Guitar Accidents

[Iago]

I'm pissed off!!

Yesterday I was watching TV late night and playing my guitar, a Giannini GI-300 (I bet you never heard about it, it's a strat copy - poplar body - birdseye maple neck - rosewood fingerboard) when I raised from the couch and the thing just slipped off from the strap!!! She fell with it's top to the ground (as says Murphy Theory ) damaging a lower edge really bad, a tone knob and a part of the upper horn...These things make me mad...

If someone can make me feel better telling more stupid accidents with the guitar it would be fine

[Katastrophe]

It happens, Iago... How bad was the damage, finish only or did the body break? Is the guitar still playable? It sucks that your guitar is damaged in any way, but if it's playable, there is a bright side...

You just might have started relicing it, a la SRV and his "Number 1".

[Iago]

Actually it smashed a bit of wood on the lower edge, close to the 2nd tone knob...it's bare wood on this place now, and cracked the tone knob... I would post a picture if I could...it was a bad wound to my baby...

Yeah, relics look cool but seeing her falling that way broke my heart hahahaa scratches and dents are enough to me!

[Tim]

Iago – What a bummer! One would think sitting on the couch would be a very safe place to strum the guitar. Sounds like it hit a hard floor. I sure hope it was not one of your better guitars! I normally mess around with my everyday Strat copy for home practice. This way if I ever experience an accident, it will not be my good guitar.

I remember adding extra springs on the new Strat. The pliers slipped and let go of the spring and scratched the back of the guitar. I got angry and repeated the same process. Now I have two long scratches on the back of the guitar. I’m over it now.

I hope you heal fast from your accident. This could be the reason to go purchase a new guitar.

[Katastrophe]

I looked up the Giannini website... Those are some good looking strat clones! I can't tell you the number of times that I've bumped my guitars around... One just about gave me a heart attack, though.

I was 15, and had a friend over at the house to show me a few things on the guitar. The friend shows up with a brand new Gibson Les Paul Custom... It was his baby, and he was extremely protective of it. He let me bring the guitar into the kitchen to show it to Mom. I brought it into the kitchen, and to show off the beautiful finish (the LP had a perfect 'burst finish), I held it up by the strap. The strap slipped and the guitar fell to the tile floor, clattering across the kitchen. I was horrified. I picked it up and checked every square inch of the thing. No paint damage, no broken knobs or tuners, nothing. God must have been watching, 'cause there was no WAY I would be able to afford a replacement (even to this day)! I told the guy about the drop, and he was cool about it, but I never got to play that LP again.

[Iago]

Man..dropping a LP Custom... that's a real Katastrophe! (terrible joke, I know ) just thinking about the scene...

This Giannini of mine was produce by 2000-2001, and they were really Fender clones... Fender menaced to sue them (off course) so they had changed all the designs...I didn't played any of those yet, but they look cooler than most of Giannini's 80's-90's stuff.

[Tone2TheBone]

I dunno about most other guitars but Les Paul type guitars are notorious for slipping out of the guitar strap because of the angle of the strap button. I am very careful with mine when I stand up to play.

[Tim]

Someone needs to invent a cosmetic plastic lock to go over the strap button(s) to prevent our equipment from falling. Who ever does will be a millionaire. They could sell the idea to Planet Wave..

[Spudman***]

There is a thingy that is commercially manufactured that fits around the end of your strap button after you put your strap on the guitar. I can't remember what it is called right now, but I'll see if I can find it. I bought 2 for a friend for his birthday a while ago.

It's black and plastic and locks onto the button. Very effective looking and a great idea.

[Katastrophe]

Man..dropping a LP Custom... that's a real Katastrophe! (terrible joke, I know ) just thinking about the scene...

That's actually how I came up with my screen name... A year ago, I took a motorcycle safety course. The course went fine... right up until we went outside for the riding portion of the course. 1st bike - no start. 2nd bike - transmission went out and wouldn't go into 2nd gear. 3rd bike - would lug badly at low RPM. Had to keep the throttle at least halfway open and slip the clutch to get 'er through the test, which ain't easy on a slow speed course. One catastrophe after another. I ended up buying a Suzuki Katana, combined the two, and there ya go.

Sorta accident prone that way, I guess.

[Iago]

The day I failed on the driving license test was one of the worst of my life...

[R.B. Huckleberry]

FWIW:

I put a ding in my Martin D-15 just days after I got it. My wife's cat was trying to climb into the case to nap. I leaned forward to close it, and one of the clasps on the case's lid bounced off the top of the guitar.


I call the guitar Dingo, because it's dinged and hates cats.

[sunvalleylaw]

My son and I were practicing together, both on acoustics (he has a 3/4 size). His is a S101 with a Martin style headstock with sharp corners. I leaned toward him to show him something on the music, and he leaned and swung my way and BLONG!, his headstock rammed into the spruce top of my Joshua Dreadnought. OUCH! It left a little triangle shaped ding that goes in a 1/8th or 16th of an inch or so. : Not a big thing, but I am not a relic guy and don't like dings in my stuff if I can help it.

[Jimi75]

IAGO, if you have found out why this really happened, mark it with a big "NO GO" in the back of your mind.

By the way, scars give your guitar a character - so she's got stories to tell in guitar heaven :-)

[Iago]

Thats true, there's no way you ain't gonna get some scars and dings on a guitar along the way if you are a player. Immaculate stuff is for museums.

[Spudman***]

I had a pristine Ibanez Musician in Candy Apple Red on the road as my back up guitar. I kept it on a stand just behind me and out of harms way should I need it. One night I had given the other guitar player my metal slide to use in a song. A song or two later I needed it but he still had it. He proceeds to toss it my way and of course the throw was a bad one. It bounced off me and the floor and then right on to the face of this beautiful guitar knocking out a dime sized chunk from the finish. Would my arm hide the ding while playing? Nope. Could I find a way to fix it? Nope. I was stuck with it.

Today that guitar is very valuable since it was a limited production model and color. I could have cried, but I didn't. I just got drunk.

[aeolian]

I have a 1981 koa Carvin DC200. I was playing it one time when my son was about 3 years old. He started whining and wanting something so I had to put the guitar down to deal with him. As I placed the guitar back into the case the lid fell closed and the center clasp nicked the edge of the guitar. You can see the nick in the picture below, it is directly below the bridge pickup at the edge of the body.



I take extremely good care of my guitars so this made me mad. But then I realized that he did not make the lid fall down so I can't really blame him.

[marnold***]

When I first got my Charvel Model 7, I took it to a luthier to get the nut replaced. I wasn't cautious taking it out of the gig bag. Kerrang! It fell about three feet on the to ground. It landed on a rug, string side down. It didn't even get so much as a scratch. Thankfully, I just had to feel like an idiot.

[Brian Krashpad]

The lead singer for the British punk band the Buzzcocks, Pete Shelley, had a cheapo guitar called a "Starway" that he got mad at in the studio, and threw down on the floor, breaking it in two.

He played it like that for part of a year until he could replace it, including on some television appearances.



Now 30 years later, a company is making a "limited edition" of the Starway-- AFTER it was broken!