Let's hear your guitar disaster stories or close call stories ....

[Dr. Tweedbucket]

I have a few close call broken headstock stories.

This just happened an hour ago. I was jamming with a 68 reissue LP and I turn the amp off, un-plug the power and speaker cord and pick the amp head up and start carrying it to the other room ... forgetting to unplug the cord from the input jack. The cord yanks the Les Paul off the couch and it bounces onto the floor. It was laying there face up on the headstock and body. I was really lucky that puppy didn't snap after hearing that thud that it made. Not too good for the cord either :red

Another time I handed my wife my wine red 78 Custom and she dropped it face first on the garage floor :messedup .... all it did was chipped the binding... it was still in tune! That had broken headstock written all over it! We are divorced now.

[SteveGaines]

Wasn't my guitar but I was on stage one night and the bass player walked by and HUNG HIS FOOT in the guitar player's cable....It feel out of the stand but he caught it with his LEG AND FOOT before it hit the floor....Looked it over, set it up back in the stand and went to break...When we came back the guitar player started tuning and POP! off came the headstock...Third set of the night in a standing room only crowd....Man, talking about feeling SORRY for somebody...WOW!

[Simto]

"only" a close call for me, i play the s*** out of my guitars but when i don't play on them i treat them like babies

Anyway, so, two years ago i had just bought the Limited edition John Mayer sig. strat and i had it on a stand after i played it, the cable still in, i turn around and my foot gets caught in the cable and i trip so it pulls the strat i and i remember me turning around and just watching it fall down in slow motion and me just screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOooooO" *CLONK!*
Nothing happened to it, not a single scratch, not out of tune, not anything.
Man i was lucky that time, it looked like a really bad fall.

[Hulakatt]

Walking out of a gig 4 in college a friend was carrying my heritage god top LP in a gig bag. Dude tripped and the gig bag hit the floor. When i opened the bag the headstock was snapped clean off.

Someone [some people I work with maintain it was someone who heard me play:)] broke in to my office at work and smashed the melody maker I keep there for stress relief. They also ignored all of the computer and audio equipment just lying around.

Here's one with a happy ending:
A few years ago my friend owned a PRS EGII that he lent to another friend. The other friend came back saying the guitar "accidentally fell off of the strap and snapped the neck clean off! [cough, cough, BS, cough...] My friend put the remains in a gig bag and over a few years lost pretty much everything except the pups, neck, neckplate and body. Poking around 7 months ago I rediscovered the PRS and asked my friend if he still wanted it or if I could have it. He let me take the remnants and $650 later I got this back
http://i782.photobucket.com/albums/yy106/hulakatt/IMG_0271.jpg

The bridge humbucker is the original HFS, the neck pup is a new vintage bass.

http://i782.photobucket.com/albums/yy106/hulakatt/IMG_0272.jpg

kudos to Ye Olde Pittsburgh Guitars for the excellent repair!

[Bob Womack]

At a band practice in the '70s a bandmate tripped over the cord of my Les Paul jerking it face-first off its stand. It landed with a huge *KERRANG!* half on rug and half on wood floor I went over and picked it up. It only had a tiny dent in the fingerboard because the body landed on rug. Fifteen years later when I had the guitar refretted and the neck planed, I was reluctant to loose this little piece of history but told my luthier to do what he had to do.

When I got the guitar back, the dent was barely visible and nicely sealed. It's there, but you have to know where to look for it.

Bob

[CyberFerret]

Waay back in the early '80s - after a successful high school gig, we had to pack and evacuate the hall in a hurry and we all chipped in to pack the sound gear etc. My drummer called out to me that he had packed my guitar (a '75 Les Paul Deluxe) away already and could I give him a hand to pack his drum kit. I obliged.

Later, when I got back to my room, I though I would get my LP out again to give it my customary post-gig cleanup when I discovered that the drummer had coiled up 2 leads and placed them in the space behind the headstock then put the guitar in an pushed the lid closed. One headstock SNAPPED!

Needless to say he was never allowed near my guitars again. We're still pals though, and I still have the same LP hanging on the wall rack behind me today. The headstock was repaired beautifully and has never been a problem since.

[Austinrocks]

near disasters thank god, will post a couple times

mine was a 7 guitar multi rack that flipped as I was leaving the room, couple expensive acoustics, couple LPs, couple strats and a tele, fortunately I caught it before any damage was done. Amazed that folks use those damm things

[Austinrocks]

we invited a music producer over to hear this amazing female singer, he come over to practices several times, he had a James Taylor prototype OLSEN guitar,it was signed a few times by James taylor as he approved the guitar series. the guitar was only a few months old, he said his wife gave it to him as a Christmas present, it cost $128,000, which was reduced from $150,000.

The third and last time the guy whos garage we were practicing at is drunk beyond belief, he is sitting there playing the very expensive olsen, he then stands up and does a forward flip with the guitar in hand like he is playing it, lands on his feet, he was well over 50 when he did this, he has no memory. The music producer never came back.

[nmiller]

I heard this story from a friend; it actually occurred long before I was born.

My friend and his band practiced in a loft apartment that had no elevator. However, the loft had doors that opened to the outside, where there was a sizable wooden crate on a rope and pulley. The band would lower the crate to ground level, stuff their equipment in and pull it up to the loft.

One day the guitarist was bringing up his Vox amp via this system. This amp had been giving him some problems recently (I don't know the details) and was only working intermittantly. He loaded the amp into the crate, and my friend proceeded to haul it up. Being under the influence of... well, let's say he was high on life... he was easily distracted and let the rope slip. The crate and amplifier went crashing several stories to the pavement.

Amazingly, the amp was fine, and whatever problems it had were now gone!

[RRfireblade]

Well , had a couple headstocks snap off. One, SG, while it was in the case. Threw it on and couldn't figure out why the strings were all slacked. Doh!

The other , LP , leaning facing a speaker cab. Cab got bumped and the guitar slid about 45* over and caught on the edge of the cab for about 1/2 a second till the headsrock popped. Then it hit the floor.

Seen plenty of near missed over the years. Had planty myself. Drops , kicked over , spills etc. Its best to not think about it too much. :)

[Zim]

I've told this one before, but here we go again:

Back in the early 90's when I gigged on guitar for my old band, I was using 2 Peavey Classic 30's as my live rig. One the way to a gig, the back door to the rather old ratty van swung open and one of the amps fell out and rolled down North Bound US1 doing about 40-45 mph. It rolled and bounced end over end and made its way to the median.

I smacked the drummer who was driving and happen to pack the van and told him to turn around.

Got to the amp, full of dust and grass lying face down. Picked it up and gave it a once over in a panic. It looked all together beside a couple blown tubes. We get to the venue and I set the amp down, it was leaning to the right and could sway either way by a few inches. I replaced ALL the tubes (I always kept enout to do a full retube on both amps and then some.

It fired up and still sounded great!!! It freakin worked! No issues other than the cab was loose and swayed. I gigged with it that night with it leaning to the right and still had some grass sticking out it from the gap in the top corner. I couldn't believe it!

The local Peavey shop that I was endorsed with got a kick out of it and called Peavey to tell them what had happened and Peavey wanted the amp. They sent me a replacement and had us ship them that one to look it over. I never did hear from them as to what ever become of it. But a cool story either way. I miss gigging them 2 C30's.

[Dr. Tweedbucket]

I heard this story from a friend; it actually occurred long before I was born.

My friend and his band practiced in a loft apartment that had no elevator. However, the loft had doors that opened to the outside, where there was a sizable wooden crate on a rope and pulley. The band would lower the crate to ground level, stuff their equipment in and pull it up to the loft.

One day the guitarist was bringing up his Vox amp via this system. This amp had been giving him some problems recently (I don't know the details) and was only working intermittantly. He loaded the amp into the crate, and my friend proceeded to haul it up. Being under the influence of... well, let's say he was high on life... he was easily distracted and let the rope slip. The crate and amplifier went crashing several stories to the pavement.

Amazingly, the amp was fine, and whatever problems it had were now gone!


:D See! ?? Sometimes a good swat or slam on something will fix it!



I gigged with it that night with it leaning to the right and still had some grass sticking out it from the gap in the top corner. I couldn't believe it!




Nice! Relic'd amps are cool. Nice of Peavey to replace it.

[Zim]

lol, I think Peavey replaced it, because they wanted to see this thing for themselves!

[bluesjuke]

Playing a benefit on a conrete floor I was playing a Les Paul that decided to drop off of the strap.
The guitar went straight down in the playng position as I thought in slow motion, "Holy SH&T!.

At the last brief moment I said to myself, "Do somnething!!!!".
At the same time I curled my left foot up slightly and reached down and caught it literally 1 inch above the floor.
That was too close for me.

[Robert1950]

In 1970, I spray painted my 1964 Fender Mustang fluorescent orange. You should have seen it under a black light.

[Scafeets]

I flew to Memphis last year and had a premonition. So, instead of taking one of my hi-dollar guitars, I brought my Franken-Tele (Cool guitar, but basically a no-name Asian $82 eBay special with Guitar Fetish pups, spare parts and a great setup.) I put it in my Gator ATA case (which cost me a lot more than the guitar) and checked it as luggage.
Instead of coming out the side door with the golf clubs and other large stuff, it came down the chute onto the carousel. With both sides lifted about 12 inches higher than the middle, which had a tire track running right across it.
As I carried the case to the airlines claims office, I was wondering how I was going to value what I was sure was a total loss. Ethical dilemna: They're not going to pay me for my time on building it or for the pro setup.. But other than that, the sum total of parts was maybe $175. OTOH, "replacement value" would have been a lot more than 500 clams. So, I open it for the first time in front of a claims agents, and ....it's in perfect condition. The case did its job.
To their credit, Continental immediately paid full price on a new case, since they knew I needed one to continue the trip.

[SteveGaines]

"only" a close call for me, i play the s*** out of my guitars but when i don't play on them i treat them like babies

Anyway, so, two years ago i had just bought the Limited edition John Mayer sig. strat and i had it on a stand after i played it, the cable still in, i turn around and my foot gets caught in the cable and i trip so it pulls the strat i and i remember me turning around and just watching it fall down in slow motion and me just screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOooooO" *CLONK!*
Nothing happened to it, not a single scratch, not out of tune, not anything.
Man i was lucky that time, it looked like a really bad fall.


.Oh. the wild nights of my younger years..I've got a 62 reissue that I bought back in 1992...That thing has MISSED the guitar stand when JACK DANIELS was calling shots...I have set it in the stand and came back and it would be laying on the floor..NEVER OUT OF TUNE...and has numerous nicks in the back of the headstock where I would hit the drummer's cymbals....You could drop that thing out of a freaking airplane and it wouldn't even go out of tune...Now a Les Paul is another story...Seen a few head stocks popped off..."ALWAYS BET ON THE STRAT IN A HEAD TO HEAD STREET FIGHT WITH A LES PAUL"...:beer

[Hulakatt]

I have a squier custom tele with the p-90's and I have tried to kill the the thing. It's not that it doesn't sound good or play well, I think I just know that no matter how hard i bash it around it just doesn't even go out of tune. I remember throwing it across a stage at one point, picking it up and not one scratch or out of tune at all!

Tele's really are tools.

[karma1]

I had two disasters with a band I was in back in the mid 90's.
One was at a 4th of July event near Sacramento. We were on in the afternoon and it was at least 105 degrees that day - just sweltering. The stage was mobile unit owned by the Univ of California and was a converted truck trailer. It was all metal - the floor and sides, and it was like an oven up there in the sun. In the middle of a song, I hear this big crash behind me and the plastic crate I had my rack effects unit sitting on buckled from the heat and fell over backwards. It took me a few moments to get it together between songs, while the singer kept the crowd entertained with stage banter.

The other one also happened in the middle of a song at a big gig. All of sudden my guitar just went dead. I had no idea what was had happened and we were just coming up on the guitar solo. So I caught the eye of the keyboardist and motioned for him to take the solo, which he did. Then after the song ended, I quickly switched to my backup guitar (than God for that). It wasn't till after the set I figured out what had happened. The guitar I was playing had a built in synth pickup and the person who adjusted my guitar right before the show had set it too high and while I was playing, the springs re-seated themselves and pressed the pickup against all the strings, totally muting them. It was pretty un-nerving in the middle of a song and took me a bit to get re-focused.

I also had the experience similar to one mentioned earlier of somebody tripping over a cable and knocking my new white Strat off it's stand face first onto a concrete surface. It put it's first scratches and dings into it. The event was being filmed and it was caught on camera so I could re-live the moment and weep. The weird thing was that the person was a friend of mine and I had accidentally broken something of his, about a year before that so I couldn't get too mad. Karma?