I Got Very Lucky

[Zaphod B]

Thursday evening I stepped on an instrument cable and pulled one of my LPs right off the stand, and it fell flat on its back headstock first.


Cursing ensued. I immediately checked the headstock/neck junction and was relieved to find no damage, and the neck-body joint looks good too.

The D string tuning key took the hit. It was badly bent, but had it not been for it taking the force of the fall I have no doubt that I would be looking at a broken neck. I tried to straighten out the key but ended up popping the back off the tuner ("Gibson Vintage" Kluson), which was a non-repairable mistake. You can only buy new tuners by the set so I now have 5 spares in my tool bag.

A narrow escape!

 

[suprstar]

Ha hell yeah, that coulda been a lot worse.... I did that to a cheap Ibanez once, snapped the headstock right off, and even that set me off. A LP, I can't imagine..

"Hello, guitar center? Umm.. This LP you sold me has a crack in the neck.. Yeah.. Well, pretty much all the way thru................ Hello? ............. HELLO???!"

 

[Milnoque]

There but for fortune.......

Congrats on your good outcome.

 

[Gear_Junky]

i try to force myself to live by the rule: "guitar goes on the stand, cable goes out of guitar" and i try ot make others do that to their guitars when we practice. it's a bit pesky, but certainly worth it considering how heavy some guitars are (not to mention how expensive).

i also try (usually in vain) to make people NOT TO STEP ON CABLES. it destroys them eventually (and faster than you'd think).

 

[Zaphod B]

I'm not normally such a clumsy oaf, and since my recording / practice space is tiny I try to be really careful about keeping my feet off of everything.

That's a good pointer about getting in the habit of pulling the cable whenever the guitar goes on the stand, Gear_Junky.

 

[Gear_Junky]

I'm not normally such a clumsy oaf, and since my recording / practice space is tiny I try to be really careful about keeping my feet off of everything.

That's a good pointer about getting in the habit of pulling the cable whenever the guitar goes on the stand, Gear_Junky.

yep, it's not a matter of being clumsy - i am extremely careful around gear, but still have tripped over cables several times.

i happen to work in the area of industrial process safety (though i'm not an Industrial Hygiene expert) and I'd say safety doesn't just come from being careful, it's from eliminating potential hazards, safe practices and habits.

 

[Anfontan]

You really were lucky in that incident so be careful about the cables, Zaphod. I don't think that Les Paul has 9 lives like a cat!!!!!!!

 

[stevieb]

Man, where did all my post from yesterday go??

I got lucky, too- strap on my Les Paul got twisted, and the guitar dropped to the floor. Fortunately, my foot was there, and yep, THE FREAKING GUITAR LANDED ON MY FOOT. NO SHOES.

Bought strap locks the very next day for all the guitars I play on a regular basis.

 

[suprstar]

Man, where did all my post from yesterday go?

In the recycle bin apparently, right on top of all mine!

Hey, at least it didnt fall off during a gig while you were playing it! I hate it when that happens...... That's what prompted me to get strap locks way back when, they're standard on all my guitars now.

 

[Zaphod B]

In the recycle bin apparently, right on top of all mine!

Hey, at least it didnt fall off during a gig while you were playing it! I hate it when that happens...... That's what prompted me to get strap locks way back when, they're standard on all my guitars now.

Yep, same here. That's the first thing I do on all my guitars.

 

[ggunn]

In the recycle bin apparently, right on top of all mine!

Hey, at least it didnt fall off during a gig while you were playing it! I hate it when that happens...... That's what prompted me to get strap locks way back when, they're standard on all my guitars now.

Same here, except it happened back in 1978 or so, before strap locks (or before I knew about them, anyway). Necessity being the mother of invention, I replaced the forward strap button on my Les Paul with a screw eye and fashioned a clip out of coathanger wire that looked a little like a giant safety pin that clipped through the eye after I pushed it through the hole in the strap end. It worked great, and only in the past year or so did I finally replace it with a "real" strap lock.

 

[Zaphod B]

On one of my older guitars, for a long time I just had an oversized flat washer positioned between the guitar body and the standard strap button, and attached the guitar strap over the washer. That worked really well.

 

[stevieb]

On one of my older guitars, for a long time I just had an oversized flat washer positioned between the guitar body and the standard strap button, and attached the guitar strap over the washer. That worked really well.

You know, I have thought of doing that to the strap button closest to the neck, and using the Dunlop strap lock at the butt end of the guitar body. That would mean I would get the same safety and security on twice as many guitars, for the same outlay of money. I don't really move straps from one guitar to another, so that is not an issue for me.

But I haven't done it yet, dunno if I will.

 

[Zaphod B]

You know, I have thought of doing that to the strap button closest to the neck, and using the Dunlop strap lock at the butt end of the guitar body. That would mean I would get the same safety and security on twice as many guitars, for the same outlay of money. I don't really move straps from one guitar to another, so that is not an issue for me.

But I haven't done it yet, dunno if I will.

I never lost a guitar using a washer like that.