General Music Chat

I'm sure many here have heard the bit that when a headstock breaks off and is correctly glued back....it actually becomes structurally stronger and more stable than before.

i've never been sure whether to buy into that, or if in fact it was nothing more than urban legend.

so, here's the story.... around 10 yrs ago my WASHBURN HB35 (335 copy) took a tumble. a friend was over and placed the gtr back in it's stand w the instr cord (note correct sp. of "cord"!) still attatched. and then he proceeded to get tangled in said cord....which pulled the gtr off the stand and sent it face first onto the plush carpeted floor. sadly not plush enough, though.

and horror of horrors....the headstock snapped off! he offered to pay for repairs, but i had it professionally repaired at MASS Music in Lawrence KS (these guys are GREAT) for a mere $35 which i paid for. afterall, it WAS an accident.

and so the gtr has been completely stable and well behaved since.

buuuuuut, last night PJAZZ played a restaurant gig and we're in some really close quarters. i've got my vibes stage right facing the drummer w a wall maybe three ft behind me. HB 35 and my elec mando behind me in stands.

we play the first two or three tunes w me on gtr....then i put it in it's stand to play vibes. and as i'm soloing i feel something from behind me brush my leg......ahhh, it's the gtr making it's rapid descent to the hard tiled floor! face first!

amazingly the headstock remained attatched. WHEW!

so, i continued my vibe solo...then after handing the next solo off to the drummer, i picked it up the gtr, quick inspection.....and lo and behold....all was well.

of course i did have some major retuning to do, and just to be on the safe side and not push my luck....that gtr went in it's case at breaktime to be replaced by my tele. i figured the worst that's gonna happen if the tele takes a tumble is that the floor will crack!

yikes..that was a close one.

mahogany (set) neck and body. big assed volute. it snapped off right below the E string tuning machines in close to a straight line. (prolly why it was such an easy and successful repair)

Yeah, I put that bigsby on about 6 mos ago and I've really digging it . Unfortunately it wasn't a lightweight BEFORE the bigsby and the addition did NOT make it any lighter!

Gtr used to belong to PJAZZ sax man but being a smaller guy it was too heavy for him.

So, your 335 has a maple neck??? I never knew such a critter existed. What yr is it?

When I was at college my first year, I left my Tele with my 'best friend' - bandmate from high school. We used to practice in his parent's basement (concrete floors, etc). Guitar stands? No one had heard of them back then.
When I came from school, the Tele had obviously had taken a couple of dives - one chip out of the acrylic on the body and chunk out of the maple neck/edge of fretboard. Maple necks are like baseball bats - takes a lot to break them!

you know...i never did get why Gibson went to the trapeze tlpc in the '70's.

it must have been a cutting costs decision (not routing out for the stop tlpc studs?)

some might argue the longer string length or different break angle at the brdg w a trpz tlpc might have an effect on tone but i don't buy it. i tried an experiment w this very gtr....removing the stop tlpc and mounting a trpeze.....absolutely zero difference in tone or sustain.

here's a pic from last night of the happy couple, uh, er...i mean happy trio. here we are in apres gig afterglow celebrating yet another successful gig where no equipment was destroyed!