Your worst guitar accident

[LeDave]

What's the worst accident hat happened to your guitar?

I haven't had mine long enough to find something more serious than installing the strings sloppily. I wanted a softer string. Had to go through three sets before I finally did it, no breaking, no slipping off the tuners and no sloppy job

[YamahaGuy]

LLX6A, my 2nd good guitar. Had it about 3 months. Took it to work (public high school). Long story short, the strap popped off the end pin while a student was carrying it. It fell about 2 - 3 feet onto a hard tile floor. He felt horrible. I couldn't talk for two days. I was so upset. It cracked the laminate back on the right (bottom when playing) side of the back on the lower bout and cracked the very thick polyurethane top finish in the same area. Again, long story short, Uma Thurman's uncle fixed it for me for $200 and unless you really look closely, you'd never know the back was cracked. The top crack shows, but it is just the finish, not the top wood. I'll never ever get rid of that one.

[bkepler]

I was standing in my basement for a quick picking session (just passing through). I checked something on my phone (don’t remember now) that required both hands. The vintage vinyl strap gave up the ghost and snapped. The back came off and a piece broke off.

But no worries. I glued it back together and sold it to someone who was very happy to buy it with the cracks disclosed.

[Shadowfox]

I stood my Martin DX1 dread upright on a chair. It fell off and there was a nice break on the back giving me a soundhole pointed at my face. It was a fix by 3rd coast guitar, and you can't even tell there was a hole there.

[ribsareyummy]

Got back from a week in Disney (we were there the week before everything shut down) and rushed to pull my J-15 from its case. The case was on my bed, and while I was taking the guitar out, I thought I saw the top of the case start to fall closed.

I swiftly pulled the guitar straight up to avoid the case, and plowed the headstock straight into the ceiling fan above the bed. Rewarded with some small chips in the headstock. At first I was upset about this because I’d had the guitar for less than a month at that point. But hey, it’s not too bad and makes for a mildly interesting story.

[The Bard Rocks]

I was at a winter festival and went to get out my vintage Weymann. Opened the bag (yes, a bag and found the headstock completely broken off. I never did recall any trauma to it. It was my "beater' and I glued it back when i got home and it remains that way today, ugly but fully functional. It was ugly when I bought it too, only not that ugly...

[Wellington]

I once as a teen owned a guitar with painting on the top, I didn't like the paint job so I thought I'd plane it off with an electric planer my dad had in the shop. Didn't test on scrap wood or anything, my 15 year old brain thought it seemed logical, so I plugged her in and let her rip. You can guess what happened, took a huge strip off the top, revealing the laminate top under layers haha. Decided to sand the rest off as any normal person would have done initially. Looked like death.

[ClawHand]

Not really a guitar accident,really more with the case. I bet what happened has gotten people fired before. That would be not latching the case and picking it up with the handle,dumping everything out on the ground.

[Acousticado]

In ‘08, my Baby Taylor, inadvertently placed (not by me) in the no-place area of the convertible’s trunk, was crushed when I put the top down. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I immediately replaced it with a much better travel guitar...a carbon fiber Composite Acoustics Cargo.

[Ben M.]

I accidently got the idea in my head that one day I would find the holy grail of tone in a guitar. The planets would align while the angels sang and everything would be right with the world.

It was a terrible mistake. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

[Rinaz]

Drop the wrench on the guitar and left a tiny ding on top of the guitar...

[Sardara]

In the early seventies as a teenager I ordered a lefty Gibson and was quoted six months delivery which was fine because it gave me time to save up the extra money. When it arrived I was so excited I left it by my bedside so I could look at it. Next morning I woke up and reaching out for the alarm clock managed to knock it off the bedside table leaving a deep gouge down the front of the guitar.

[Nama Ensou]

Had to throw my Strat off because a customer pulled me off the stage for not "playing the music right" and broke off a tuning button, cracked my headstock and made a bunch of endless feedback until things died down. Locking nut saved the night and we finished up the night without anymore drama. Cost him a couple hundred to get it fixed on our days off, so, all's well that ends well.

[Neil K Walk]

Back when my kids were small and before I’d installed a pickup and a strap button on the heel of my Martin D-16GT I used to tie the strap to the headstock and use a end pin that was not original to the guitar.

One day, while I was playing for my kids they asked for something to eat from the refrigerator. Back in those days we used to have to put a child lock on everything so that they wouldn’t “graze.” Being a thoughtful father I obliged, but being otherwise careless I didn’t put the guitar down and instead slung it over my back, headstock down like I was Johnny Cash. You can imagine what happened next...

While both my hands were involved with handling a bottle of juice the end pin slipped out of the guitar, releasing the body from its suspension point on my upper back. It swung in an arc and hit the floor. The binding took the brunt of the impact but there remains a 3” long crack in the grain on the top in that area.

I’ve never had it fixed or even looked at and the guitar still gets played regularly.

My Larrivee has also taken two significant impacts but they were not accidents and that guitar bears the scars but is otherwise still playable and gets played regularly. Neither guitar cost more than $1000 and in light of these incidents I am both relieved and disappointed that I do not own any expensive guitars. Things have calmed down considerably since those days but I still don’t think I’m ready or worthy.

[David Rance]

Sitting warming up at a classical ensemble rehearsal. Was introduced to a new member and as he leant forwards to shake hands his guitar stand, which he was carrying, hit my guitar and put a large ding in the soundboard. I felt most sorry for him to be honest. It wasn't my best classical just the one I took to practices. Best of mates after that!!