[eyeJam]

> can't break your headstock off — a quite common way to damage your guitar

Really? Are people using their guitars as hammers? I think it's pretty damn hard to break a headstock off. Much more common damage to a guitar is denting the frets, distorting the neck or busting the tuning pegs. I'd put "breaking off the headstock" as the 99th percentile of common ways people materially damage their guitar.

[jdietrich]

Gibson guitars are notorious for broken headstocks, due to an archaic and inherently defective design. Modern scarf-jointed headstocks do occasionally break, but they're more prone to cracking around the machine head holes.

https://www.google.com/search?q=gibson+broken+headstock&tbm=...

http://jacksinstrumentservices.com/why-do-les-paul-headstock...

[eyeJam]

I stand corrected

[moogly]

I should've said accidental damage. Dropping the guitar. Knocking the stand over. Shipping damage. Guitar trauma, basically.

Tuning pegs don't really tend to fail. Unless you have those "vintage" Les Paul-style ones (yuck), but they're easy to replace.

Frets get worn down, necks tend to bow or arch, or at worst warp (more seldom). Fret recrowning/redressing, truss rod adjustment and fretboard leveling are part of the regular maintenance of a long-lived electric guitar.

Now, headstock breakages are usually pretty easy to fix for a luthier, and the result is stronger, since a glued joint is stronger, just not as strong as a glued scarf joint.

[elihu]

It's common with Gibsons due to the angle of the headstock relative to the grain of the wood.