whalehazard Posted November 15, 2014 Report Posted November 15, 2014 Hey guys, it's been a long time since I've been on here. Still got lots going on, but haven't done a good job documenting. Had some really terrible luck this week... Thursday night I was at my band's practice space to load the van for a radio performance. The band we share the space with was taking a break from practicing at the time and the guitar player's lefty LP Custom was leaning against his amp, face toward the amp. I moved our drummer's hardware case which knocked over his cymbal case, which in turn bumped the LP. It landed face first on the only tiny patch of floor not covered in carpet, right on the nut. He said no problem, it happens all the time, and it's never broken. I picked it up and the first thing I noticed is the infamous Gibson "smile." It's a very minor crack, and I'm obviously repairing it for him for free, no big deal, it'll be good as new. I still feel really terrible, even though it was only indirectly my fault. It was sitting right next to an unoccupied guitar stand! I know it took a huge knock in resale value, but I don't know what I can do except fix it, and maybe offer him a discount on a custom build in the future or other repair work. He's lucky the guy who broke it can fix it, but I'm still wallowing...any advice? Anybody had anything like this happen? What's the worst thing you ever did to a client's guitar? He wasn't even a customer, this is just random real world bad luck. Maybe it would have been better if I'd been working on it. Balls. Quote
sdshirtman Posted November 15, 2014 Report Posted November 15, 2014 A guy I played with years ago convinced his parents to shell out for a brand new set neck Charvel. Beautiful guitar. The day he received it we were playing in his practice space which was in the guest house at his parents place. He let me try it out and I played a few songs on it. When I was done I went to hand it back to him. I lifted it up and over my shoulder and around my head and in doing so pushed the headstock right into the running ceiling fan. It made this nice *tunk* sound and left a huge ding as well as bending the hell out of one of the tuning keys. Needless to say he wasnt pleased. Dont beat yourself up about it too much. **** happens. You cant put the milk back in the cow now. You're doing the right thing by repairing it. 2 Quote
Workingman Posted November 16, 2014 Report Posted November 16, 2014 I think you have stepped up to take the responsibility that is yours. He appears to recognize that some is his. If he starts feeling like you should be giving more than you can think about it but unless that happens you have aleardy shown you are a good guy. 1 Quote
Bjorn.LaSanche Posted November 30, 2014 Report Posted November 30, 2014 Man I hate when accidents like this happen, even if not to the extent of what happened in your case. When you give the guitar back after repairing it maybe include an invoice on what the repair would have cost him if nothing else, but for his records if he ever wants to sell the guitar again(make sure the amount due says no charge). This also clears you from any further tissue issues that may stem from the guy in the future. If I were in your shoes, I would make sure I pulled out all the repair mojo I had to make sure this was the best repair I could do for the guy to make him happy. Quote
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