I just had my day ruined

[Track Rat]

I just went into the studio this morning with the intentions of trying out a pair of Earthworks mics I just picked up on my Martin D-41. I opened the case, pulled out Marty, went to tune it and noticed that the headstock is all but snapped off and about the only thing holding it to the neck was the binding and the vaneir on the front of the headstock. For the life of me I don't see what could have caused this. No sudden humidty changes, hasn't been dropped, I don't see what the fuck could cause this. I bought the guitar new in 1975 and it's NEVER been abused. This sucks.,

 

[dragonworks]

That really shits the bed, I feel for ya man. Is she beyond all hope?

 

[Treeline]

IT IS NOT BEYOND HOPE!!!


What a lousy way to start the day. Did the case fall / get knocked over?

You are describing a pretty common headstock / neck fracture that is usually caused by a sharp blow or other kind of force to a short grain section of the neck. Martin used a nice scarf joint at the nut, where the neck angle changes, in which the piece that would later become the headstock was flipped 180 degrees and reglued along the joint, accomplishing a change in neck angle and at the same time eliminating obvious short (weak) grain. Gibsons don't do this and their necks break more frequently. So it's puzzling.

Sometimes necks break because the case fell over. That can happen just as easily in a hard shell case as not, because the support on the neck is limited to mid-neck and the head stock is out there hanging on its own.

Did the guitar get whacked some time in the last month or so? You might have started a fracture back then, that eventually yielded to string pressure.

Anyway, here is what to do:

1. Lower tension on the strings, but not entirely. Do not disassemble anything and leave the strings on the instrument.
2. Do not pull apart any of the pieces!
3. Look around for any splinters that might have become dislodged and save them in a baggie. Try not to handle them,as oils from your fingers will interfere with eventual gluing.
4. Call a certified Martin tech and get an estimate for repair / restoration. A good tech can piece this puzzle together again and you'll never know it was broken. The strength and sound of the guitar does NOT have to be impaired a bit. You will need to walk the instrument in yourself; I would not leave it at a drop off.

Here's a guy in your neck of the woods. Check references and so forth, as I don't know any more than an internet search told me about the link. Talk to former clients and don't be shy about asking for their experiences.

http://members.aol.com/MandoKinet/MandoKinetics/GMS.html

An option is to contact Frank Ford at www.frets.com for advice. Good luck nursing your baby back to health.

 

[hixmix]

That's a really terrible feeling, trackrat. A few years ago I woke up only to find my big, beautiful blond Guild D-37 with the neck separated from the left side of the body. Truly Shocking! I don't know what happened. I left it standing by an open window. Maybe a sudden temperature change? I do know I was very drunk the night before, so maybe I knocked it over?

I took it to a bunch of places to have it fixed and got repair quotes ranging from $600.00 to $160.00. I let the guy for $160.00 do it and he did an excellent job.

I still have recurring nightmares about finding my guitars snapped apart like that.

 

[bongolation]

I never had anything quite this bad ever happen to me with all my instruments, but close, once:

I was sitting in my San Francisco flat one evening and heard a muffled BANG!!! somewhere, presumably in the house. I looked and looked and found nothing for several weeks, until I was going through the closet where I stored my vintage instruments and found that two of the three tailpiece screws on my '64 Gibson Thunderbird had spontaneously fatigued and fractured just below the surface, leaving the bridge yanked up at an angle on the remaining screw, which was badly bent. Ouch!

I thought this was going to be a major undertaking to get the broken screws out, involving at least drilling holes into the area with a coring bit and soforth. I left the thing in the closet for about five years never looking at it again as it was too depressing.

One day, I got it out and looked at it again and started picking at it with a paper clip and to my astonishment managed to back out both broken screws with no damage to the body at all! A couple of weeks later, I found some matching chrome screws that were the identical size, length and pitch, but had shallower threads/thicker shank, which (1) invisibly repaired the damage, (2) provided a snugger, new fit between the screws and the body in the old threads and (3) were so much stronger than the originals that a repititon of the failure is highly unlikely.

There is no way that anyone would ever imagine this disaster had ever happened to look at the bass now, my personal favorite.

It's interesting that Gibson went from three to five screws in these tailpieces - so apparently this was not a rare event, even when the basses were relatively new.

 

[ruebarb]

affirmative...all is not lost

If you were in Minneapolis, I'd recommend Leonard Shapiro..

He saved my Gibson Les Paul...the necks on a LP angle back a bit along the grain of the wood, so it doesn't take a lot to snap the headstock or crack it pretty good.

He fixed it back up for me. He also told me a story how a guitar case fell and took the headstock of his LP clean off...

however, do NOT try to glue it yourself...that will just screw up the repair job even worse...just let a professional handle it.

 

[Track Rat]

Thanks for the sympathy gentleman. I'm sure it could be glued. If your familiar with the D-41's on the back of the neck/headstock joint there's sort of a "arrowhead" carved in. It broke just underneath and through it with the grain. No blunt force trauma to it to my knowledge (can't blame my son, he's 23 and lives in Colorodo). The only thing I could even remotely blame it on was putting on a set of heavy gauge strings for some recording about three weeks ago but shit, it's a Martin. Half the Martins in the world have heavy strings on them. I've only had the damn thing for 28 years and it's already having a problem. Thank god it's still under warrenty.
It's some kind of fluke. I have a 1955 000-18 and it's just as straight as the day it was made.
Thanks Treeline, I appriciate the links. There's a guy here in St. Louis (Jimmy Gravity) who's done work on some of my other guitars but nothing this severe.
I've got to have a beer.

 

[mixmkr]

track rat....bummers on the gitter. I think Gravity should be able to do you right.

On another note....do you know Mark Slocum? He used to own Broadway Music (formally Fast Eddies...of Marissa Ill.), that was right next door to Gravity, down on Broadway. I used to live in Webster Groves a while back, and have been unable to reach Mark for a long time now. I'd love to know what he is up to....

 

[toyL]

...it's the case--blame the case...sometimes even a slight bump can snap the head-stock...go to the shoe-store and buy a couple of those sorbathane shoe inserts...cut them to size and glue the fuckers all over the inside of your case...sorbathane absorbs shock very well...it is used on the bruised hoofs of million-dollar thoroughbreds to help them recover, so, it should offer "some" resistance to slight impacts on your guitars.

 

[Track Rat]

Do I know Mark Slocum? You mean BeetleJuice? Hell yes I know him (and Amy (A-moo) too). I was at Paradise Sight and Sound (in the Fast Eddie's building) back when he owned it. Holy shit. Small world. We did the "Hail! Hail! Rock & Roll" Chuck Berry movie stuff together. We did the sound with my PA at the Cosmo in East St. Louis the night before the show at the Fox If you ever catch the movie, I'm in it for about .5mSec.. I haven't talked to him in a while myself. He was working at Bush Creative Services for a while and he went back to doing sound systems on the cruise ships for a bit too and then I lost touch with him. That guy could drink more Heinekin than any human I've ever met.

 

[mixmkr]

Shoot track rat....Beetle juice....hhmm . I've seen a guy over at Audio Forums named beetle[something]...but I don't think that is the same guy. Have you seen him on the internet or know his email? So you where involved with the Chuck Berry stuff... I played a gig out at his farm once, and he carried my amp out to my car for me (to help get us out of there!)...and that was about as close as I got to Chuck. I guess you dealt with Keith Richards and the clan during that time too. I was wondering what kind of recording Mark was doing these days. I was in a band with him for a short time,..but we never left his house....but used to go to a fair amount of his gigs with his other southern rock band he was in. I lived real close to him when he lived in Maplewood, and wonder if he still lives and owns his house there. He was always getting some new piece of equipment at the time...whether he used it or not. ....hence little doo-dads with knobs all over the place. His playing wasn't knocking the world over, but he really was dedicated to recording. I guess you remember the Fostex 16 track he used at Broadway music.

My name is Chris Harwood....do we know each other??

I used to be in a band called "Central Blue"....way back in the early 70's, and used to almost be the house band at the "Rusty Springs saloon" on kingshwy and Manchester...now long gone, I'm sure. Also played the Grainery, Night Gallery, and many of the other "dives" of the time. We used to play Muddy Waters a fair amount too.....kinda before Lacledes Landing got really going. Do you know the band "Steppin' Out" ? I used to work for Jeff Buckman out at his studio in Fenton (Sugar Creek Studios), and did that for a fair number of years, until it finally closed. (and you gotta remember Howard Hunzie from North County sound shop....some stories there!!). I'm just trying to link up with some old music friends I haven't heard from in years.. it's been about 8 years since I moved to Kentucky. anywazz....sounds like your where around the St. Louis music scene at the same time. I have a zillion more questions, but I'll stop here....

 

[Track Rat]

Sorry Chris, I don't think we met. Did you you know Jerry Pisk, Dr. K , Tom Zuccarello or Bob Rivers? They would have been around the studio at that time. Man I have a lot of war stories from the Chuck thing that I wouldn't repeat on the net for fear of long prison sentences. Suffice it to say there were large amounts of controlled substances and rockstars who's names are pretty much household names in abundance. I watched Kieth Richards fill an ice tea glass with ice and straight Jack Daniels and slam it down (shudder!!). Nice guy but when I shook his hand it felt like a cadaver. Chuck Berry was a complete asshole. Got to meet a lot of famous folks. My only brush with greatness.

 

[mixmkr]

yeah...Chuck Berry was a real asshole back then. His daughter was pretty nice, however. So...what ever happened to groups like "Mama's Pride", Pavlov's Dog...and all those other old groups? Did you know any of those guys? I didn't recognize any of the names you mentioned, but by the late 70's, I was kinda out of the music scene there....until the late 80's again for a brief stint. We only then played small places like Caleco's and places like that.

oh...then there was the guy named Gene...can't remember his last name. He always played a flying V and was a power three piece group, with rotating drummers and bass players. He played really friggin loug, but was one of St. Louis' most popular back then. He usually called the band "Rush", and played on Art Hill alot.

aahhh....some good times back then.

 

[Track Rat]

Last I heard of the Liston brothers they were trying to do a christian rock thing but it didn't get off the ground. David Sercamp was doing a solo thing in small bars around here.
Back in the late 70's I was playing a lot of the clubs you mentioned with a band called Ivory Fox (you gotta realize it was THE 70's). Through the 80's it was a metal band called Barrage. The 90's I became a musical whore with a tuxedo and was in the Bob Cuban stable of bands doing The Bell of St. Louis dinner cruses and such.

 

[mixmkr]

well....you did stay current, musically...didn't ya? tux, huh??

I recorded some stuff with Bob Safron (I think he was the drummer in Pavlov's Dog), back when...and I emailed his cousin not to long ago....Bill Safron. He's hanging out with some guys that used to be...or still are "Austin Trotter". I also had a brief stint with Head East as their engineer, and recorded a little guitar on one of their albums that went straight to the cut-out bin. Then they got to owning me a substantial amount of money in back pay, and I was broke at the time and had to get kinda nasty with them to get paid. Surfice it to say, that pissed Roger Boyd off, and servered that relationship. Did you ever know Howard Hunzie up at North County Sound shop on chambers road?...the guy in the wheel chair... I wonder if he is still alive. We would get equipment from him that would have his home made porno movies in the back of the racks, with him in them!!!....Hunzie had all the video equipment, etc.....plus some other stories out at Sugar Creek Studios....not fit for the internet!!

Do you have a studio in St. Louis now?
What are the bigger studios in St. Louis, currently? I hear there is a big ass one somewhere that took the title from Technisonics, as the top dog. Do you know anything about them? Technisonics is long gone too, aren't they?

I used to also engineer at another studio, Gateway studios, in Kirkwood. They had a black owner, and were upstairs, across the street or so from Mel Bay. He had a MCI 600 series board and the 24 track to match it....all up in this tiny studio..upstairs!! I don't think anyone ever knew about them.....just word of mouth with the funk groups then. And I also went to some guys house up in Ferguson that had a 2" 24 track in his basement studio. The guy was kinda strange though, and I never really made any money up there, to speak of. I can't remember his name either...shoot, 25+ years ago!!!

I still also have some music stands that say "KBK earth city studios" which I got when they went under....remember them?...and some Beyer mics too.

oh well....the old memories are really coming alive now!!

 

[Track Rat]

Four Seasons is probably the big gun in town now.
http://www.rbdg.com/projects/four-seasons/fourseasons2_prj.htm
Music Masters ain't bad. I had no idea there was a studio by Mel Bay (which is where I bought the Martin that started this whole thread). My studio is out of the basement and very small. Fagan and Becker won't be here any time soon, that's for sure.

 

[Treeline]

Man, the world really is getting smaller by the minute!

 

[RockinRobert]

Hi guys, sorry to nudge in on your thread, but on the subject of St. Louie studio's, I was wondering if either one of you was familiar with The Upper Room Studio in St. Louis. Ken Hensley, formerly of Uriah Heep, still owns it I beleive. I did some recording with him back in 98 when we were doing tracks for a Uriah Heep Tribute CD. I wish I could remember what road it was on, could it be Manchester? I dunno. Had a nice young guy named Jason doing the engineering for us, very good he was. Ken worked for St. Louis Music while he was living there during most of the 90's I beleive. I met him when he almost bought my 55 Goldtop off me. I had always been a big fan of Heep anyway, but got to meet Warren Haynes and Toby from The Allman Bros. while I was visiting, was a great time. Sorry to intrude, I just wanted to share my St. Louis memories with y'all bOb

 

[mixmkr]

I didn't know Hensley had a studio in St. Louis. He did show up at a gig we played at Rusty Springs saloon back around 73-4 or so, and we just finished a set with Easy Livin' and someone said..."hey...you gotta meet this guy". I was kinda supprised because I thought he lived in England, and they weren't in town playing to my knowledge. Nice guy. I was kinda embarressed at the time, for some reason by being in a copy band and playing his tune....blah, blah, blah. He did have the largest head (physical dimension...not ego) I have ever seen....it was HUGE!! He looked like a rock star too....if that makes any sense. In other words, he was about 10 years our senior, and "had that look!!" (I was about 18 at the time...and you gotta remember, it was the 70's!...and I was a impressionable guitar slinging snot!!)

 

[RockinRobert]

I don't think Hensley lived in St. Louis until either the late 80's or very early 90's. He was married to a girl named Darlene who was a flight attendant from there, but they are now divorced I beleive. Here is an old link to the recording we did down there if you're interested. http://www.geocities.com/~heepsters/heepsteria/dreamer.htm I'll try to find a link to his studio in the meantime, maybe you can check it out sometime. Later, bOb