Re-building my Guild D15M - photos

[Telenator]

I started this project about a month ago and have made some progress and finally took some photos!

Here's the top with the bracing glued in. I have begun tapering the ends and stopped to take a photo.

This next photo shows the old top resting over the new one. I copied the bracing pattern exactly like the original.

Here is the completed bracing. I did a light scallop to the braces. This is my first attempt at building an acoustic top and I felt it best to take a conservative approach.

 

[Telenator]

Next is a close-up of the cross brace reinforcement. Have any of you ever tried to make tiny little wooden parts like this? Those little wedges took me an hour to form and place!

Here's the overhead view ot the top, rough cut to shape.

This is the neck I bought on ebay. I have rough shaped it and glued on the finger board.

 

[Telenator]

The new headstock with pearl inlay is a big improvement over the original neck which just had a gold decal on mahogany.

Getting the neck off the body was a nightmare! Note all the steam holes I had to drill. Also note the patch I had to graft on where the wood simply tore off. They used waaaaaaaaaay too much glue when they built these guitars!

Here's all that remains of my original 1984 D15M. The top had cracked in two places and I never really cared for the sound of the guitar so, here we are!

 

[killdeer43]

That's quite impressive work, already. And the photos are great, too!
Lots of attention to detail required in a project like this one.
Be sure to keep us posted. :wink:

Thanks,
Joe

 

[bluesypicky]

I'm impressed.....
Where did you get the wood for the top?
You must be anxious to hear it, and I'm anxious to hear your final report!

 

[Telenator]

I got the top from Luthiers Mercantile. It had the rosette in it and it was rough cut. I bought the brace wood, finger board and ebony bridge from them too.

The rosewood finger board wasn't great looking so I dyed it darker with some black dye. Not quite ebony dark, but dark enough to even our the grain color.

Hopefully the sound will be brighter than the mahogany top that was on there originally.

 

[southernGuild]

Great stuff Tele, really cool to look in on this job in progress.........Must be fun to do all this stuff....I mean , yea, hard and tedious , time consuming work....but fullfilling and fun too. When it is all done....she will certainly be YOUR guitar! It will be great to see it all on to its completion and get a report on how she sounds. That top looks nice....rossete too. I think its really great that you are doing this! , another Guild rescued!!! SAVE THE GUILDS!!! On 'ya! southern :wink:

 

[Nigel Wickwire]

This is quite the intriguing project, Telenator. That is some very nice detail work you've done on the top braces. Are you going to add the reinforcement around the sound hole like the original top?

Nice job and thanks for sharing your skills with those less talented!

~nw

 

[Telenator]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

In my research on bracing, it seems Guild is one of the very few putting that thick plate around the sound hole. I have opted to just use the small braces you see in the photos.

One of my complaints with the original mahogany top was that the whole guitar seemed to lack dimension and complexity. The top was very stiff and very heavily braced.

Further research showed that many guitars use similar bracing styles throughout a long history and they sound fine. Guitars using scalloped bracing are said to sound fuller and be more responsive but I'm not yet confident enough to take that to extremes. So I stopped somewhere in the middle with mildly scalloped braces and leaving out the heavy sound hole reinforcement. Hopefull the whole thing won't fold up on me when I string it up!

 

[Frosty]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing the photos.

I have known repair persons to defer on neck resets on Guild guitars. The heel is small and in some cases the neck is a laminate. Applying enough steam to loosen up all that glue might de-laminate the neck at the heel block! I once had a neck reset done on an F-30... the guy broke the heel!

Good luck, keep us posted.

 

[evenkeel]

Very impressive. Sharing the pics mid stream is much appreciated.

 

[Telenator]

These Guild necks are glued on with waaaaaaaaaay too much glue! The original neck might still be usuable but would need some work to get it back into usuable shape. The fret board suffered pretty badly and lifted a bit from the neck. The heel warped a bit and a piece of the body side tore out when I removed the neck. You can see the patch I had to add in the dovetail region. Not good.

The finish is pretty muffed up around the neck joint too and guitar finishes are definitely not my strong suit!

 

[bluesypicky]

These Guild necks are glued on with waaaaaaaaaay too much glue!

Who said Guilds were built so strong you could paddle a canoe with one? :lol: :lol:

 

[solenoid lopez]

Awesome, respect is due. You must have an impressive pair of cajones undertaking such a task. How did you tackle the bookmatching/thicknessing of the top (nice grain by the way) and what is it Sitka?

 

[Telenator]

I bought the top from luthiers mercantile already joined and with the rosette in place so I can't take credit for that bit. I bought it rough cut and ready for bracing. The top is sitka spruce.

This is my first attempt at re-topping an acoustic so I hope it turns out OK. So far so good.

I have been scratch building electric guitars since 1981 but have never done anything with acoustics.

Here's a few of my recent electric builds:

 

[killdeer43]

Wow! You are seriously talented. Those are some great looking pieces. Thanks for sharing the goods. :wink:

Joe

 

[Telenator]

Thanks man, I'm just an enthusiast with access to some good tools and a desire to make things a little different than normal.

I'm currently working on a Les Paul that is 4% larger all the way around than a Gibson Les Paul. I'm doing this because it allows me to use a 25 1/2" scale length while still keeping all the parts in the right place. Can't wait to get that one a little further along!

 

[Telenator]

Yesterday I glued the top in place and today trimmed it to the edge of the body.

Here's a shot of the guitar on it's side with the neck propped up in place and the bridge taped on. Note the sexy pearl dots inlayed into the bridge. wooooooooo. LOL! I just wanted to jazz it up a little.

Next, I'll continue shaping the neck before fitting it to the body.

 

[southernGuild]

LOOKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!

 

[killdeer43]

Guitar's looking great and that's a good looking work space in the last shot. Nice lighting, etc. How do you keep it so tidy?

Makes me want to do a little clean-up at MY shop! :wink:
Joe