oops

[clankenstein]

well the other day i was sitting at this this very computer when i pushed my chair back -crash-my eb2 hit the floor.broken headstock.bad words may have been said.anyways, i got talking to the luthier that built my guitar and he has the eb2 at the moment and is repairing it.the headstock had been broken before and repaired roughly so it will be interesting to see how it goes.http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff246/tonypbass/DSCF0019.jpg[/img]][url][/url]

[Basvarken]

Ouch. That must have hurt.
I hope your luthier can get it fixed. Fingers crossed.

[uwe]

That doesn't look horrible. I've had worse repaired. Twice over. My experience is that luthiers get better and better at this this thing so chances are the new repair will be much better cosmetically and stability-wise than the old one.

You may breathe now, it's alright.

[clankenstein]

well i have it back.nice job i reckon.plays better than ever!

[uwe]

A worthy deed!

[TBird1958]

2 of my 3 '76s are repaired (the Purple and the black) while the green one isn't.
Funny thing is I actually prefer the broken ones for playability and tone 

[jumbodbassman]

2 of my 3 '76s are repaired (the Purple and the black) while the green one isn't.
Funny thing is I actually prefer the broken ones for playability and tone 

[OldManC]

One of the earliest things I remember hearing about guitars and basses was that they were no good once they had a headstock break and that they would never sound the same after one. I don't know if that came from the world of violin or other stringed instruments or whether it was due to primitive and generally unsuccessful repairs, but I never found that to be true. I've had experience with all sorts of repaired and virgin guitars and I never felt like any of the well repaired ones were missing anything (other than collector bragging rights).

[godofthunder]

 That is a bummer but certainly repairable. Two of my birds have headstock repairs. A headstock repair wouldn't scare me off a Tbird as long as it was done well, even if it was a crappy job I could fix it

[TBird1958]

Really!

The Purple one had a pretty good split going forward at the point where the headstock bends back, when I bought the bass from Lull it was still in it's natural finish his work was so nice I really had to look hard in sunlight too a bit of slight ripple in the clear cote that he applied. Tonewise and for playability I LOVE this bass, If I had to sell all my basses but one this is the keeper!




And my Black '77, I got this from George (Old Man C) and he of course was very up front about it's condition before I bought it, I actually think the headstock on this bass was broken all the way off. Again the repair is quite good tho a little easier to detect as there is a slight difference in the finish, interestingly once held under a black light the repair was easily visable. Tonewise quite similar to the Purple one but slightly less top and high mid but I think the difference there lies with Gibson's inconsistancies in pick up construction rather than the repair.

[jumbodbassman]

I wasn't questioning repairability.  glues are way better than anything around when they were made.  I have repaired a few bass headstocks myself and other than cosmetic they are good as new.  no gibbies however...
I misunderstood that you thought the broken ones sounded and played better because of the break... QC was very lacking back then and a luck of the draw on which were broken..   or maybe they got broken because they played/sounded so good....

[eb2]

Lots of Gibson basses cracked, especially the banjo peg ones.

Want to see a great repair job?  Check this out:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110643278779

RALPH O'ROURKE

[dadagoboi]

Lots of Gibson basses cracked, especially the banjo peg ones.


RALPH O'ROURKE

Seems to me a smaller percentage of banjo style headstocks would have cracked than the later ones.  My '60 has a full 1 3/4" wide neck with a much beefier profile than my '65 which is narrower and thinner, and my '67 which is even narrower and thinner.  Banjo tuners weigh less and have less of an effect on stressing the neck during an impact than heavy elephant ears.

All other variables being equal, more wood and less weight at the headstock should make for fewer breaks.  Luckily when my '60 fell the complete neck came out of the pocket and was an easy repair.  That was done over 40 years ago by this guy.

http://www.vintageguitar.com/features/brands/details.asp?AID=2612

[eb2]

I think the evidence is that Gibson headstocks break a lot, and I don't see evidence that banjo peg headstocks were stronger or broke less often.  In terms of numbers made, I would venture that the percentage of 50s Gibson basses with headstock breaks is higher or at least as high as later models.  For a cause besides dogs or people knocking them over, the banjo pegs suffered a lot of damage when cases got lost or tossed.   A 50s EB, EB2 and EB0 came with a case that had a higher neck block.  When a 50s bass gets stuck in a later EB-fitting case the headstock actually rests on the pegs themselves.  Lots of breaks from that alone.  This became a bigger problem in the 70s for instance when a 50s brown case was worth more than the EB-2 or EB-0 inside, so the ES-335 and Les Paul vintage fans were buying them for the case, then selling the bass for the $150 or so that they were worth top dollar into the mid 80's.

[dadagoboi]

Thanks for the explanation.