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i was reading some reviews of a gibson sg standard. this one guy (who says hes a woodworker) just bought one and this is what he said at the end....

quot;Another side note, based on the angle of the headstock in relation to the neck, I loosen the strings by 3 turns to relieve tension on the wood. While I have never heard of any issues, the psi of 6 tuned strings is very high. My concern is that a mild bump to the headstock could theoretically result in cracking the wood/neck. Just a theory.quot;
maybe all of those guys who play in like drop c and stuff like that were right!

so what he retunes his guitar every time he plays or is this meant for storage? while I imagine there is some possibily it sounds far fetched to me. is there an epidemic of SGs losing their headstocks we need to worry about?

im not sure, i imagine its for storage. but it sounds a little far fetched to me.

I've heard of people doing this on floyd guitars. Doesnt sound right to me.


Originally Posted by nepalnt21quot;Another side note, based on the angle of the headstock in relation to the neck, I loosen the strings by 3 turns to relieve tension on the wood. While I have never heard of any issues, the psi of 6 tuned strings is very high. My concern is that a mild bump to the headstock could theoretically result in cracking the wood/neck. Just a theory.quot;


that guy is just plain ignorant

John said it best....

-Mike


Originally Posted by h8red442

is there an epidemic of SGs losing their headstocks we need to worry about?

if there was guitars losing the headstocks i think that would be the first sign of the apocolypse and i dont know if id want to survive it for to much longer

in theory he might be right if it was hundreds of years and it was in bad temperature humidity conditions kinda like the the us constitiution but thats vaccuum sealed none of which would be relavant to us unless ur gwar thats millions of years old and from outerspace

Whomever said this is spouting crap. It sounds like hogwash to me and should be ignored. Furthermore, the originator of this garbage should be publicly flogged.

Only in longterm storage conditions. As long as you play the instrument and keep the neck's trussrod adjustment perfect, you'll have no problems. Also, fresher strings don't stress the neck as much as old strings on a guitar, tuned up, sitting in a closet for 10 years......I'd still tune down a step before retiring a guitar to a closet for a long period of time.

I keep my SG in standard all the time, and play it, and don't baby it... No issues thus far. Hell, the thing fell off a guitar stand and the neck is still ok...

Some time ago I was looking for a used ES 335 on Ebay, and found to my surprise that many had crackles and were injured in the area behind the nut. I believe it has to do with the wood in the neck, mahagony, which is somewhat fragile compared to other woods. But I don´t believe it has to do with the string tension, but that it happens when the guitar accidently fall on its back.

I saw an old strat on which the neck was warped beyond repair gt; apparentley it had been in storage for years tuned as standard with fairly light strings on but the truss rod was completely slack

Don't know if that's the same thing????


Originally Posted by nepalnt21i was reading some reviews of a gibson sg standard. this one guy (who says hes a woodworker) just bought one and this is what he said at the end....

quot;Another side note, based on the angle of the headstock in relation to the neck, I loosen the strings by 3 turns to relieve tension on the wood. While I have never heard of any issues, the psi of 6 tuned strings is very high. My concern is that a mild bump to the headstock could theoretically result in cracking the wood/neck. Just a theory.quot;
...


If you drop a guitar on it´s head, it usually won´t matter whether strings are on or not, and if it falls over backwards it won´t really matter , either

And should the headstock become cracked or come off in any other situation: Quit buying cheapo guitars


Originally Posted by Zerberus



If you drop a guitar on it´s head, it usually won´t matter whether strings are on or not, and if it falls over backwards it won´t really matter , either

And should the headstock become cracked or come off in any other situation: Quit buying cheapo guitars

yeah ive only had one headstock break, that was with an epiphone special. cheapo guitars break real easy. some fat dude fell on the stage and caught it with his harm or something, went for the next chord, damn, headstock dangling by my knees.


Originally Posted by nepalnt21quot;Another side note, based on the angle of the headstock in relation to the neck, I loosen the strings by 3 turns to relieve tension on the wood. While I have never heard of any issues, the psi of 6 tuned strings is very high. My concern is that a mild bump to the headstock could theoretically result in cracking the wood/neck. Just a theory.quot;

Quick, somebody tell Angus!!

Yes the headstock angle does make the guitar more prone to headstock breakage.But that is because the top of the stock is usually the first thing to hit the ground,therefore:be careful with your guitar.
As for the retuning: .
If that where true then SG's from the 60's would all be garbage,and since they're,(depending on how well they've been cared for),still playable........

SG's are notorious for headstock breaks, they also wind up with cracks where the neck joins the body. A characteristic of the design. Loosening the strings won't help. String tension won't cause the neck to crack. Dropping the guitar or knocking it off its stand will!

Gibson's in general have had a history of headstock breakage... more so than any other manufacturer... I have a 1970 Gibson J38 that has been played, but not abused... It suffered the Gibson crack around 1994... I followed some very practical guidelines from a well-known luthier and fixed the joint.... According to him, the neck is now stronger because OF the joint... I still havent bothered trying to blend the seam in with the rest of the neck... It plays fine, why bother....

On the other hand, I dont think constantly adjusting the tension would have favorable effects on this phenomenon.... Wouldnt adding tension for a short period of time, followed by relieveing tension cause the joint to become weak quicker?!?!

Oh well, just another wanker writing about deductions he has made, probably on second hand information...


Originally Posted by Simon_FQuick, somebody tell Angus!!