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My epiphone les paul fell on its face


mbengs1

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4 of my guitars standing by the walls fell kinda like a domino effect and hit my Epiphone that was on a stand and it fell on my pedalboard case. the nut at the 6th string broke off and has a small crack. I fixed this with super glue though and now the guitar plays better. haha. I don't think the guitar will need luthier attention but maybe in the future. The other 4 guitars are ok. no damage.

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I have never leaned my guitars against the wall.

 

They either go into proper stands or they go back into there proper cases.

 

I have heard of many disasters about Gibson headstocks breaking from a fall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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They sound better afterwards

 

[img2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","height":"599","width":"799","src":"http:\/\/i51.photobucket.com\/albums\/f387\/Freeman_Keller\/Repairs\/Epi%20headstock%20repair\/IMG_1589_zps54e8f23b.jpg"}[/img2]

 

I figure if someone is stupid enough to leave their guitars out sitting on a stand or leaning up against the wall I'm happy to take their money and fix it

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If he just glued the two pieces together he'll be fine. Normally you'd use Elmer's or Titebond to hold a nut in place but one or two small drops of superglue will do nicely.

 

Near impossible not to get it on the end grain of the fretboard or on the neck.

 

If he removed the nut, glued it back together with cyanoacrylate, then reattached it with alyphatic resin, all good.

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They sound better afterwards

 

[img2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","height":"599","width":"799","src":"http:\/\/i51.photobucket.com\/albums\/f387\/Freeman_Keller\/Repairs\/Epi%20headstock%20repair\/IMG_1589_zps54e8f23b.jpg"}[/img2]

 

I figure if someone is stupid enough to leave their guitars out sitting on a stand or leaning up against the wall I'm happy to take their money and fix it

 

That's what I have heard. My luthier says he had made a nice living repairing Gibson headstocks over the past 4 decades. He tells me that sound better afterwards.

 

I'm sure the luthier I use would rather be building instruments, but you need to work while the glue dries on a build.

My luthier does a lot of skiing and biking in the summer.

 

I leaned my J185 against the bed one time, it slide and nicked the top of the headstock. It wasn't that big of a dent and I freaked out. Now the top is super polished where Gibson was a bit quick to send this one out. If I was in QC at Gibson I would have sent it back to the buffing room for another few minutes.

 

 

I still have the guitar too.

 

It's the first year of the J185 that came out in the 90's and a 25-30 year absence of that model. the folks up in Bozeman did some really nice work. I have 2 other instruments from that plant.

 

They look like this, for folks that are unfamiliar with them.

 

Maple Back and sides. mine is pretty flamy maple back and sides too.

I have seen them without the Maltese crosses on the saddle. That's not right, that's cheap.

 

 

 

It's like a Gibson Dove with a plain pickguard and no tweety birds on the bridge.. Ain't right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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You're lucky it wasn't a Gibson. The Epiphones are not as susceptible to the classic Gibson headstock break.

 

I don't see how that could be the case - any guitar with a similar type of pitched-back headstock, made out of the same materials, and that have the same type of headstock joint is probably going to be equally susceptible to damage if enough force is applied.

 

I'm just as cautious with my Epiphones as I am with my Gibsons. They all can break if they're dropped or struck.

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I believe it is the string tension combined with a mechanical shock that breaks the Gibson headstocks. I've witnessed many breaks over the years - some of which have happened while the guitars were in their cases.

 

I agree that they can all break if dropped or struck but, from what I have seen, it takes more of an impact to break a non-Gibson.

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If that is true then what you say is true. A scarf joint is way stronger than an neck cut out of one piece of wood for exactly the reason you say - the grain is now running at an angle to the breaking force. I didn't realize that Epiphone had gone to all scarf joined necks - the one in my picture above certainly was not.

 

FWIW - I happen to make all my necks with a scarf joined headstock, not only is it stronger but it is far less wasteful of wood.

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Quote Onelife "I believe it is the string tension combined with a mechanical shock that breaks the Gibson headstocks. I've witnessed many breaks over the years - some of which have happened while the guitars were in their cases.

 

I agree that they can all break if dropped or struck but, from what I have seen, it takes more of an impact to break a non-Gibson."

 

The only guitars that I can think of that aren't prone to breaking at the base of the headstock are Fenders - the slab head is just a continuation of the neck grain and there is no weakness in that area. Everything else has the potential to break. Some things that can mitigate it are the scarfed head which we've already touched on, a back strap or volute can strengthen the back of the neck, moving the truss rod adjuster out of the head can help a lot. But this is just a small collection of pictures of instruments that I've fixed - I would say that broken heads are my second most common failure.

 

Ibanez

[img2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"http:\/\/i51.photobucket.com\/albums\/f387\/Freeman_Keller\/Repairs\/IMG_3386_zpss8yiyj2h.jpg"}[/img2]

 

Epiphone

IMG_1588_zps4de86ff3.jpg

 

Yamaha

[img2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"http:\/\/i51.photobucket.com\/albums\/f387\/Freeman_Keller\/Repairs\/IMG_2012_zps0dd7031a.jpg"}[/img2]

 

Some days you get two

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A classical guitar with only a 100 pounds of tension

[img2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"http:\/\/i51.photobucket.com\/albums\/f387\/Freeman_Keller\/Repairs\/Epi%20headstock%20repair\/IMG_1494_zps53148a41.jpg"}[/img2]

 

Guild 12 string

[img2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"http:\/\/i51.photobucket.com\/albums\/f387\/Freeman_Keller\/Repairs\/IMG_3411_zpslmaxlipq.jpg"}[/img2]

 

A samishin

[img2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"http:\/\/i51.photobucket.com\/albums\/f387\/Freeman_Keller\/Repairs\/IMG_3193_zpsyo5icntd.jpg"}[/img2]

 

Mexican vihehula

[img2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"http:\/\/i51.photobucket.com\/albums\/f387\/Freeman_Keller\/Repairs\/Mexican%20vihuela\/IMG_3728_zpssn0pdzre.jpg"}[/img2]

 

and a headless banjo

[img2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"http:\/\/i51.photobucket.com\/albums\/f387\/Freeman_Keller\/Repairs\/Headless%20banjo\/IMG_3650_zps1a2sjvck.jpg"}[/img2]

 

There are a couple of things in common, all of those broke along the short grain of the angled headstock, each could have been prevented. I don't care, I'll take your money

 

 

 

 

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