I felt genuinely sick when my Takamine acoustic guitar fell over and cracked it's head stock





Sick like I imagine a person might feel if they broke an arm and were confronted with a jagged edge of blood stained bone erupting from their ruptured skin.

Luckily whilst on Facebook a few days later I had a bit of a brain wave and decided to contact my friend in the blues Chicken Bone John. Until fairly recently John was the co founder and host of the Crossroads Blues Club, a place that has been very important to me. He now designs, makes and sells Cigar Box Guitars. I had a chat with him and he kindly offered to take a look at my Taky.

I visited John in his workshop and the first thing he did was loosen the strings and express surprise that the headstock didn't completely fall off...if anything this would have been better he said as he would have a clean break to work with. In the event the break probably looked a bit worse than it was, and John was fairly confident that some strong glue and an overnight rest in a "mini jack" would fix the wound. It things proved a bit more complicated then it might be necessary to break the headstock off...he wouldn't do that while I was there though!!

Being so busy making custom guitars for customers around the world I was expecting that it would be a while before I heard any more, but that very evening John posted this on Facebook

and sent me the following message;
The patient is currently responding well to treatment and is expected to have a quiet night. The surgical procedure entails being strapped down firmly overnight with the break glued and clamped shut in a jig. The cosmetic surgeon will be visiting the ward in the morning to review the situation.

Happily the next day all was well, and I was able to pick up the guitar. She was all back together, playing great and with the slightest of marks which I actually think looks quite cool



So many thanks to John for fixing my workhorse guitar (I teach and gig with this guitar all the time, that's why it gets battered.) It was good fun hanging out with John and getting a look at some of the beautiful guitars he creates. I will definitely be getting myself a Cigar Box Guitar made at some point soon.

Check out John's website
and facebook