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My Karma must be REALLY bad.

nothing better then hearing a parent keep their cool when their kid has an accident like that.... if i were you i would try to fix it myself.... but then again i buy junkers from thrift stores and fix them... and acoustics are usually a b-witch to fix... but nothings finer than playing an instrument you fixed yourself... like my extremely beat up classical guitar
 
Excellent handling of a tough situation. Beautiful perspective.

Instead of tossing it, I'd give a repair a go, depending on the break, maybe even doing it yourself with your daughter.

I'm not a luthier, and I don't play one on TV, but I would think the headstock has less effect on tone compared to the neck, etc. I know there are wood glues that are stronger than the wood itself and even if has a hideous seam, you'll have good bass mojo.
 
+1 to many of the above comments

if there is such a thing as karma, you should have some of the good variety heading your way for the fatherly way you handled it


on a related note, my father in law told my wife not long ago that some of us, though 'unlucky' in certain things (like me winning a paid vacation for a week in cancun but not being present in the ballroom to accept!) were lucky in the things that count in life (like health, family, having food to eat, a house)...makes a lot of sense when i think about it
 
I did that to my dad once. He was playing outside the house, and had another guitar on a stand next to him. I came whipping around the house on my bike, and caught the headstock of the one on the stand with my handlebars.

Crash. Snap. There goes the headstock.

It was, if I remember correctly, his 1968 Gibson J-200. :eek:

He had it repaired by a competent luthier. It was never worth as much money as it would have been intact, but it played and sounded just as good as new.


Then there was the time I knocked over my drummer's vintage Mosrite Ventures model and took a huge chunk of the finish off the carved top...boy was he pissed off!
 
yeah man well handled with your daughter, you should be proud that you've raised a kid that owns up and tells you striaght away. being able to talk to you like that will pay off later in life im sure.

I woulda denied all knowledge of anything happening.... :hiding:

pity about the guitar
 
i agree with all of the above comments... having been the child and done the breaking in my day (for me it was my dads vintage 35mm camera shutter... just wanted to see what would happen if i poked it... turns out it broke lol) i still kinda beat myself up for it, and your daughter knows she made a mistake, good on you for how you handled it
 
But I had my "gear priority" list just where I wanted it when this happened so I guess its back to the drawing board.

Family has a way of rearranging our gear priority list.

You did good, amigo. And you sound like you have an awesome family, as already stated.

So another MK goes onto your gear list - not the end of the world. Honestly, I think the memory of "parenting done well" (we get a few of those) that gets attached to that bass will make good for itself.

But first - call a luthier. It's often really inexpensive to reglue a headstock.
There might even be someone on TB in your area who can help with that.
 
I have a friend, who is a total amateur at repairing guitars, who's broken the headstock on his epiphone g-400 custom 3 times, and he's fixed it with great results every time.

I'd keep the bass, and repair it when you can, because thats just what happened to the bass, there's no reason to try and forget it. You did the right thing, and so did your wife and daughter.
 
Wow!! What a good father! Your daughter is worth more than a million bass guitars. Like you said " life goes on". Hang on to the pieces of the bass and in time the $$ will show up to have it fixed or replaced. What goes around comes around.

+1.

I have two daughters.


They've had some accidents that resulted in damage to some of my stuff.

You know what? An accident is an accident and stuff is just "stuff." NONE of it--no material possession--is worth causing grief in your life or anyone else's when it really comes down to it.

I hope your daughter isn't upset anymore, and I hope you get to replace it someday. I know all about tight finanaces, believe me.

Best to you and your great family!
 
I figured some of you morbid bastages would like to see some pics of the carnage...


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Anyone with advice or experience is welcome to give it. I looked at it a bit tonight and tried to match the headstock back up to see if I could glue it myself, but it is messy. I don't have confidence that this is a DIY job.
 

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