So this happened Tuesday evening when I sat down to run through a few tunes:

As I was tuning up the guitar, I grabbed the tuning machine for my D string, and the knob fell off in my hand. Surveying the damage, I noticed the whole thing was slightly bent out of shape; I don’t remember doing it, but I must’ve bumped the headstock someplace in the last couple of days. It happens.

I’m proud of myself that I didn’t panic; I merely put out a call to Guitar Works in Carytown, perhaps the best luthier I’ve ever dealt with (these are the only folks I’ve ever found who were able to get the intonation set properly on my ’64 SG Special and it’s finicky non-Tune-o-Matic stop tailpiece so the G string didn’t buzz; that makes them wizards in my book), who informed me that it was, as I expected, easy fix, most likely, if they happened to have a matching replacement in the shop, which was a crap shoot to determine over the phone.

Having rehearsal scheduled with Dimensional Riffs on Wednesday night, I dug out my backup acoustic (hiding in Mary’s room), and threw both instruments in the back of my car yesterday afternoon after work (shop is more-or-less on the way to the rehearsal space), figuring I’d hope it could be fixed while I wait, but be prepared for it requiring an overnight stay.

As usual, the folks at GW came through for me. Buried in the shop junk drawer was a perfectly matching piece, save the “Takamine” sticker on the bottom of the tuner barrel. Ten minutes and five bucks later, my blonde Takamine Jumbo was back in action and ready to rehearse the new tunes we’re putting together for ConCarolinas next weekend; and belive me, there’s some really good stuff in there.

So, musical crisis averted. Not much of a story, I guess, but it’s something that had been consuming a lot of my brain cycles for 24 hours or so. It’s a common problem, but one I’d managed to avoid for about 30 years of active guitar playing, so I guess it was my turn. Thanks for listening.