Guild owner once again has some questions on minor upgrades to DS-240.

[Fender124C41]

Hi. Thanks for accepting me. Years and years ago I owned a D-25 but the headstock broke off and after I had it fixed I just decided to sell it. Then I bought a beat-up mid-70s D-55 with a replaced bridge. I kept that as my only guitar for about 20 years but I had to sell it due to some financial problems. That was back in 2007 and I haven't owned a Guild acoustic again until yesterday, so nearly 16 years.

I traded my Alvarez jumbo acoustic for a DS-240. The seller had put in two (yes, two) passive pickups. One is one of those humbucker models screwed temporarily into the soundhole with the wire going through the end pin socket. But he also installed a set of piezo "dots" or something like that and for that he drilled another hole in the bottom of the guitar for that connection. However I have no volume, tone or any other controls so I'm wondering how to address that for an open mic I have been attending. The "dots" pickup sound the best so maybe I will have my luthier friend just take it out one day but actually I have two pickups with two outlets so I could play in stereo, in a way, or at the open mic I suppose I could have one line going to the P.A. system and the other to a small amp or monitor for my use.

As for the DS-240 I'm guessing it has the stock Nu-Bone nut and saddle. I prefer a warmer sound and so I'm thinking of having bone units installed. Thoughts? Also the seller had installed some D'Andrea (I think) brass end pins ... I've used brass before and I just didn't like the high, brittle sound so I'm thinking of replacing them with ebony or rosewood pins. So does anybody know the size or type of bridge pin for my DS-240?

Sorry for being so wordy. But remember ... I haven't posted here in the nearly 17 years I've been Guild-less.

 

[GGJaguar]

Welcome to LTG and congrats on your new Guild! For the passive pickup you can try an outboard preamp. Fishman, K&K, Tech21, Behringer and others make them. I'm sure others will chime in here with more info. And don't forget to post some photos of your new guitar. We love pix!

 

[Fender124C41]

Bit of an update: I took the DS-240 to my luthier buddy (he makes his own private brand of acoustics and has jobs committed through October so he is doing very well ... very, very well but it's a one-man shop). He looked it over and said he could install a bone nut and saddle but the stock Nu Bone seems fine. He did, however, say those brass bridge pins may be problematic so I had him install a set of rosewood bridge pins. By the way, they were a little too big for the bridge slots so he also had to ream them out.

He cleaned her up, applied fingerboard oil and put on a set of GHS strings and charged me $14. For everything. Everything.

The only problem he said was he didn't like the neck angle ... but there was little he could do about that. I didn't notice it.

However for some reason he really didn't check the neck tension except by feel. It could also be that to adjust it he would have to remove temporarily that soundhole pickup but that wouldn't have been a problem.

I did take it home and I found out the action is really too low. At the sixth fret the action, I'm told, should be between .008 inch to .010 inch (if my math is right.) This one comes in at somewhere between .005 and .006 of an inch. I'm not a heavy picker so even .008 is fine but this is a little too low and the high E and B strings are not ringing out as well as they s hould. So I'm going to make a separate post here asking for help on finding a neck truss rod for my Guild.

Regarding the lack of volume and tone control ... I think I've come up with a cheap and wacky solution. I have a spare 7-band EQ guitar pedal, the tiny size one. I tested it out and I found the 15 db boost/cut will work like a volume control. It can't turn the guitar's pickup completely off but it does cut most of it. And the 7 bands of EQ really is much better I think than a 2 or 3-setting tone control.

So what I plan to do is to connect the unit to a large guitar strap with Velcro or zip ties. I will then also connect a 9V adapter cable that will let me use a battery so I can avoid extra wires and finding an outlet for the pedal. I will then connect the "kit" to my guitar's input with either a 1-foot guitar cable or maybe even a long patch cord I have.

I've ordered the 9V volt adapter cable (about $1). I do have cables with one of my pedalboards I could use ... but it's a complicated affair. I have to use the main cable, then connect that to a reverse polarity cable, then connect that to an open plug on my 5-unit Daisy chain. It works fine ... but is just a mess of cables.

Wish me luck finding that truss rod as I only know (or think I know) it takes a 4 mm Allen wrench but it seems like it needs a long arm, like the 5 mm one I had to get for my Martin. I tried that, too, but it doesn't fit.

 

[chazmo]

Your guy reamed the bridge pin slots rather than sanding the pins to fit the holes?

 

[geoguy]

That's probably ok, the pins shouldn't need to be changed again anytime soon.

There are lots of on-line guides to guitar setup . . . if you haven't performed a setup before now, perhaps this video will be helpful (note that the action adjustment should be performed last, even though it is the first topic covered in this video):

 

[Fender124C41]

yes, not the optimal way but it worked fine. Fast and cheap and it works. I don't plan to change the bridge pins anytime in the next century.

 

[Gdjjr]

I have Bob Colosi, died bone pins, in my DS240, and an LR Baggs Element VTC. I play at an open mic as well. We plug into a Behringer Mixer that is plugged into a Bose LR100 PA. The Baggs unit works fine... granted, it is 180 bucks

 

[merlin6666]

There is an OEM bone saddle for Westerly with Piezo available. Maybe it fits (and may also fix your action issue from other thread).

Westerly Collection Compensated Saddle for Piezo | Guild Guitars

Replacement Bone Saddle for Westerly Collection 6-String and 12-String Models with Piezo Electronics. Will not fit non-electronic/non-piezo equipped models. Item #009-2420-000 If you’re looking for a part to fit a guitar that was made prior to 2014, please click here.

shop.guildguitars.com

 

[Fender124C41]

There is an OEM bone saddle for Westerly with Piezo available. Maybe it fits (and may also fix your action issue from other thread).

Westerly Collection Compensated Saddle for Piezo | Guild Guitars

Replacement Bone Saddle for Westerly Collection 6-String and 12-String Models with Piezo Electronics. Will not fit non-electronic/non-piezo equipped models. Item #009-2420-000 If you’re looking for a part to fit a guitar that was made prior to 2014, please click here.

shop.guildguitars.com

My luthier buddy looked at the saddle and said there is no need to replace it. I don't see how that would fix my action issue as that has to be my non-ability to tweak the neck. Am I wrong?

 

[Fender124C41]

I have Bob Colosi, died bone pins, in my DS240, and an LR Baggs Element VTC. I play at an open mic as well. We plug into a Behringer Mixer that is plugged into a Bose LR100 PA. The Baggs unit works fine... granted, it is 180 bucks

I went to the open mic last night and looked at the setup. It is VERY minimal. A small Acoustic brand guitar amp and two small monitors. I didn't look at the mixer but it also seemed a small unit. But it seems to work and nobody there has brought his or her own amp except two guys ... one who plays an upright bass with a pickup and the other guy who plays an electric.

 

[merlin6666]

My luthier buddy looked at the saddle and said there is no need to replace it. I don't see how that would fix my action issue as that has to be my non-ability to tweak the neck. Am I wrong?

Tweaking the neck is for adjusting relief if there is too much or not enough curvature in the neck or if it is twisted. As this guitar was modified it is possible that the previous owner purposely lowered the action by sanding the saddle. This can be fixed by getting a replacement saddle. So it depends if you want to address a neck warp or just the action.

 

[Fender124C41]

Tweaking the neck is for adjusting relief if there is too much or not enough curvature in the neck or if it is twisted. As this guitar was modified it is possible that the previous owner purposely lowered the action by sanding the saddle. This can be fixed by getting a replacement saddle. So it depends if you want to address a neck warp or just the action.

I don't have a wrapped guitar neck. I just have a neck that needs a little more relief. It is possible that the saddle was lowered because my luthier buddy said there wasn't much left to lower but it wasn't a problem. If it was he would have told me because, as I said, I came to him asking if he thought a bone nut and saddle were needed.

I have a separate post asking for info on how to get the proper truss rod.

 

[schoolie]

I think by "there wasn't much left to lower" he meant the neck angle might be off, so the saddle height is going to be low to get the desired action. Not a big problem.

 

[Fender124C41]

I think by "there wasn't much left to lower" he meant the neck angle might be off, so the saddle height is going to be low to get the desired action. Not a big problem.

That could be but he was pointing directly at the saddle ridges or whatever they're called. So maybe somebody did file down the saddle a bit . Still he would have suggested a replacement if it needed a new saddle. I prefer low action but I prefer sound quality first.