Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I swear, I just had to wash my hands (after putting the baby to bed), and so I leaned my 381 against the wall...like I have a million times while playing gigs...and, of course, I then had to endure the painful, painful sound of said guitar crashing to the floor.

There are two noticable nicks on the top part of the guitar, where the carving begins near the cutaway. Aaaauuugggh!!!

Okay, it's ONLY a guitar (but a fine, fine work of art), and I believe I know to put things into perspective (it still sounds good), but I felt bad for the rest of the evening.

Suggestions, please, on:

1. how to "fix" the 381 (Jetglo - no thanks to using black markers)

2. how to "fix" my dejected spirits (no thanks to spirits of any sort)

3. how to get over the GUILT (okay, maybe Rum)

OUT

Sorry to hear this, Mick. No matter how hard we try we always manage to put nicks and scratches on them.

Suggestion: Combine 2 and 3 and have a few stiff belts! Then you've only got #1 to worry about!!

Well, let's see....I was changing the strings on my gorgeous spotless '97 Gretsch Country Classic II and was holding the needle nose pliers in one hand, and for some stupid reason went to lean the guitar up against the couch with the SAME HAND HOLDING THE PLIERs....and of course, the pliers went out my hand and gouged out a big spot down by the lower bout volume knobs. If the pliers had a sharper point, it would've stuck in the guitar like a big fat dart. (I can still hear the sound of an arrow hitting a tree trunk from a Warner Bros. cartoon --- TTHHHHUNNNNNKKKKkkkkk...)

It's really not that big a gouge, but now everytime I look at it, all I can see is this "hole" that you could drive a truck through.

I've been less traumatic getting the first dent in a new car.

We've recently seen some new threads about "best deals I ever made" and "worst deals I've ever made". How about we change this into "biggest knot-headed bone-brained thing I ever did to one of my favorite guitars"?

Or perhaps that would take up bandwidth that Peter would rather not have to deal with!

My sincerest sympathies, Mick. You probably should cross-post this under the Vibrola section so that the luthiers among us can provide some reasonable solutions.

I had a 325v63 JG that had suffered some sort of fall from a previous owner. It had three dings on the lower side of the headstock, two into the wood, like it had fallen (and bounced on the way down) onto the edge of a coffee table. I left it the way it was and sold it a few years ago to a fellow in the U.K.

As to getting over dinging up a guitar, I don't think one ever really gets over them - I still remember dinging the headstock of my second-owner 1967 Gibson ES-335TDC back around 1973 ...

It happened to me at a gig last weekend. It's not a Ric story though, because I'm still WAITING for my Ric.

One of my other guitars is an Aussie Maton Mastersound 2000DLX/SD. It's the most expensive electric Maton makes, and when I ordered it I waited an eternity (sound familiar?) for the small company to make it in the colour I wanted. I give it the "cotton wool" treatment and I've never put a mark on it over the couple of years since I bought it.

In a drunken conversation one night with the bass player a few weeks ago he challenged me to use every one of my guitars for a gig. Last Saturday we were to play at his brother's wedding as a favour, and I thought that it would be the safest, laid-back gig to use by pride and joy at. Of course what can go wrong will go wrong, and in the heat of the moment I started doing Pete Townshend windmill impressions...

and snapped the toggle switch "stalk" for the pickup selector clean off the guitar.

I couldn't have been more annoyed with myself. It was the first time the guitar had left the house since getting it two and a half years ago. That's what you get for impersonating Pete, I suppose.

Carl,

If the only damage to your Maton was a snapped toggle switch stalk, you couldn't have been doing the Pete Townsend routine properly! At least your self-inflicted damage is repairable with the replacement of the switch. Maton's solid body electrics are nice guitars.

Mick, take some comfort in the fact that 30 years from now someone will be looking at your "vintage" guitar and commenting how it's finish must be original because of all of the "character marks"!

Few months ago I was putting my guitar back on its stand, I guess I let it go 1 second too early because the neck didn't end up in the stand and the bottom part just swivelled to one side.
The lower cutaway hit my TV stand which is stainless steel or something similar.

At first I thought the whole binding was ruined the way it hit, I could see specs of nice Burgundy paint on the stand so I knew it was damaged but I was suprised when I turned it around and there was damage to the back and the binding...

Still left a big dent:



Ouch!

Especially the MS2000DLX and DLX/SD, Darren. You see them occasionally on eBay and they hold their value remarkably well.

What colour is it, Carl?

You've shown us that one before, Patrick. Brought tears to my eyes... again!!

My FG381 has a little knick in the carving Mick. It was done and repaired with a bit of paint before I bought her but you can only see it when you look for it.

The rest of "Rachel" is still beeeeautul - could have been worse my friend. Could have been worse.

See?

Mick, comisirations on your ding, but I have to say that dings don't worry me at all now. I am lucky enough to be a pro musician & normaly play 4-5 gigs a week. All my Rics have dings, some more than others, but I have to take it as a hazard of the job. I don't deliberately set about dinging them, but I don't worry anymore...dings add their own character! Several of my gtrs are 'keepers' anyway, so dings just add to their personalisation!!!

Do you love your wives any less because of a few stretch marks? Of course, not. They represent the sort of personal commerce which has brought tremendous gratification. The same could be said for nicks on Rics -so long as the wounds are inflicted during the making of music.
But, like Mick, I've put dings on my 360V64. A tuner flew out of my hands and put a dent on the lower horn of my Jetglo beauty. It made me sick to my stomach. Naturally, no one notices when I'm playing -but it's as big as the Olduvai Gorge to me. It's always playing at home which ends up in damage!
Somehow my 1997 has been blessed with a sort of guardian angel. It's the most-used guitar I own and still looks mint. A pair of American Bobtails sent it crashing to the floor about three years ago (they're lucky they avoided 'nicks' for that).

Noel*

*I no longer have the wife or the cats, but kept the guitars and children.

How about these for a couple of dings....just two of many on my 1980 330...

This is like that scene in Lethal Weapon where they show each other their scars!

"yeah?!? well look at this one then!"

Appreciate all the comments; the two dings did not look as much like the Grand Canyon as they did last night...but the guitar still won't look me in the eye.