Stupid Guitar Damage Stories: What's Yours?

[SausageofPower]

So, as some of you recall from a post I made, I got my hands on an LTD GL-600SS a month-ish ago. Great guitar. And mint! It'd been a wall hanger.

Well, last night I decided to play it a bit before I crashed (perfectly sober btw) and...bonk. Hit the headstock on my ceiling. Checked. No big deal, extremely minor dent. Couldn't even tell unless you looked head-on from the top at the headstock. Annoying but...no big deal.

Woke up today, decided to give it a look in daylight. Same ruling, no big deal. And the rest of the guitar was perfect so no worries. Went to put it back...

And kicked the door of the case as I did so. Door flew into the body right by the edge of the skull's mouth, leaving a nice ding where the clasp was. Needless to say, obscenities were uttered and the case went for a flight across the room (sans the poor guitar of course).

Granted, I'm not a "OMG guitars must stay mint forever!!111" guy, but...man, what a dumb way to incur damage. I calmed down, made a joke about how that means I just need to save and get the ESP version (which is alder, and I liked that this one was maple, but...)...still pissed though. Not overly. Just...ugh. It's like some shit I'd write as a joke. "Guitar was fine, so guy really fucked it up putting it back."

What are your stupid guitar damage stories?

[Hellbat]

I leaned my RR1T up against my computer desk, strings facing the desk when my wife called me for help from the kitchen. When I got up, my toe picked the cable and I tripped yanking the guitar down. The lower edge caught my EHX HOG2 when it hit and it blasted off a chunk of finish and left a big radial crack. No other damage to th e guitar and no effect on playability but I was pissed.

The funny thing is the tips are all still mint!

[AdRock]

I have a pretty hot temper, but I've gotten it in control. HOWEVER, back in '97, at band practice, I lost it and threw my Dinky Rev. across the room at the singer. As soon as it left my hand I thought "OH SHIT". It missed my singer and slammed into the wall, then the floor. Luckily the walls and floor were carpeted. Only the high E string went out of tune. Practiced with it another few hours and all was fine. The next day I went to change the strings and once there was no tension on it I realized that I cracked the headstock in 2 spots. Got it glued back up and it's still going strong.

[lepard]

Was playing a USA Kelly one day and when done, while standing up grabbed the strap and lifted the guitar off my body. As I'm lifting it over my head I hear a "whack, whack, whack, whack" as the headstock goes right into the ceiling fan. Prepare for the worst, look at the ceiling fan and there's a big chunk out of one of the blades. Look at the guitar headstock with a sick feeling and find no damage whatsoever !!!!! Now that's quality !

[Shawn Lutz]

Scored a month old 2012 Gibson Traditional plus back in march of 2012. A day or two after having it....I was ah...how do I say this...warming up in my bathroom (because of the exhaust fan) when a little round thing that I got left in the warming up material fell down on the top edge of the guitar and melted right into the lacquer...I didn't notice it until it was stuck in there...now I have a nice little seed hole in the LP that can only be seen when standing up in playing position by the dude playing it LOL.

Another embarrassing thing was just fairly recently. I bought a used pickup form a forum classified. So I install it in my BB7 LPC, wire it up, check it and then restring it. I put it on to adjust the height by ear and the pickup had a stripped leg that wouldn't let me adjust it to the proper height or even level...in a fit of rage I removed the pickup and violently threw the POS on the floor...yep...thing bounced up like a fucking superball about 7 ft in the air asn dropped directly on the face of the Black Beauty and put a nice gouge on the it.

I had a Fender body I bought off eBay one time...it was one of the ones that have a thin vintage type of finish on it. I was converting from std trem and installing Floyd bushings. I was lightly tapping the bushings in and the body broke apart right where the bottom floyd post was....two piece body broke right at the seem from very little pressure..I then proceeded to beat the rest of the shit out of it with the mallet and threw it in the trash.

[DK2M92]

With my DK2M I was standing up playing with the strap and all but I decided to sit down, and I just flopped onto my bed but in the process the headstock tip hit a little bit of wall that sticks out from next to the closet door. My heart stopped when I saw a piece of it on the ground but I glued it back on and feel a little bit better l. I still look at it and get pissed sometimes though.

[Vass]

Tossed a croquet ball behind me off the couch to lay down. Hit my strat on 3rd fret A string. Left an indent of the string in the wood. Didn't cause any issues playing, but was first knock on the first geet I bought myself. Was pretty upset, now it's character (that only I notice).

[Mudlark]

Around 20 years ago I stood my Charvette up in a lazy boy recliner, and while shit-faced drunk, I went to sit on the front edge of the seat... lost my balance... and fell full weight against the guitar. Broke the headstock from the neck at the scarf joint. I traded it for an ugly assed Fender Squier Katana and the guy glued it back together and still uses it.

[Axewielder]

Most of the damage on my collection was done by previous owners. And those fuckers aren't talking!

[SausageofPower]

GTFO my thread then. ;p

Thanks guys. I was really pissed about this yesterday, but...meh, we all do stupid shit. Hell, even Randy broke the Sandoval V at one point. It still plays, that's the point. Just gotta remind myself of that, no matter how stupid the cause of the damage is.

[Brandenburg]

most recent damage to my guitar happened as i was modding it..Just bought a drill and was unfamiliar with it.. (that says it all) well the hole was drilled by a smaller drill but the hole needed to be bigger. would of preferred a reamer to make the whole bigger but used the drill.. lined the drill up and pressed the button.. and it got away from me and kapow.. was scared top look.. yep.. chipped to pieces of paint and took a small amount of wood with it..still get pissed about it and i was sober.. EVERY other time I mod my guitars... im get pretty high and always do a decent job.. this time.. i screwed up on the whole and couldnt wire for shit .. well i did design the wiring and it didnt quite pan out.. took me about 4 rewiring attempts to get it somewhat passable.. still isnt right though meh.. in time it will be a "character mark"

planing on rewiring this guitar again but this time.. ill probably wire it similar to the way andy timmons has his guitars wires.. with a few changes.. also been doing a bit of reading on shielding guitars.. so im going to take my time , get mentally right with universe and do the shit right.. and hopefully i can report a sucess and not add another mishap to this thread

[Axewielder]

most recent damage to my guitar happened as i was modding it..Just bought a drill and was unfamiliar with it.. (that says it all) well the hole was drilled by a smaller drill but the hole needed to be bigger. would of preferred a reamer to make the whole bigger but used the drill.. lined the drill up and pressed the button.. and it got away from me and kapow.. was scared top look.. yep.. chipped to pieces of paint and took a small amount of wood with it..still get pissed about it and i was sober..

Damn that sucks. A tech who I used to go to had a hand-powered drill that he used for really delicate operations like that. Those are sort of hard to find nowadays, though.

[Sinistas]

I asked our other guitarist if he could swap a pickup in my Hamer Californian. He left it in his trunk for a few days, during which it rained pretty heavily. Hello, water damage.

[Jayster]

Got divorced....

[Vass]

Got divorced....

Never will forget that story. /threadkill. There is no topper.