Poll on broken Gibson \ Epiphone necks

[totheMax]

Just thought I'd run a poll ot see how many of us have actually had a Gibson or Epi with a neck failure. Let's play myth busters...

 

[Papa Joe]

Never owned one but have repaired 2...

 

[sfcmark]

I try to be careful w/ my vintage MIJ 335 copy and store it in its case, but Ed Roman seems to think it happens a lot:

http://www.edroman.com/rants/les_paul_necks.htm

 

[shrekfingers]

You say failure like it's a inevitable thing, many Gibsons are alive and well from the 50's that have never snapped. Gibsons necks only break with impact so, avoid impact. You don't want to break a bone, don't do anything that breaks a bone.

I treat my Gibbys just like I treat my Fenders, as if I have hard earned money in them, not like their bone China but with respect. I have seen Gib necks broken and repaired well, sometimes can hardly see it, if done right. I have seen strats dropped and if the tuners hit first will snap along the tuners holes. This is not a failure either but the difference is the ease of the fix on fenders

Would I like Gibson to go back to the Volute.. yep, or some type of neck reenforcement. Instead of Gibson sinking money into the firebird (bleck) or the robot guitar, develop a revolutionary way to make their necks replaceable, or a new neck design altogether.

 

[Papa Joe]

You say failure like it's a inevitable thing, many Gibsons are alive and well from the 50's that have never snapped. Gibsons necks only break with impact so, avoid impact. You don't want to break a bone, don't do anything that breaks a bone.

I treat my Gibbys just like I treat my Fenders, as if I have hard earned money in them, not like their bone China but with respect. I have seen Gib necks broken and repaired well, sometimes can hardly see it, if done right. I have seen strats dropped and if the tuners hit first will snap along the tuners holes. This is not a failure either but the difference is the ease of the fix on fenders

Would I like Gibson to go back to the Volute.. yep, or some type of neck reenforcement. Instead of Gibson sinking money into the firebird (bleck) or the robot guitar, develop a revolutionary way to make their necks replaceable, or a new neck design altogether.

What he said..

 

[ghostwolf]

bought a 65 melody maker with the neck snapped off at the body once. glued it back into place, dowelled it, worked like a charm. wish i hadn't sold it....

 

[fenderfreak]

We have 3 Gibson ish things...
Late 70's /early 80's USA Suntech LP, mahogany neck....it broke. My dad thinks it got knocked over at a gig, and that started the breakage. He opened the case one day and it was busted at the headstock.
83 MIJ Epi 335....all is good, but the fret board is coming off the neck. It was like that since it was a year old, and it's been babied.
65 Gibson Melody Maker: All is well. (Other that it being a Gibson) LOL

I'm a firm believer in not abusing the guitars, but accidents to happen, ie a guitar falling forward in the stand, and being able to survive minor accidents unhurt.

 

[Teleblooz]

I just bought my first Epi, so I don't really have anything to add statistically at this point. I think shrekfingers nailed the essential point about taking care of your instruments. That being said however - all cliches have a basis in fact. I've talked to several guitar techs that confirm the prevalence of snapped headstock joints in heavily gigged Gibbys.

 

[mkgearhead]

It's not a Gibson or Epi, but I got this one with a broken neck.
http://www.squier-talk.com/forum/v-c-s-parlor/2741-ngd-sorry-not-squier.html

 

[Sollophonic]

I dont do neck repiars to guitars, but I reckon I get about two or three enquiries a month regarding repairs to Gibson and Epiphone headstocks.

I refer them on to other repairers who can do this stuff.

My Gibson Melody Maker has a chunky neck, and looks quite strong in that area.

But some other Gibsons and Epiphones are a bit more vulnerable in that area it seems.

 

[randypttt]

I bought an Epi Lucille this past Christmas and went thru three of them before I got one that wasn't broken.
The first was broken at the heel, clean thru. Two were broken at the headstock weld. Came in the box that way.

 

[Nigel T.]

I bought a second hand Les Paul deLuxe that apparently had its neck broken once. The ones I bought new (Explorer, Flying V, Les Paul Standard) never broke their necks.

 

[MiK_Squier_II]

The neck & headstock on my '61 are quite thin yet it has never broken was in two bands and went though teen years with 3 rough teenage boys. I have never known anyone personally that had one with a broken neck. if it ever happened to mine I would turn it into a bolt-on.

 

[totheMax]

Well this looks to be more than an urban legend, from within our forum group there appears to be clear a weak spot in the Gibson neck design. My guess is that if the neck is made from a sub-standard block of wood, a QC issue, then the chance of breakage increases. This is sad from a Gibson perspective with the prices they charge - although I have not had any neck breakage with Epi's I've owned I have to say that the QC can vary from one guitar to the next (if you look closely). So in saying that I'm sure that the chance of an inferior piece of wood in the neck increases with the high production numbers.

Thanks everyone... I guess the best info here is to "Watch out for your neck..."

 

[houseguitarshop]

I try to be careful w/ my vintage MIJ 335 copy and store it in its case, but Ed Roman seems to think it happens a lot:

http://www.edroman.com/rants/les_paul_necks.htm

ha, i read that before,

I like where he say something like......

Mabey gibson should break all the neck in the factory and glue them up, then paint them and nobody will ever know. I though that was super funny.

I never owned one

 

[shrekfingers]

I bought an Epi Lucille this past Christmas and went thru three of them before I got one that wasn't broken.
The first was broken at the heel, clean thru. Two were broken at the headstock weld. Came in the box that way.

I now what you mean, if they are not packed right, even in their case the UPS/Fedex handling can be hazardous. My LP came packed in a box by itself stuffed with just newspaper and fully tuned.This was from a well known on line retailer, and they shipped the case separately, I was surprised but glad it did not have damage to it.

I won a Gibson SG Standard on ebay, this past Friday, and am sitting here with puss ball in my stomach waiting for it to arrive. I bought it from a music store seller so hopefully they know how to ship them, but who knows. They said it will be "professionally packed and shipped", but even dishwashers today are called professionals .

If anyone ever has to ship a angled head guitar, in a case, here's the way to do it, if your interested.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfxRTs1k45s"]How to Ship a Guitar - YouTube[/ame]

 

[nomadh]

No question about broken Gibson necks for me. A les paul design is a snap waiting to happen. That said I think 99.9% of them are after a fall even if delayed after a fall. And can even happen in many guitar cases where there isn't enough support. So don't think a case automatically protects you. Its the fairly heavy body with the sometimes fairly thin neck multiplied by making it out of mahogany. How many maple necked LP's have ever broke the neck? If strats were mahogany you'd see much higher number of breaks also. My broken Gibson is the very light bodied SG and I do believe the main culprit is the mahogany necks. The owner said the same thing it just fell off the stand. My strat has fallen 6-10 times in 20 years but nothing. This Sg has 1 nick from a fall and one neck break.
Mahogany neck acoustics seem to not have as much a problem. The body thickness usually keeps the head from hitting the ground and it doesn't hit as hard because of the lighter weight. The neck is usually not as long and the acoustic body helps to absorb some of the shock. In fact I suspect a large percent of broken acoustics happen in their badly designed cases. Also I think I'd separate abuse from knocked over. A guitar should generally survive tipping over and hopefully a drop from a standing playing position.
All of this not proven in the least but I think they are great theories

 

[czook]

They don't seem to break exactly at the glue point which leads me to believe the glue point is stronger and may actual cause the neck to break nearby since it is not as flexible as a 1 piece neck.

Check ebay, there are always broken neck guitars for sale, mostly the tenon joint style used for those type of necks.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EPIPHONE-SG...791?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item43a97f5b57

 

[MiK_Squier_II]

No question about broken Gibson necks for me. A les paul design is a snap waiting to happen. That said I think 99.9% of them are after a fall even if delayed after a fall. And can even happen in many guitar cases where there isn't enough support. So don't think a case automatically protects you. Its the fairly heavy body with the sometimes fairly thin neck multiplied by making it out of mahogany. How many maple necked LP's have ever broke the neck? If strats were mahogany you'd see much higher number of breaks also. My broken Gibson is the very light bodied SG and I do believe the main culprit is the mahogany necks. The owner said the same thing it just fell off the stand. My strat has fallen 6-10 times in 20 years but nothing. This Sg has 1 nick from a fall and one neck break.
Mahogany neck acoustics seem to not have as much a problem. The body thickness usually keeps the head from hitting the ground and it doesn't hit as hard because of the lighter weight. The neck is usually not as long and the acoustic body helps to absorb some of the shock. In fact I suspect a large percent of broken acoustics happen in their badly designed cases. Also I think I'd separate abuse from knocked over. A guitar should generally survive tipping over and hopefully a drop from a standing playing position.
All of this not proven in the least but I think they are great theories

Guess mine is in the .1% as it is over 50 years old never been in a proper case, always been in a cheap case, was in a crash & tumble garage band in the 60's and in a heavy metal band in the 80's and has had it's share of knocks and drops. So I guess I got some good wood.

 

[totheMax]

Like I mentioned on the original post for the guy looking at a bolt on LP neck as a solution, you can't compare a Fender neck to a Gibson. Different animal - they make custom baseball bats out of maple. So if you're playing a Gibson style, "don't stick your neck out..."