[Cathedral]

Surprisingly, it was also the first time.

Some of you may remember I had a sustainer installed in my RG a few months ago, my beloved RG which is my main guitar. A friend wanted to try out a sustainer, so I lent him my RG for the evening to have a play with the sustainer.

RG is returned this morning, I have the day off so I think great, a whole day for playing. I open the case and notice the whammy bar is still in the bridge, meaning the strings have been slack all night. I take the bar out and see the neck bow right in front of me. This isn't minor bowing, I actually see the headstock raise slightly towards the guitar body. Leaving the action after the twelfth fret getting steadily higher, to the point that its almost half an inch off the fret board by the twenty-fourth fret.

I went straight to Mid-Air Music and asked if they had any advice on how I could fix it, they turned me onto Brian Rogers (Kind chap who installed the sustainer and carried out various other mods to my baby) who gave me some great advice and offered to look over the guitar if I can make it over to his workshop. I'm strapped for cash (yay for still not having a full time job) so Brian advised me to carefully slacken the strings and stuff the bridge cavity with some folded up card etc. to prevent the bridge from falling in.

So yeah, I doubt I'll be lending out another guitar in the foreseeable future, at least not my workhorse.

The strangest thing about this? Before I slackened the strings, she was still in tune, despite the neck bowing. Thankfully the neck hasn't split anywhere, I've given a thorough examination and as far as I can tell, the only problem with the neck is bowing, the screws haven't ripped away from the neck and there are no splits in the wood, so hopefully it'll just be a tweak of the truss rod (and a ringing of a certain friend's neck) to get everything back to normal.

Sorry for the rant, let's make something of this topic. Any mishaps in lending out gear? Share your stories.

 

[ME.]

That sucks man.

Not sure I understand how that could have happen. But that sucks.
I'm very picky as to what I will lend out to others, guitars no, amps and pedals, maybe, depending on which one. And offcourse only to people I'd also trust with my life.


Good look

 

[nato101010]

Thats bad, man. Sorry to hear. Hopefully it'll be back to normal. Punch that guy out Hah, or just do that to one of his axes!

 

[brothersnowgone]

I'm confused. So if the strings were slack, why would the neck warp forward? Not being a knob, just trying to get the info straight.

Anyway never lend out any gear of any kind to anybody, including family. I lent a head to my best friend for a recording session. I end up getting a call about it and how the tubes must've blown cause it won't turn on. Turned out to be a blown fuse, replaced it, turned it on and the fuses blew right away. So I take it to a tech and a few days later I get it back all fixed, thankfully still under warranty. I never found out the exact issue, but it was something to do with one of the main PCB's being replaced if I remember correctly.
Either way I don't know if it was the manufacturer or my friend who caused all of this, so to be safe I never lend any gear out anymore.

 

[Rotti]

I don't think being in the case overnight with the strings slack would cause any issues. Maybe your friend "adjusted" the action for you. Anyway I hope it gets back to normal.

 

[Cathedral]

I'm confused. So if the strings were slack, why would the neck warp forward? Not being a knob, just trying to get the info straight.

I'm guessing the sudden increased tension from the strings after eight hours of no tension at all may have caused the neck to bow. Or perhaps there was a difference in temperature between our houses. Either way, Claudia was just fine when I lent her to said friend, the next day, her neck's out of whack.

 

[kotornut]

Hmmm. I don't get the warpage. Maybe your friend did more than he said, but how should I know. But honestly, not to make you look foolish, but what you desribed wouldn't 'cause what your claiming as far as I know and I'm not a beginner or inexperienced to say the least.


I lent a guitar to a friend for a long period of time. It wasn't my main guitar but it was one I built together with my dad. Well unknown to me, he left it down at church all the time and yes don't be naive church kids steal things too and guess what? One of them stole my guitar. So that was good buy to my homemade guitar. And I still miss it to this day for the sentiment.

Now I only let someone else play my guitar if they are under my supervision, a qualified guitarist in some capacity, related to me or in my band (and even then it's iffy), and if they are willing to let me play theirs. I never let anyone take my guitar home. I never let anyone play it when I'm not around. I never let a kid play it that has never held a guitar or says "hey have you ever seen someone smash a guitar?" I never let anyone around it with fire, tools, sharp objects, water, beer, cleaning chemicals, ethanol, juice, glue or anything abrasive enough to damage it. Now that might sound extreme but it all comes natural with the supervision part. I don't have to check what's going on too hard to see that this is a situation in which my guitar is jeopardy.

The only person on this planet that can play Mace ('91 Rg560) without asking is my Pops, but he's the one who bought me my first, second and third guitars as well as let me learn on his, plus he handles every guitar with the utmost care. Oh I almost forgot, there is one more person could play it without asking that's my best friend Andy, that's because he's the one who gave me Mace. But I know he'd ask me anyways.

 

[Cathedral]

Hmmm. I don't get the warpage. Maybe your friend did more than he said, but how should I know. But honestly, not to make you look foolish, but what you desribed wouldn't 'cause what your claiming as far as I know and I'm not a beginner or inexperienced to say the least.

Well, Brian's gonna give it a look over and see if he can figure out exactly what happened and what the necessary steps will be to fix the bowing. When I spoke to him on the phone he said if the neck hasn't cracked anywhere and the screws in the pocket haven't ripped away from the neck, it should just be a case of adjusting the truss rod.

Oh and guess who isn't picking up his phone today? >:[

 

[jim777]

I had a guy leave a strap on my guitar in the case, when it had a thin Gibson Custom Shop finish on it. The stap color and location had leeched into the finish when I got it back.

I will lend guitars to my brother Dave, but everyone else can piss off!

 

[ken_r152]

I gave a family member my old nylon string acoustic as a gift. After a while, it was returned to me after she no longer wanted it, and it had deep pick scrape marks on the front. It was a little bit heartbreaking to see it like that, but after all, I did give it to her as a gift. You just have to assume that nobody else is going to treat things as nicely as you will.

 

[scotte_za]

I've lent my red SG and my strat copy out before (the SG to my girlfriend), and they both came back filthy and full of scratch marks. Now people can only touch my guitars at my house if I'm sitting with them. Otherwise the music room stays locked

 

[DavyH]

My first electric was lent out; it didn't come back. Luckily it was a cheapy, but it was the last guitar that's ever left home unaccompanied.

 

[UV-7-BK]

I prefer not to lend anything out or borrow anybodys gear...it just saves a hellova lot of heartache!!!

 

[kotornut]

Now for the more difficult question: do you lend Cds and DVDs to friends? In a nutshell: no! Because they never return them!!! I've been waiting 5 years to get my zeppelin box set disc 1 and 3 back and 3 years to get my G3 in Denver DVD back. Oh wait, I've been waiting freaking 8 years to get my Santana live at the Filmore West back too.

 

[rickcard71]

It's simple for me. DON'T EVEN ASK!

 

[rob777vdy]

ive only got my 777vdy its the only guitar i have.so you can imagine the chances of anyone getting a lend of it.

 

[VK_UV_97]

That's a real drag, you would hope a "friend" would be respectful and be extra careful with your gear!

Trem bar still on in the case... are you sure it's the neck bowing and not the springs on the trem over streched??? Basically stored in the dive bomb state, but you did say still in tune??? That's strange???

For me I was looking to trade with a bandmate, Candy Apple Red BC Rich NJ Mockingbird, for a bunch of pedals and pedal board, a pretty good deal for me... I got one wah pedal, next practice never showed up and never heard back from him.

On another occasion, had some friends over and had my LP out and one of them was palying it, I left the room, come back and there's 2 broken strings! Luckily it was not a broken neck or something else major!

So, no lending gear out, no touchy touchy if I am not there and everthing gets put away when friends come over!

 

[Cathedral]

I don't mind a string break. I lived in a house with two other guitar players while at University in my final year so a lot of gear changed hands every day for different experiments. Thankfully, everyone had great respect for each others' instruments and the worst thing that happened was exactly that, a string break. Happened a few times but since we all knew how to replace them and had a guitar store at the end of the street, nobody got angry. It was just a case of, *ping* "whoops, well that's the next few minutes planned out nicely".

That's a real drag, you would hope a "friend" would be respectful and be extra careful with your gear!

Trem bar still on in the case... are you sure it's the neck bowing and not the springs on the trem over streched??? Basically stored in the dive bomb state, but you did say still in tune??? That's strange???

Could be, but I could actually see the neck bowing without having to look very carefully. I'm still not sure exactly what happened, as many people have said here (and the guys in the shop) that just leaving the strings slack for a few hours and then suddenly having them go back in place shouldn't cause the neck to bow, at least not as badly as it did. I thought maybe his house was warmer, or cooler than mine. But he only lives three doors down and there isn't a noticeable difference in temperature, he hasn't left it near a radiator. And yeah, it was back in tune and only out very, very slightly on the B and high E strings.

I'm not too mad at him now, I think it was just a freak accident. My neck is bowing, nobody knows exactly why, but fortunately its fixable. Still not lending my baby out anymore though.

 

[VK_UV_97]

I'm not too mad at him now, I think it was just a freak accident. My neck is bowing, nobody knows exactly why, but fortunately its fixable. Still not lending my baby out anymore though.

That's kool man, hopefully your friend will come around and give some explanation. I'm curious, as I am sure others are as to how this could happen.
That's kool it's fixable... whew!

 

[jb4674]

I'm calling BS on this one. I've had a Strat in its case without strings for years and the neck was and still is straight as an arrow and it doesn't have any buzz even after putting a new set of stings on it years after the fact.

Whether or not the strings were slacked, it wouldn't cause a neck to warp overnight unless the weather conditions changed so drastically, which didn't happen.

I still don't understand your description and quite honestly I'm really confused... If strings are slacked, IMO, there is a higher chance for a neck to bow towards the back of the guitar and not towards the front. If there was enough force on the strings (meaning they were tight as hell), then there is a chance that the neck could bow forward towards the top of the guitar.

I want to see pictures of this alleged phenomenon....

Jimmy:smile: