Strength of Ramirez guitars

[Sharstrom]

Recently, a friend brought his six-year-old daughter over to my house, where he wanted to hear the latest Bach piece I'm working on. I was playing for him, with my 2001 Ramirez 1a, bought new from GSI, when his daughter got up off the floor, ran across the room, and threw herself onto the guitar's face, knocking me and the guitar off the back of the stool with the kid on top of us. [Maybe she wanted attention?] Before you ask, I was concentrating on the guitar playing and not the kid.... Anyhow, the result is that the guitar is fine, not a scratch. This was a full-on blow, too, her whole body smashing into it. For several days, I'd awaken in the a.m. and open the guitar case to make sure the guitar was really, really ok. I am still a little emotionally rattled. But the guitar is fine, so I'll get over it. One day.

[Andy0815]

Thx for sharing. That must be a real nightmare. Have a Ramirez Elite which i guard jealously. That would break my heart if the guitar got damaged by some ignorant idiot. Had a guy in y room which took up my Koessl guitar and smashed it against my table by accident. Guess what went through my mind at that moment.......:mad:

[JoeAlders]

Sharstrom,

After this horrendous event there is one thing for sure: you have passed the blood pressure test! Nothing wrong with your vascular system!
B.T.W. I am playing on a Ramirez 1a build in 1979.

Joe.

[Sharstrom]

Whoa, I'd forgotten I posted about this. I haven't forgotten the incident. The guitar is still fine. I had this nightmare idea that maybe there would be some stored stress or something and I'd open the case someday and find the top busted or whatever.

The parent of the child had been a good friend for many yr. and I haven't seen or heard from him since. He became a father at nearly 65 yr. old [this little girl] for the first time and I think he had no clue how to react or how to deal with her, as two other friends have recently told me they had the exact same experience, except not with a guitar. Just sitting in the room and she comes running over and slams into them. She is now ten or eleven or so, and I imagine hurts more than she did when she hit me. Problem I really had was that the parent ignored it and did nothing.

But, my guitar is fine.

[Tony D'Arco]

Sounds to me like when the attention is not on this kid she attacks whoever the attention is on - in this case you and your guitar. Glad you both survived. It must have been a hell of a shock. I hope this kid is not doing this when she's 15 or 16, then we're talking about serious damage.
I love kids but I won't take my guitar out of the case in the same room where there are kids in play mode. They're just too fast and unpredictable.