Further to the Flamed Explorer...

Jimbojsr

Jimbojsr

New member
...what's the clumsiest thing that you have done to a guitar? Shortly after buying a hard case for my Epi 335, I accidentally dropped a DUMBELL weight onto it from a few feet up. That's right, one of those heavy black weights you get on dumbells. It made a BIG bash in the side of my case, but miraculously the guitar was unscathed. Has anyone else done crazy stuff to a guitar? And do you have pics of the damage?
 
Re: Further to the Flamed Explorer...

Routed a battery compartment into a '76 strat. With a drill press. On the back.

Oh, CLUMSIEST. I thought it said DUMBEST. Sorry.
 
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Rested my LP face first against my dresser to answer the phone once. It didn't stay there long, falling over, face first, onto a set of dumbbells (the kind with hexagonal bells). Took a small piece of wood off the side of the finger board close to the nut(barely noticable) and damaged three frets. Fortunatly, all the frets were able to repaired. Two brand new strings were snapped in the process. Considering the fall, I think I was lucky.

Just last night I grabbed my BC Rich from the stand and banged it into the corner of the same dresser, putting a nice ding in the finish of the horn. Oops.
 
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Dropped a padlock on my first guitar a day after i got it, it wasn't a cheapy either.
 
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I dropped like $600 on a new Ibanez RG550, immediately lent it to my brother, who proceeded to drop it on the sliding door track, leaving a huge gash in the backside of my new guitar.
 
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I dropped a pitch pipe on top of my first acoustic. I was tuning up and the damn thing fell out of my mouth!

Then one day I went to pick up my Schecter off its stand, put to much force into it, and bashed the thing through the roof (no joke). The guitar was fine except for a small chip in the headstock. The ceiling wasn't.

The day I finished assembling my Warmoth, I put a strap on it and picked it up to play. Not realizing how much lighter than my Schecter it is, I hit myself in the face with it. Again, the guitar came out on top.
 
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I have lost count of the number of stupid things I've done to my number one Strat over the past 10 years. The dumbest was probably backing over it with my mom's minivan the first year I owned it. I was heading out for a rehearsal and forgot that I had leaned it up against the back of the van while I loaded my amp into the side. As I backed out, it fell onto the driveway with a rather loud "SMACK".

As soon as I heard the sound, I knew what had happened. I stopped the van, ran over to the guitar, and pulled it out of its gig bag. I had that feeling you get in your body when you realize you've done something really, really bad. I'm sure most of you know what I'm describing. Much to my relief, there was nothing visibly wrong with the guitar, and when I got to rehearsal it sounded like its usual self. Just goes to show that even the Mexi Fenders are built like a tank :)
 
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Ratherdashing, is your guitar really worn and scruffy? Cos if it is, i'd love to see some snaps...
 
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I wouldn't call it "scruffy" - the finish is still very shiny and black all over. I've also replaced a lot of parts over the years, so some of the wear and tear is not apparent. There are quite a few dings on the back of the neck, a few paint chips on the body, and a couple of spots on the fretboard that have tiny bits of rosewood missing. It definitely looks like a "well played" guitar though, which is understandable due to the probably thousands of hours I've put it through.

I would love to post some pics (I have been meaning to post pics of the new one because it is so beautiful!) but I haven't been able to get my server back up since the flood shut me down ... also because I'm lazy :P I will give it a shot later today.
 
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I lent a $2000+ instrument to a friend:
3507_p46154.jpg

:blackeye: :blackeye: :blackeye: :blackeye: :blackeye:
 
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the_Chris said:
I routed a guitar with a chisel and a hammer, no dremel :D
Click to expand...
Ah, you took the easy way! I sharpened a screwdriver and then took a hammer to it! Nothing says "LOVE" like P Bass pickups on a 71 (or so) EB-0. But I fixed it. Under that black tape is a dremeled out rout the size of an Olympic Swimming pool. And a piece of plywood screwed down because I routed too deep. :blackeye: :blackeye: :blackeye: :blackeye: :blackeye: You'll also note the mini toggle in the pickup ring. There's another hole drilled on the side of the pickup ring, but the toggle didn't fit.
3471_p45615.jpg


BUT WAIT!!! THERE'S MORE!

The headstock of that particular bass was broken off at least twice before I got it, and it's been broken off 3 times since I've owned it (and I've never been the one to snap it off...). It's structurally stable now and it hasn't broken in 10 years, probably the longest it's gone without a break.
3471_p45617.jpg

3471_p45618.jpg
 
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Clumsiest

A long time ago, I had a Marshall half-stack which I kept set up in my bedroom when I wasn't at rehearsal, etc. On the wall above the stack, I had a homemade 4-space guitar rack, on which hung my two Les Pauls and a crappy acoustic.

One evening, I went to break the rig down to take it somewhere. Supporting myself with one hand on top of the stack, I leaned over the back to unplug the power and speaker cables. When I stood up, my head hit the goldtop, knocking it off its hanger. The guitar fell straight down about two feet, stopping when its lower edge struck the 1st joint of my right index finger, which was laid out flat on top of the Marshall. I mananged to catch the guitar before it fell over onto the floor. The Goldtop was fine, the finger fractured.
 
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I lent my Kramer Pacer to a friend to use in a play in college. It came back with a 2 inch gash in the finish.

A few months ago I was filling in a nut slot with a superglue mixture. Not knowing that I had some on my finger, I grabed the guitar body and got my finger stuck to the back. So, now one of my guitars has a superglue finger print on the back (thankfully not on the flame maple front).
 
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Dumbest

I once had a '63 Melody Maker that I wanted to Pat-Travers-ize with a Badass bridge and humbuckers. Not owning a router (or pickup templates) I carefully laid out the pickup routes, planning to remove most of the wood with a drill press and 1/2" drill, then clean it up with a chisel. (A procedure I had completed successfully in the past.) I carefully aligned the guitar on the drillpress table, but neglected to set the depth-stop. As you might expect, my first hole went right through the back of the guitar.

The guitar was beat anyway (but not as beat as that EB-0 above) so I plugged the hole with a dowel and covered it up with the closest color Testor's model paint I had around.

That guitar rocked. Out of the 20-30 guitars I've owned over the years, it's one of three on the "never shoulda sold it" list.
 
Re: Further to the Flamed Explorer...

The Golden Boy said:
It's structurally stable now and it hasn't broken in 10 years...
Click to expand...

It should be! It's all epoxy!


One day, 'way back when the first aftermarket pickups came out, I was in Cintioli's Music in NE Philly, talking about some deal on another with Benny, the store's crazy Italian owner. In the repair shop in back, the repairman was getting ready to install a DiMarzio EB-0 replacement humbucker into someone's Fender Jazz Bass. (!?!) Nice bass - sunburst with a tortiose shell pickguard. Since the pickguard needed the same shaped hole as the wood body, he decided to route them both at the same time.

As he started cutting, the friction of the high-speed router lit the pickguard on fire. Benny, looking past me, saw flames erupting in his shop, screamed, and ran back to help. Slapping at the fire only got burning plastic stuck to his hand. He then grabbed the burning bass and ran through the store to deposit it on the sidewalk out front, where they extinguished the flames. Benny's hand was OK, the bass not so. I would have LOVED to hear the phone call to the bass' owner.
 
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My yamaha slipped out of my hands and fell on the metal edged part of my V- wah taking out a huge chunk of wood. After that I no longer cared about that guitar and now it has thousands of dents a paint chips. Also once I was imitating zakk wylde by playing my guitar behind my head. As I was doing that the headstock of the guitar hit my fan taking out another chunk of wood.
 
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In 1967 I bought my first good guitar. A Gibson Acoustic. While taking a break after playing it for some friends in the park I set it back in the Case(chipboard). A good friend of mine was playing with a frisibie and stomped right on it. I could here it crack from 10 feet away. I still have it, but it is basically a wall decoration now. Moral of this story is: Don't skimp on the case..... a good quality case would have saved me a lot of trouble.....
 
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So far, Taphappy's is my favourite - showing off woth the "behind your head" thing, and the axe gets sliced up by a fan :laugh2:
 
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My number one parts-o-caster strat is beat to hell, and for a good reason. I was headed to a gig down in Willis, and the case came open in the back of my truck. Well, I'd left the tailgate down (case was secured to the truck), and the strat flew out of the back of my truck on I-45. Luckily it was a slow day for traffic, and the guitar came to rest in the ditch on the side of the road. The thing didnt go out of tune, but has the worst case of road rash I've ever seen.
 
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