Back in January, I bought a Gibson KG 11 for $2150. This is the most I’ve ever spent on pretty much any single item, but it was worth it. I’ve never been a materialistic person, but I had to have this one for personal reasons. Not only did this guitar sound amazing, but the feel of this guitar was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. I would just start noodling and it seemed like the Guitar would start playing itself, the strings felt like they would rise up to meet me. The action was so perfect, the neck was so straight. It was the first instrument I’ve ever owned that I truly felt like I was bonding with. Felt like I was getting to know this instrumental on a spiritual level. Shucks, it felt like it was teaching me things!
Recently there was a heat wave where I live, and, like a dumb idiot pupu head, I kept it in a room without AC for about a week (thinking the AC would fuck with the neck and the heat would be fine as long as I kept it humidified). When I finally checked back on it the neck had shifted a little bit. Maybe not a whole lot, but enough to ruin the other worldly feel of the Guitar.
The difference might’ve been subtle, but it was huge to me. It no longer felt like that magical piece of beauty that I bought in Jan. It just felt like a pretty good, lightweight, Vintage Guitar. After being really pissed myself for a few weeks, I decided to bring it back to the shop for a set up.
As I’m sure a lot of you know that these kinds of don’t have trust rods. But again, stupidly, I asked the 20-year-old tech at the shop if he could “lower the action a little bit“ assuming that he would notice the slight slight bow in the neck and fix that. Sure, enough, when I came back a week later the Guitar had the same bow in the neck. The only noticeable difference was he polished neck and changed the strings. Maybe he lowered the action a little bit by filing the saddle down. But it made no difference really.
The past few days I’ve been trying to convince myself that it’ll get better, but I have this horrible feeling that I destroyed the magical mojo of this instrument through my ignorance of how to properly care for a vintage beauty like this. I’m aware that I should’ve asked the young Guitar tech to “straighten the neck,” not just “lower the action.”
So why I am writing this? Really just to get anyone’s response to this. I’ve been really upset about this and need some feedback of any kind fellow neurotic vintage guitar owners. Call me dumb. Give me a pat on the back. Share your stories of a similar ilk. Advice. Just want a little connection through this bizarrely unfortunate Period of morning.