Gibson Guitar Fault and Walton's lack of customer service - Advice Please

kneeelix

HI everyone,
Hoping to get some advice on an issue with my guitar. I hope this is the correct place to post this.

Three months ago I opened my hardshell guitar case to see that the headstock of my guitar had snapped from the neck of the guitar. I contacted the manufacturer (GIBSON) who directed me to their irish distributor (WALTON'S) for assessment of the issue.

After being told twice that the assessment had taken place and that they were awaiting a full report on the fault I waited patiently.
I was finally told the truth which was it had not taken place at all and got the standard excuses.
Finally (after two months) the guitar was sent from the distributors for assessement and it was carried out. The fault has been deemed by their expert to have occurred due to the guitar being dropped. I know this is not the case as there is no damage from any kind of impact to indicate a fall.
(The guitar is in immaculate condition with the exception of this shear cut at the neck!!) The guitar also is stored in a hardshell case made by GIBSON. Also anybody who is farmiliar with these guitars knows they are not cheap and those who own them treat them with extreme care. I have now been told it is available for collection without the issue being remedied.

What should my course of action be as I am 100% confident that the fault did not occur due to a fall or other impact.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cabaal

Hard for you to prove you didn't drop it even if you went to small claims

Esoteric_

Gibson guitars cost upwards of two grand if I remember right, so they should definitely last longer than this!

I would suggest that you send a registered letter to the head office of Waltons, telling them what you've told us (that there was no other damage of any kind that would indicate a fall, it was stored in the Gibson protective case, so should have been properly protected, etc) and that you will wait 10 days for a response on this issue. If after ten days you have heard nothing, tell them you will bring a case to the Small Claims Court.

Ultimately, you may have to prove that you didn't damage it, but from what you've said, it's pretty much not feasible that accidental damage occured.

There is no set time under law for how long they have to take to remedy an issue, but 2 months should be considered more than a reasonable amount of time.

antoinolachtnai

Who did you buy it from?

kneeelix

Wow that was quick!
I realise it's a my word against their's situation which is unfortunately what most things boil down to.
I purchased it from Instrumental on bachelors walk which has since closed down so Waltons did not directly profit from the sale of it. It must have passed through their distribution centre though.
I was not annoyed at the lenght of time it took for the assessment more that i had been told twice it had taken place when it had not and the usual "i should have information by next week" malarky.
Thats some pretty sounds advice LyndaMcl.

My own logic is it definately did not drop outside of the case as it would be plainly visible. Secondly I would know I was at Fault and would just pay for the repair.
So logically if it had been dropped it was in a hardshell case designed by gibson to protect the guitar in such an eventuality.
Also their is a lifetime warranty on failure of parts and materials I forgot to mention that in my original message.

Should I collect the guitar from their store today or would that be considered accepting fault on my part for the fault?

preilly79

Hi OP,

Did the headstock break from the neck like this or did the neck break away from the body?

The lick above describes a situation where the headstock broke away from the neck while the gibson was in the case which fell over. Any chance that might have happened?

antoinolachtnai

Legally, Gibson and Waltons have no obligation to you. The place you bought it from has the obligation. So any sort of legal action or threat under consumer legislation would be a non-runner (unless you could track down the shop and the company was still trading in some form).

Effectively, Gibson and Waltons agreed to take a look at the guitar to see if they will do anything either on a grace and favour basis, or under the manufacturer's warranty. Now they have decided not to do anything.

Could you hold Gibson to the guarantee? Legally there are questions - would you need to go to wherever Gibson are, and go to court there? Could you really bind them to it?

The best I could think to do would be to bring the guitar to a highly reputable repair place, and ask them to give you a report. Then try sending the report and the photos and any other detail to Gibson and see what they say. I wouldn't have thought that Gibson would want stories all over the Internet about broken headstocks (although it looks like I'm wrong - see http://www.edroman.com/rants/les_paul_necks.htm)

The guitar repair place might have some other ideas on what happened. Could have been something to do with humidity, too much/lack of tension on the strings.

Obviously this will cost money. And I think you are going to end up paying the repair.

I can't see that picking up the guitar will weaken your case.

Welease

Your problem is proving your case ..

The neck could have broken if the case fell over, you can't be 100% sure (unless it has never left your sight), and you can't prove it eitherway. The internals of the case would protect from chips etc as a result of the fall, but it might not protect against a shock break especially on notoriously weak Gibson necks.

If your firmly believed it to be a manufacturing fault, you could get a wood/luthier expert to prepare a report on the next for non impact faults (rot, bad wood composition). This would provide some backup in court, but it would be expensive.

Gibson can be held accountable for the warranty in the absence of Instrumental, as they are the manufacturers. But again, its your word against theirs.

If it were me, I would get the neck repaired (cost about 400 or so), and leave the case lying down flat next time..

kneeelix

Preilly the link you attached with the pictures is strikingly similar to the brake in my guitar very clean, no splinters.
I dont gig so the guitar has never left my home and is flat packed when not in use. I use gibson strings turned to standard and have never attempted to adjust the truss bar.

Would that incident not point towards the case not being properly designed?
Surely the objective of a case is to provide protection against such incidents?

Looking at how similar those photos are and the other link attached by antoinolachtnai i am starting to doubt myself although I am faily confident the case did not fall as its flat packed always (although I cant prove that). 400 euro is a fair whack to repair a neck. any estimates on a a total neck replacement? what would be the better option?

I have never heard of gibson necks being known for breakages before.
Cheers for all the info everyone

Welease

kneeelix wrote: »

Preilly the link you attached with the pictures is strikingly similar to the brake in my guitar very clean, no splinters.
I dont gig so the guitar has never left my home and is flat packed when not in use. I use gibson strings turned to standard and have never attempted to adjust the truss bar.

Would that incident not point towards the case not being properly designed?
Surely the objective of a case is to provide protection against such incidents?

Nope.. The case is a form of protection.. If the case is dropped the shock will be transferred to the guitar (albeit slightly lessened).. there is nothing in the case design to counteract the laws of gravity Gibson have never stated that the case was designed or sold for protections from drops etc.

kneeelix wrote: »

Looking at how similar those photos are and the other link attached by antoinolachtnai i am starting to doubt myself although I am faily confident the case did not fall as its flat packed always (although I cant prove that). 400 euro is a fair whack to repair a neck. any estimates on a a total neck replacement? what would be the better option?

Post over on the instruments forum for a better price.. I know some folks there have had them fixed (thankfully mine have not ever been dropped)... The top price is for a full proper fix including refinishing so you wouldnt see a join.. it becomes a lot cheaper (or free if you do it yourself) if its just a glue job to reattach the headstock.

kneeelix wrote: »

I have never heard of gibson necks being known for breakages before.
Cheers for all the info everyone

Sadly yes.. do a Google search for Gibson Broken neck..
Even the Wiki mentions it "Because the Les Paul had the reputation of having an easily broken neck joint, the volute strengthened the neck where it joined the headstock to avert breakage."

Best of luck.. I'd be gutted if mine broke.. So i understand your pain

kneeelix

Thanks for the sympathies welease. sounds like I dont have a leg to stand on. I have been turned off Gibson not only from my dissapointment with how fragile their guitars seem to be but also with their lack of customer service. Not to mention Waltons lying to me twice about the assessment and taking over 90 days to get back to me. (I am still convinced it wasnt dropped but the similarity to the pictures in those links does tend to plant the seed of doubt).

That all being said It looks like I only have one course of action. Get it fixed

Any other info anybody might have would be very much appreciated!
Thanks again to everybody for their input!

Run_to_da_hills

Write a song about your broken Gibson guitar and stick it on Utube.

You will definitally get it sorted.

Worked for this guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Breaks_Guitars