Hi friends,
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I recently won the guitar listed above from an ebay auction. According to the seller it was in fantastic playing condition, other than some finish wear. He even claimed it was played by Dave Gonzales at his wedding, but I have not seen any proof of that like a photo. As you can see in the first photo the guitar had some changed out parts.
The guildsby is not original because it was 1961 before Guild came out with that. I have also seen that type of bridge before but when it arrived it looked like the franken-bridge which was made of several parts with a plate under it to bring it up high enough. All the pots were loose and the bridge pickup was not working at all. A few screws were replaced, no big deal, but the pickguard only had one screw in it. It was also covered in years of dust, dirt and grime and the case smelled horrible. Fortunately the guitar did not. You can see that there is some finish wear on the top where the player's arm rested. There is also an area on the back of finish wear, but no buckle rash. The wood is fine. The finish on the back of the neck shows some wear as well. The guitar was not in good playable condition as it was said to be in our communications. So my first thought was to send it back for a refund. Then I gave the guitar a good inspection. The guitar itself was in rather good shape. All the binding and peghead laminate was fine. There had never been any repairs of any kind and the reason I like the 1960 model CE100 so much is because the nut width is 1 11/16ths of an inch. It was shortened to 1 5/8ths shortly after.
So after giving it a thorough inspection I decided to try and work some magic after I decided the guitar still had the potential of being a great vintage piece. Here's what it looks like now.
I removed all the parts and took about two hours to clean all the years of grime all over the thing. It came out looking quite good actually. After cleaning the 3 way switch I got the pickup working again loud and clear. Now they both sounded great. I dug in my parts drawer and pulled a period correct wood bridge and a not so period correct harp tailpiece and installed them. The guitar was really shaping up nicely. Lastly I replaced as many screws as I could and cut a small piece of felt for under the pickguard screw that was missing. I put it all back together and strung it with GHS medium roundwounds and after adjusting the truss, action and intonation it plays great.
Now it's a keeper. It plays like butter and sounds fantastic. It had been refretted some time in the past with medium gauge fret wire which is very comfortable with my playing style. So all's well that ends well. I used parts I already had and it just took some of my idle time to do something I enjoy anyway. I turned a played out old dirty guitar into a nice vintage piece anyone would be happy to play. Okay so I am patting myself on the back a little. Why not?
So I have been enjoying playing my project the last few days. I am glad I decided to keep it. Then I decided it was time for another family photo. It's been a while and I've had some new additions. For those of you who may have seen my family photos before you will note the same maroon sofa at my new home. The instruments may change but the sofa remains the same. To coin a phrase.
Though it seems to be getting ever smaller. I won't list a description this time because if you look at my signature it will tell you what you need to know. Thanks again for indulging me.
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I recently won the guitar listed above from an ebay auction. According to the seller it was in fantastic playing condition, other than some finish wear. He even claimed it was played by Dave Gonzales at his wedding, but I have not seen any proof of that like a photo. As you can see in the first photo the guitar had some changed out parts.
The guildsby is not original because it was 1961 before Guild came out with that. I have also seen that type of bridge before but when it arrived it looked like the franken-bridge which was made of several parts with a plate under it to bring it up high enough. All the pots were loose and the bridge pickup was not working at all. A few screws were replaced, no big deal, but the pickguard only had one screw in it. It was also covered in years of dust, dirt and grime and the case smelled horrible. Fortunately the guitar did not. You can see that there is some finish wear on the top where the player's arm rested. There is also an area on the back of finish wear, but no buckle rash. The wood is fine. The finish on the back of the neck shows some wear as well. The guitar was not in good playable condition as it was said to be in our communications. So my first thought was to send it back for a refund. Then I gave the guitar a good inspection. The guitar itself was in rather good shape. All the binding and peghead laminate was fine. There had never been any repairs of any kind and the reason I like the 1960 model CE100 so much is because the nut width is 1 11/16ths of an inch. It was shortened to 1 5/8ths shortly after.
So after giving it a thorough inspection I decided to try and work some magic after I decided the guitar still had the potential of being a great vintage piece. Here's what it looks like now.
I removed all the parts and took about two hours to clean all the years of grime all over the thing. It came out looking quite good actually. After cleaning the 3 way switch I got the pickup working again loud and clear. Now they both sounded great. I dug in my parts drawer and pulled a period correct wood bridge and a not so period correct harp tailpiece and installed them. The guitar was really shaping up nicely. Lastly I replaced as many screws as I could and cut a small piece of felt for under the pickguard screw that was missing. I put it all back together and strung it with GHS medium roundwounds and after adjusting the truss, action and intonation it plays great.
Now it's a keeper. It plays like butter and sounds fantastic. It had been refretted some time in the past with medium gauge fret wire which is very comfortable with my playing style. So all's well that ends well. I used parts I already had and it just took some of my idle time to do something I enjoy anyway. I turned a played out old dirty guitar into a nice vintage piece anyone would be happy to play. Okay so I am patting myself on the back a little. Why not?
So I have been enjoying playing my project the last few days. I am glad I decided to keep it. Then I decided it was time for another family photo. It's been a while and I've had some new additions. For those of you who may have seen my family photos before you will note the same maroon sofa at my new home. The instruments may change but the sofa remains the same. To coin a phrase.
Though it seems to be getting ever smaller. I won't list a description this time because if you look at my signature it will tell you what you need to know. Thanks again for indulging me. 
