I recently went into my closet where I store all of my guitars (vertically & in their cases) and found that my bathroom, on the other side of the wall, leaked water into the carpet in the closet. Long story short, the cases for my EC strat and my '04 50th Anv. Am Sr. Strat got mold on them. My beloved, and beat up 1979 Strat got mold on the body, and and the lower 1/3 of the body swelled and seperated, and the in neck needs to be set back up. I'm not very happy about this, but thank God for home owners insurence. I'm sending the guitar and the cases to my local luthier to get an estimate.

The EC and 50th Anv. Strats and the rest of my collection are fine.

I'll keep you posted as things develope.

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1975 Sunburst Stratocaster rosewood finger board
1979 Stratocaster with roseowood finder board
2001 Candy Green Clapton Stratocaster
2007 Andy Summers Inspired Telecaster
2007 '51 P-Bass
2012 Taylor 110
2015 Mystic Ice Blue Deluxe Stratocaster Plus

Sorry that happened to you. Now you've got me paranoid about where I've got my guitars stored (in the finished portion of the basement, but probably still too close to the hot water heater tank should it ever spring a leak).

I hope they are able to get that '79 restored for you; that's the real shame. The Clapton case is easily replaceable - and depending on how extensive the mold damage is I would consider just replacing it. The case for the 50th is a bit more problematic - it should probably be replaced but you can't get these any more unless by some odd chance Fender still has some stashed in their warehouse.

Good luck and please let us know how the repairs on the '79 turn out.

Thanks for your post. As to the cases, well I kind of figured that much. A ray sunshine in this whole thing is that the EC and 50th Strats play just fine.

I keep mine across the top shelf in the closet just in case of flood I can fit 6 hard cases up there but i trip over the wife's shoe collection every time i get one down

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Oh Paris Im am really sorry..that is just horrible! I hope the Luthier can do a wonderful job on the repairs. The only good that can come out of this is maybe everyone will sort of think about where their guitars are and maybe rethink some areas.
Again I honestly feel badly for you!

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Mona
"Music is What Feelings Sound like"

I have far to many guitars to put them on the top shelf. My wonderful wife has donated her 2 of her closets in our bedroom until we sort this out. My dad sugested that I put a pallet down on the floor to raise them up off the ground.

Paris,
That is sad news, especially with the
79 strat

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

Man I am really sorry to hear that! But you know it is a good wake up call for all to go and re evaluate our own situations with what if scenarios!!

Good Luck!

ginop

ARG! I hate stories like this. certainly would have ruined my day, I'd be "not happy" too.

Good luck Paris, let us know the outcome, hope it's a happy ending.

/KB

OUCH !

Sorry this happened to you. Hope it can all be made right !

cheers!

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'11 FSR Am. Vtg. Ltd. Ed. CAR '57 Stratocaster (SN# LE02639)
'14 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster
'12 Telebration Empress Telecaster
'99 Deluxe Nashville Telecaster
'12 FSR Telecaster HH
'10 Heritage H-535
'99 Martin DC-1E
'13 Lanikai Tenor Ukulele

Wow...now that would ruin my day for sure. Truely sorry to hear that happened.

Edit...Can't believe I missed the whole cases gone to luthier! I do have an eye appointment this next saturday...

Are you sure you can't clean up the cases? I know tweed ain't easy to clean up and the insides will be problematic but the cases are worth a try. Might be an opportunity to pull the tweed off em and make a project out of it and tolex them, it sure can't hurt to try.

FWIW

T2

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What time is it? It's Fender Time.

I keep a lot of my guitars in a closet in the basement... but, they are three feet off the floor!



Okay, the cheaper guitars (visible at bottom right) are in gig bags and they are sitting on the floor on a rug... I ran out of room on the shelves...

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

Dennis, why not build yourself a small pallet to keep those other guitars up off of the floor? Some 1/2" plywood or even OSB with a few junk 2 x 4's would "buy" you about 4" of breathing room should some aqueous calamity befall the basement.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

A small update: The ins. co. will cover the repairs to guitar and will pay for the replacement of the cases. I can't get another 50th Anv. case, but I can still get a nice case.

I'm having the guitar repaired by a good luthier and repainted by another guy who does really good work. It's going to take a bit, but in the end the guitar will be a better player than it was when I bought it. When I got the guitar it looked like it had been played by Rory Gallager or SRV for about 30 years. I'm repacing the frets with med-jumbo and having the body painted to the original Olympic White (but having it aged to match the wear on the neck).

Sorry to hear the bad news.....
I would add that this is a rather common problem with closets adjacent to bathroom's. The amount of moisture generated in a bathroom needs adequate air recirculation to redirect excess moisture to the exterior.
Since you need to also repair the closet, I would see if you can place vents at the bottom as well as at the top of the closet wall to keep ambient air moving in and out of your closet....
Clothing will incur the same issues of mold when in a closet without air movement...

My house is vinyl sided with vinyl windows.. ( we bought it this way ) and we always have issues with moisture, especially since we're in the woods and surrounded by 3 ponds, a stream and the property West is considered wetlands....My garage is loaded with new Andersen windows to replace all the existing windows and add a few more such as skylights, in short let as much passive sunlight in as possible. As well as the exterior will be replaced with yellow cedar shingles and cedar trim.....I will enjoy cutting up the vinyl siding and sending it to recycling.....

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "