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Given our experience with Gibson's earlier attempt to integrate tech into their instruments, crushing/burning/having SpaceX launching the residual ash into the Sun seems like only just good enough. We're fortunate to have worked our way through the bow wave and backwash of all those Tronical-equipped Gibson instruments from the mid part of the current decade, and the thought of dealing with more of the same, as well as buggy, slow, extraordinarily stupid onboard software, has me looking for a handy bucket. Good riddance to those infernal devices!

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

Some interesting comments and perspectives presented here. I have to admit I knew very little about the Firebird X before posting this video. It seems like one of the worst electric guitar designs ever and very far from what made Gibson an industry leader (at least at one point in time). It could be interpreted that the destruction with heavy equipment is kind of a "metal" way to to put a bookend on the Henry J tenure and misadventures. Still, I am left with the feeling that something more noble could have done with these market-failure guitars. However, it's a moot point.

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Stay with the happy people.
--Reynolds Large

All those wasted parts

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Hey Woodie,
What is so terrible about the classicals that they need to be burned? Are they real instruments or children's toys? Often a cheap classical is a great guitar to learn on. Even if they don't have a great sound, they can be easier to play than a cheap steel string.
There are some absolutely substandard "children's guitars" out there that parents who are ignorant of what to look for in an instrument buy and kill the musical aspirations of their children. But there are some lowly made instruments that can be made playable and become the first step to a lifelong enjoyment of playing music.
The guitar I learned on was a borrowed mahogany plywood box with soft frets that even nylon strings would dent. After about a year my parents bought me a Giannini classical that was a much better guitar, but that some here would also consign to the burn pile. The plywood mahogany job was passed on to another guitar playing neophyte. For all I know it is still making the rounds of guitar player wannabes.
I build some instruments out of cigar boxes and other odd things, not because I have to, but because they are fun. Here are some videos of people who are doing it out of necessity, and giving children the gift of music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsfOvJEdurk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfeixjFB-AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXktoqRMtig

Of the dozen guitars near completion or completed, three needed just some minor setup and ding repair work (these were sold as completed Vega guitars, as they were labeled and finished). Three others were damaged (bridge off with lots of top wood, etc) - these were repaired and donated to a local music school as no-name instruments (we removed maker labeling, as these had obviously not been contemplated as items to be sold by the luthier). The final six were a mix of unfinished or already damaged guitars - all with significant humidity-related issues (large top cracks, back cracks, concave backs and tops, etc). Only one of these was an instrument with some value to be had in salvaging the wood, and we already have much better EIR back/side sets. A full rebuild would have given us no better than a student guitar at considerably higher cost, so into the fire.

We did get some use out of a few of the ugly babies - one served as a test article for a student spraying his first burst, and another has been buffed so often for training that the finish is gone on the edges. We use a third to demonstrate just how hard a thrown body will hit the floor and wall - very useful in emphasizing proper buffing technique.

We handle high-end instruments on a routine basis, with an 8 string Ruck the most recent I've worked on. Rest assured these shop clean-out sale guitars were nothing special and really not worth the effort to fix all of the issues noted.

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

Cant Be Real G*sons Necks didnt Snap at the headstock !

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The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

I toured the Gibson factory when they were still in Kalamazoo and it was a neat experience. We did come across a large rack of guitars that all had "second" stamped on the back of the peghead. I was a Les Paul aficionado back then and i picked a couple of them off the rack and could not find a defect that would make them a second. They were going to be shipped out to retailers. Maybe they were higher end gits??????

Give them to kids who are interested in learning through a Guitar teacher locally

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The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

60+ years of the same headstock design breaking, across all models using the same design. Many possible, cost-effective solutions. But zero improvement or innovation. Instead Gibson has built a reputation of being the company with guitars which frequently crack headstocks. Even many of my guitar-playing clients know this. Spraying a new color is not product innovation.

I am sick and dang tired of people (who should know better) ganking on Gibson's peghead design. What about the MILLIONS of Gibsons out there that have NEVER had a broken peghead? HUH? Shut up, you are in the wrong.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I don't fix those every other week, like I do all the headstocks that show up broken. It's good money for me, but an ongoing disappointment for client after client that shows up - from custom shop 335s to the bevy of SG and Les Paul's which I constantly repair. As for the rest of your commentary - I'm not sure if moronic or imbecilic is more apropos. I likely need no more precision, as either likely fits the bill.

I think you are being a bit harsh, Mr. B...I don’t believe Gibson’s peg-head failure rate is much more than any other manufacturer’s once design, construction, and material-related failures are excluded from consideration.

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

As usual, Ms. G, you seem to have a bead on things. The design has been a pile since Day One.

I buy their fretboards for 10 cents on the dollar. usually the defect in them is a small split or worm hole which takes only a few minutes to fix perfectly.
also the quality of the ebony is better than what I buy from the supply houses.

Regarding g*bson headstock breaks: We repair a lot of headstock breaks and it's often because someone searching the Internet sees Dave's headstock repair jig that he put out here in the public domain a decade or so ago.

I remarked several months ago when Dave was doing one on a non-g*bson that "wow it broke and it's not even a g*bson..." . Now I don't have data and our mix of acoustic/electric instruments in for repair is around 50:50 but it seems that nearly all of the headstock breaks that we repair are on g*bsons.

One outlier that we are currently doing for a well know recording artist is of all things a b*njo.... but hey, sure as shootin it's also a freakin g*bson...

Anyway I appreciate the belief that g*bson's headstock design is more prone to breaking than others because that's exactly what we see too in our shop. I also appreciate giving a darn about all the disappointed stewards/customers, that sucks and it is sad to see people all upset that their instrument is wounded.

People like the thin necks on the Gibson guitars and with the truss rod excavation there isn't much wood left in a critical area. The necks usually break from a fall or some other trauma, so it is as much the fault of the owners as it is the guitars. You can't treat a champagne flute the way you can a tin cup.
I'm sure they could improve the design of their necks, but that would mean redoing their neck making process, which might not be in the cards for a company struggling from years of mismanagement. As long as they are selling guitars they may not see a reason to change.

About half of all Gibson neck breaks we've seen occurred in closed cases - usually from a minor fall top-down or top-up (different failure mechanism but same result). Instruments with closed back tuners - particularly Grover Rotomatics - are especially prone to breakage due to the near-doubling of tuner weight over box-back vintage-style tuners with plastic buttons, as are those instruments with poor stock selection through the neck-peghead transition area.

When I did the initial organization and scanning of repair tickets here in the shop, I found just a few for non-Gibson/Epi neck breaks, and those were major damage events where the neck separated from the body. There were hundreds of Gibson and Epiphone neck breaks during the same period of time - with nearly all of those at the nut area.

More disturbing: a fair number of other makers use single-action peghead-adjusted tension rods in their necks, and should see corresponding damage events, but don't. Neck breaks on Taylors are vanishingly rare, and Yamaha acoustics built in the 1960's and 1970's still soldier on without issue (guitarist for SHAED, Spencer Ernst ...think MacBook Air commercial, Fallon, etc....still plays one of our Red label FG-180 rebuilds as his primary stage acoustic, despite years of constant touring with guitar in soft case). The real question is not why Gibsons and Epis see such disproportionate neck breakage, but instead, why other marques with similar truss rod access provisions do not.

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

You may not see many peghead repair tickets on lower end instruments, because a broken peghead is often considered the coup de grace on cheap old beat up guitars. IIRC 60's and early 70's Yamaha guitars had rather thick necks. Better quality guitars have better material selection and workmanship, so probably do break less. I have always considered Gibson flat tops to be a low end guitar at a high end price. Their electric guitars had a bit more finesse than the competition, but again same neck problems if dropped. If you don't drop your guitar it should be O.K.

Gibson headstock - simply cut two slots at the headstock/neck transition and glue two wooden splines in. Problem solved. They don't need to buy new materials, redesign the headstock, scarf the joint, blah blah blah. There are many many ways to fix this problem ... we're talking 6th grade level of woodworking knowledge. Instead, Gibson - working on a 70-year legacy of dejected owners. That's the way to spread joy with music.

Splines are ugly. Taylor tried the finger joint which people equate to cheap lumber and didn't gain acceptance on their higher end models.
What percentage of Gibson's wind up with broken headstocks? It may be more than average but still acceptably low.

I believe Mr. B is referring to reinforcement splines that run under the headplate, nut and into the neck, and taper in depth to avoid creating stress risers at the end-points; these are different than the splines typically seen in repair work. For new construction, it is feasible to add these splines before the headplate and fretboard are installed, thus avoiding any signature on the exterior of the instrument. We've used carbon fiber splines on several new instruments where this level of reinforcement is appropriate.

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan