It's a 1954 Guild. It'd be worth sinking some money into dor a factory restoration IMO.
As such a prehistoric Guild, it definitely
deserves to be restored. Whether or not it's
worth restoring depends on how cheaply it can be acquired and what's actually wrong with it.
Here's what I'd figure is the best case scenario:
It plays well as-is, the binding can be largely saved, heated and re-glued with just some minor gap-fillers, pickups actually
are Franzes (really unlikely IMO) and repro covers will have you in business there, glue on the headstock is just "extra" and can be cleaned off, some amount of missing parts (blender controls?) are with the guitar in its case, the jack plate covers (completely) a small issue.
Here's what I'd figure is the worst case scenario:
Finish on the top looks worse in person and needs redone, binding is crumbly and needs 100% replaced, it plays poorly and needs fret and/or neck work, there's some sort of glued crack(s) in the headstock (I'm specifically wondering about splits through the tuner holes from the swap to the bigger Schallers), pickups are aftermarket P-90s (and cheap ones that can't be resold to fund resto), no extra parts in the case, except the bridge, and the jack plate covers a nasty rim crack/splintered area that's still visible with it in place and/or it's not well centered on the guitar.
Buying this means playing the odds b/w the two extremes, IMO, as those are all concerns that can't be ruled out from the two photos. In those sorts of scenarios, I'm always more comfortable buying according the the "worst case" scenario and letting any surprises be pleasant. With a good online ad, with highly descriptive copy, tons of good pics, and/or a new-ish instrument, the difference b/w "best" and "worst" case scenarios is pretty small. As old as this is, as scant as the info supplied with is, and as many issues as are already apparent, I think that difference is pretty broad.
