incident", leaving the guitar at the foot of the stairs, where it had landed neatly, and where I presumed my wife had moved it to in order to keep it out of the way for the bed delivery. I was on my way out to a gig, so grabbed the case and hit the road, only to open the case at soundcheck to find the headstock broken AGAIN, but in a different place this time. Another £80 repair and I was back on the road! I ended up playing something in the region of 1200 gigs over eight years with that guitar, recorded five albums and wrote over 200 songs with it. I just got every last drop of music out of it that I could, and we parted on melancholy but amicable terms. I miss it, but my AJ is a worthy successor and will, I'm sure, give me just as much mileage as the Grand Dame that was the SJ200. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 I have whacked a few tops on various things simply being careless but never busted one up. I did have one explode on me though - an old S.S. Stewart archtop. I guess enough of the glue finally gave up the ghost and the thing just kinda flew apart. I will never forget the sound just before it went as the strings went out of tune and the wood started pulling itself apart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack6849 Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 This is perhaps the hardest of all guitar topics for me.... When I first started out playing, (about 45 years ago....) I had the cheapest Silvertone acoustic guitar in the Sears catalog. It was quite a while before I could afford to get a "musical instrument" to replace my "guitar-shaped object". Perhaps because of that, I find it very unpleasant to hear stories about nice guitars being damaged. Such tales often produce a mental discomfort that is very similar to what I feel when I listen to a graphic account of a horrific hand-injury. For some reason, I react intensely to either type of experience. I guess I find them both to be "traumatic". Unpleasant in the extreme. The "carry-over" from that form of "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" has manifested itself in some very strange ways for me musically. I have to admit that I lost a lot of respect for several rock acts that I'd always idolized, after I witnessed them destroying their equipment (particularly guitars...) on stage. I saw the Who, I saw Jimi, I even saw the Doors do it... I had once worshiped them all, but I just never saw them in the same way, after those shows. Once, I even walked out of a Garth Brooks concert, after watching him simultaneously destroy two Takamine acoustics. Sorry, that's just NOT my idea of entertainment.... Accidental damage is almost as hard to hear about, but at least sometimes it can be forgiven.... In my book, destroying a guitar on purpose (especially in the name of "Art") comes close to being a "crime against humanity". ("Fighting for Peace is like Fornicating for Chastity", if you know what I mean....) Having been a performing musician virtually all my life, I have, of course, been a witness to some major accidental atrocities. One night in 1968, on an Iowa City stage, in front of about five hundred people, two players in my band turned (in opposite directions), at precisely the same "wrong" moment, and in one unbelievable instant, they had "beheaded" BOTH a "Sunburst" 1960 Les Paul Standard (oh yes... with a nice flamey Maple top...) AND a Black Gibson "ES-355". They both cried.... Just recalling that story now, even five decades later, is still nauseating for me. I'd love to tell you that, with time, you get over stuff like that, but obviously, at least for me, that just isn't true. I feel your pain, Jack6849 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stubee Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Having snapped the headstock clean off my only guitar, a Hummingbird, in 1977 I can understand the feeling...but the topic guitar here was OK? Then the owner learned a lesson the easy way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajay Posted February 21, 2012 Author Share Posted February 21, 2012 Having snapped the headstock clean off my only guitar, a Hummingbird, in 1977 I can understand the feeling...but the topic guitar here was OK? Then the owner learned a lesson the easy way. Yeah, it seems to be OK. It just broke my heart that I was there when my old Holy Grail bit the dust while I was there. It was just sad and ironic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drathbun Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 The only feeling worse than damaging your prized instrument is damaging someone else's! Jinder, your story is filled with guitar heartache but I know how your Dad must have felt when he accidentally broke your guitar. I was in a band in high school and we were practicing in my basement (lino over concrete). During a break, I picked up my friend's '72 SG by the strap, the strap broke and the headstock hit the lino. The headstock stayed on but there was the ubiquitous hairline fracture on both sides of the neck at the nut. I was mortified. I didn't have the money to repair it but I offered to pay for the repair when it came back from the shop. I never got the bill (my friend had a wealthy Daddy). I assumed he covered the cost. I never touch someone else's instrument unless it is put in my hands by them and I never pick one up by the strap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G McBride Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 I have had a few close calls in my days of playing but have been lucky enough not to break a guitar. I have had accidents that damaged some things but not a guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 I had my share of guitar disasters but what Drathbun made me think of involves a funny little Austin A30 car that my father bought my mother when we were kids. My parents went away for the weekend and they may not have got on the plane at the airport yet, when my younger brother and I had found the spare keys to the Austin and driven it straight through the garage door. That was feeling very sick! BluesKing777. Gibson board won't let me show the car's pic.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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