D25 - Is It Worth Fixing??

[jcorlando]

Should I repair my Guild D25, 1978???

I have a Guild D25, 1978, cherry finish, made in Westerly, RI.
It's 32 years old. It's mellow and sounds beautiful.
But, it has dings on the soundboard, side, head and has buckle rash. The action is high.

A very respected luthier, John Warden in Woodstock, Maryland, has offered to fix the guitar's action.
He'll defret it, plane the neck straight, refret it and lower the bridge.
He'll add a piece of wood under the bridge to compensate for the lowered bridge.
The action will be perfect, no buzz, no dead spots. The sustain will be longer.

So here's my dilemma. The repairs will cost about $425.
The guitar will sound beautiful. It will play perfect.
But cosmetically it won't be pretty. It won't be a show piece.
I have no idea what it will sell for or what it will be worth?

So is the guitar worth repairing??
Any Thoughts?

John in Annapolis

 

[Scottdog]

Fix it and keep it.

 

[killdeer43]

John,
I guess the main question I have is....is it worth it to YOU to have it repaired? :?
Sounds like he'll take care of all the important stuff, and
I could live with a few dings on a guitar that "sounds beautiful."

Joe

 

[bluesypicky]

Yes it is worth it.

Saving the Guilds!!!!

 

[dreadnut]

You might be able to get the work done for less.

I'm unclear about the bridge, adding a piece of wood, etc?

 

[bluesypicky]

I'm unclear about the bridge, adding a piece of wood, etc?

Had the same thought... Sounds like a way to avoid the neck reset?...
Wonder how much there is to gain by lowering the bridge though.

 

[jcorlando]

The neck has some normal lift being 32 years old.
Guilds necks were not meant to be taken off and reset.
as opposed to Martins whose necks come off fairly easily.

So John Warden will fix the lift by planing the neck dead straight.
But the bridge will need to be lowered about 1/8th inch.
So he will take the bridge off and plane an 1/8th off the bottom
Then he'll add a piece of wood under the sound board under the bridge
so the peg stay in. This will also increase the guitar's sustain.
And promises the guitar will sound even better than it currently does.

John Warden is very well respected. Google him. I think just having
him work on the guitar will add value to it.

John

 

[killdeer43]

Go for it, John.
You'll have a tresure on your hands, with a bit of history to boot.
I had some work done on my D25 and I'd certainly do it again.
Great guitars!

I just love the stories behind our guitars. :wink:

Joe

 

[the super8]

Do it! The alternative is unfathomable.

 

[jcorlando]

Okay, I think I'm going to do this.
I'll view it as saving the Made in America Guilds
as opposed to making financial sense.

It will sound wonderful, It will play fantastic.
It just won't look great
Hope the next owner appreciates it as much as I love it.

John

 

[john_kidder]

You'll get perfect frets, fingerboard and intonation, and a reinforced bridge plate. And you'll keep your old friend around, in better health. There are few things more pleasing than making a broken-down guitar happy again.

 

[Dr. Spivey]

I'd find a repair person who knows how to reset a Guild neck, and is willing to do it. Shaving the bridge will buy some time, but when it does need a reset, you'll need the bridge replaced also. Plenty of guys can and do reset Guilds. Even more don't want to because it can be a bit tricky.

I'd get a second opinion.

Here's how it's done: http://www.letstalkguild.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=15872

 

[Scottdog]

Sounds to me like a worthy instrument to have around the house.
Especially after addressing it's driveabilty issues.
Battle scars just add character.

Like a well traveled old motorcycle, if you fix it up
and make everything work right then just clean 'er up and bring
back some of the shine, people wish it could talk and tell them stories about it's travels.

Just last weekend I took my old D-25, did some minor wet sanding in a few areas
and compounded the finish back to that deep luster. Even after picking
it up now and seeing all the nicks and dents and checking it's
received over the last 35 years, it's clean and
solid, plays well and it looks and
sounds beautiful.

 

[Taylor Martin Guild]

I would also get a second opinion.
The neck needs to be reset.
This is just putting it off at a big expense.

Why have we not heard of others doing this kind of neck work?
I'm thinking that it's because it is only a temporary fix.

 

[bluesypicky]

Guilds necks were not meant to be taken off and reset.
John

Here's someone in this thread who will probably attest otherwise:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=15872

 

[Nigel Wickwire]

+1 on the second opinion. I'm with Dr. Spivey, TMG and B'Picky.

Someone's blowin' smoke here. Guild necks can most certainly be reset.

~nw

 

[Qvart]

The repairs will cost about $425...I have no idea what it will sell for or what it will be worth?...So is the guitar worth repairing??

Answer #1: NO. D-25's in good condition can be had for a little more than the price of those repairs.

Answer #2: YES. If you want to keep it.

Here's the thing: You'll have to figure out if this is the guitar for you or if you're planning on selling it down the road. If you intend to sell it then you're probably putting more into it than it's worth. However, if this is your must-have-Guild then the repairs would guarantee you have a great player for many years to come.

Yeah yeah yeah I know I'm not saying anything new, but what the heck.

As for the proposed repairs - as good as the luthier may be, it sounds like you're heading for a neck reset. I'm by no means an expert on acoustics and really feel more at home in the solid body forum, but neck resets seem to be fairly common with older Guilds. If you can find someone who can do the work you might consider it. The repairs you're talking about sound like they will produce good results, but if that neck joint is out of whack it's only going to get worse.

Good luck!

Q.

 

[capnjuan]

+1 on the second opinion. I'm with Dr. Spivey, TMG and B'Picky. Someone's blowin' smoke here. Guild necks can most certainly be reset.

+1

Hi JC and welcome to LTG. If you have an older boat with a couple of worn out gas V8s and ask $50,000 for it, all the buyers are going to say that the motors are shot and reduce their offers. A pair of remanufactured 350s and transmissions would cost about $5,000/ea installed. If you re-power the boat, you still have a $50,000 boat ... fresh power will make it sell faster but it won't raise the price.

If you have the money to sink into it and, for example, were to sell what you have and add it to what you have to put into the guitar, you have just about enough to buy a fair/good condition D-25. Good luck whatever you do! CJ

 

[GardMan]

Get another opionion.

If the bridge on your D-25 is similar to mine, shaving it by 1/8" will leave it <3/16" high (on mine, it would be closer to 1/8"). The saddle slot will be correspsondingly more shallow, putting more stress on the bridge. Insufficient support of the saddle, and a thin bridge are commonly cited factors contributing to a split bridge. Also consider that the proposed repair would simply delay the inevitable neck reset... and when that time finally came, you would also need a new bridge to replace the one that had been shaved.

Here's is another, less invasive stop gap to delay a neck reset: http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier ... gramp.html

I think most folks here would say a Guild is worth fixing right... which means a neck reset. But, that's easy to say when it's YOUR money... You will spend up to $500 for a reset and other associated repairs, and in the end, will end up with a guitar that's worth ~$500. Is that cost effective... probably not. But a good reset will keep your D-25 playable for another 30-50 years... or more. And I think many here would say a D-25 is worth the investment.
Just my $0.02.
Dave

 

[jcorlando]

Regarding the resetting the neck on the old D25 versus planning the fingerboard..

The luthier is John Warden. He is a licensed Martin repair luthier. He highly respected in the Baltimore Washington area. He worked on a lot of recording artists guitars.... that being said.

His opinion was the neck was integral to the body of the guitar in such a way that resetting it would be cause more damage than planning the fingerboard. He also said that once the neck had moved, it was done moving. And it would not need be planned or reset again.