Broken Guitar

WezV

The design is weaker than other designs so I see where @icbm is coming from but don’t share the extreme view.

some Gibson’s are fragile through poor wood choice. Most are fine and will survive to a ripe old age without any special care.  


it is an easy one to improve at point of manufacture.  Gibson have done so with reduced headstock angles, laminated necks, wood changes and even the less successful volute.  The traditionally minded guitar market has rejected all of those solutions

Will_S

Broken guitar is now fixed, I'm pleased to say. Thanks for the reassurance and help.

Wolfetone

Will_S said:

Broken guitar is now fixed, I'm pleased to say. Thanks for the reassurance and help.

That's great news. Have you photos of the repair you can post and can you tell us who did it? It'll be valuable info for future mishaps.

FelineGuitars

Will_S said:

Broken guitar is now fixed, I'm pleased to say. Thanks for the reassurance and help.

Great news 
Pleased it worked out 

Bellycaster

Glad you got the Guitar fixed. I have an L.P and it is a bit of a worry. I'm gonna post this vid purely because it's very interesting, not because I think people should shell loads of dosh for one of these.

It shows how a certain Luthier gets around this neck break problem on an L.P style Guitar. It's worth watching all of it but especially from 0:00 to 1:00 and then 2:41 to the end. The previous episode is worth a watch too. Probably a lot of other Luthiers use this method too.

prowla

The LP (and SG) have quite thin necks and the headstock is at an angle which means it protrudes below the flat of the body.

It makes them vulnerable to breaking if there is a significant impact there.

That's the way they are designed and that's the way they are.

Some say that a Gibbo isn't really played in until it's had a headstock repair.

Some also say that a Gibbo should either be being played or in its case.

Philly_Q

Bellycaster said:

Glad you got the Guitar fixed. I have an L.P and it is a bit of a worry. I'm gonna post this vid purely because it's very interesting, not because I think people should shell loads of dosh for one of these.

It shows how a certain Luthier gets around this neck break problem on an L.P style Guitar. It's worth watching all of it but especially from 0:00 to 1:00 and then 2:41 to the end. The previous episode is worth a watch too. Probably a lot of other Luthiers use this method too.

I'd been thinking about that bit where someone stood on a neck to test the strength of the headstock, but I couldn't remember where I'd seen it.  Thanks for posting!

After watching that I went to see what Ruokangas are up to now, I hadn't heard them mentioned for a while.  Wow, what a website!

ICBM

Bellycaster said:

Glad you got the Guitar fixed. I have an L.P and it is a bit of a worry. I'm gonna post this vid purely because it's very interesting, not because I think people should shell loads of dosh for one of these.

It shows how a certain Luthier gets around this neck break problem on an L.P style Guitar. It's worth watching all of it but especially from 0:00 to 1:00 and then 2:41 to the end. The previous episode is worth a watch too. Probably a lot of other Luthiers use this method too.

[Ruokangas Guitars Video Diary Episode 6 - Neck Building]

Exactly, and Gibson could very easily do that too - even without scarf-joining the headstock, it will be far stronger... and completely invisible from the outside, thus not an issue for anyone other than the most retentive purists.

Bellycaster

ICBM said:

Bellycaster said:

Glad you got the Guitar fixed. I have an L.P and it is a bit of a worry. I'm gonna post this vid purely because it's very interesting, not because I think people should shell loads of dosh for one of these.

It shows how a certain Luthier gets around this neck break problem on an L.P style Guitar. It's worth watching all of it but especially from 0:00 to 1:00 and then 2:41 to the end. The previous episode is worth a watch too. Probably a lot of other Luthiers use this method too.

[Ruokangas Guitars Video Diary Episode 6 - Neck Building]

Exactly, and Gibson could very easily do that too - even without scarf-joining the headstock, it will be far stronger... and completely invisible from the outside, thus not an issue for anyone other than the most retentive purists.

I did wonder that @ICBM ;

With Ruokangas being a "slightly" high end brand, building to order mainly, I thought it might have been a cost issue for Gibson, them being a mass producer of Guitars. Would it still be feasible cost wise for Gibson?

Bellycaster

It is a great website @Philly_Q and a very dangerous one if you have spare cash

ICBM

It would cost less than weight-relieving the bodies with a complex routing pattern, so yes.

Bellycaster

ICBM said:

It would cost less than weight-relieving the bodies with a complex routing pattern, so yes.

It beggars belief then. So many things about some Guitar companies make me scratch a hole in my head.

ICBM

Exactly. But my guess is that they perceive no marketing benefit in it, unlike weight relief. If anything, they may prefer them to break since some people aren’t happy with a repair and may buy a new one instead.

Philly_Q

Bellycaster said:

It is a great website @Philly_Q and a very dangerous one if you have spare cash

@Bellycaster I downloaded their Guitar Creator app/program/thingy this morning and tried spec-ing a Duke - it came out as about 9,000 Euros.

Then I uninstalled the Guitar Creator. 

meltedbuzzbox

ICBM said:

Bellycaster said:

Glad you got the Guitar fixed. I have an L.P and it is a bit of a worry. I'm gonna post this vid purely because it's very interesting, not because I think people should shell loads of dosh for one of these.

It shows how a certain Luthier gets around this neck break problem on an L.P style Guitar. It's worth watching all of it but especially from 0:00 to 1:00 and then 2:41 to the end. The previous episode is worth a watch too. Probably a lot of other Luthiers use this method too.

[Ruokangas Guitars Video Diary Episode 6 - Neck Building]

Exactly, and Gibson could very easily do that too - even without scarf-joining the headstock, it will be far stronger... and completely invisible from the outside, thus not an issue for anyone other than the most retentive purists.

https://i.imgur.com/WTDnnwE.gif

FelineGuitars

We did the strengthening splints on the Judas Priest guitar repair/rebuild to make sure he wouldn't be breaking it again 

We used carbon fibre rods instead of maple

Full story can be seen here:

http://felineguitars.com/media/spotlight/judastpriestguitar.html

prowla

Here's a few repair stories from a chap up the road from me.

http://mickjohnsonguitars.com/repairs/index.html

(The Zematis one is a body rebuild, using the soundhole inlay and not much else.)

ICBM

meltedbuzzbox said:

https://i.imgur.com/WTDnnwE.gif

I don't disagree, since it's unlikely that Gibson will fix it. But if enough people decide that it's an issue, maybe they will - it took quite a long time for moaning about the weight of them to register as well...

p90fool

ICBM said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

https://i.imgur.com/WTDnnwE.gif

I don't disagree, since it's unlikely that Gibson will fix it. But if enough people decide that it's an issue, maybe they will - it took quite a long time for moaning about the weight of them to register as well...

To be fair, you're going to see a lot of broken headstocks because of your job, most of us just tend to think of them as a bit like iPhone screens - pathetically weak and too-easily broken, but at least it's mostly (but not always) up to the owner to just be careful. Wishful thinking a lot of the time, I know. 

Amps are a different matter, if you see a lot of issues with one particular model I will avoid it. 

stickyfiddle

I feel like this is just one of the things that might improve when the company gets new owners after it inevitably defaults next summer. 

If they can also look at properly, accurately CNC-ed neck joints while they're at it that'd be great.