SFIV1967
Venerated Member
Yes, John Denver owned two F-612 for instance!
http://www.jdgrs.com/guitars_detail.php?ID=20
http://www.jdgrs.com/guitars_detail.php?ID=21
There are multiple videos on YouTube, this is just one:
Ralf
Has anyone ever seen this pick guard before?
- Thread starter PH_Graphics
- Start date
http://www.jdgrs.com/guitars_detail.php?ID=20
http://www.jdgrs.com/guitars_detail.php?ID=21
There are multiple videos on YouTube, this is just one:
Ralf
PH_Graphics
Junior Member
Per your suggestion I did reach out to dapmdave, and he was most helpful and cooperative. In fact, I have not posted that repair plan for the F-412 as promised because -- based partly on his information -- I got caught up in a different project: researching and then buying a DD-6MCE online.
It's here now and my initial reaction is that it's one of the most beautiful guitars I've ever seen. My second reaction, as I told Dave, is that I literally have not played any other guitar than my 412 for more than 4 or 5 minutes at a time since 1979, and compared with the jumbo the DD-6 feels like a toy every time I pick it up. I know it's really not all that much smaller, but it feels about half the size.
I'll post a more detailed reaction after I've played it some more. What I can say (no surprise) is that the DD is much more playable than the 412. Once the 412 comes back from repair and the new setup, though, I expect the playability gap to be much diminished (or gone?), and I'm going to enjoy going back and forth to see if one establishes itself as a clear favorite.
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SFIV1967
Venerated Member
Congratulations! That guitar is amazing! I met and saw Doyle at NAMM 2013 playing her - just wonderful!
In case you have not seen, here are a few videos I found from NAMM 2013 and 2014 with the DD-6MCE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xszvLdsTZPk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh2QxxcOAnc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzWuSG9PTqM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmKgBYfJOHs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8dls2BJKwI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKDMhnBFAD0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwTgQqm-Z6c
Ralf
PH_Graphics
Junior Member
After 2 and a half years away, I thought some of the people who followed this conversation might be interested in an update. To refresh, I posted a photo of my F-412 which had what I was told by the previous owner was a factory-applied rosewood pick guard. It was established that the pick guard was NOT applied at the factory. Here is that guard.
I ended up, after lengthy talks with Nate and his crew, taking the F-412 down to Third Coast Guitar Repair in Chicago. It needed a neck reset, which was no surprise for a 48 year-old guitar. Beyond that, there were numerous small cracks in the spruce top. Beyond that, they said they would take up the rosewood guard and let me know what was under there. All future decisions would flow from that information. The good news was that the original Guild rosette was in pretty good shape, aside from numerous additional cracks around the sound hole under the old guard. We decided the rosewood guard was most likely applied to cover those cracks. between all the cracks, a slightly lifting bridge, the damage from the rosewood pick guard removal and the repair needed to hide the damage from the "shooting star" patch that had been applied to cover the holes where the original pots were located, I made the call to have the entire top re-finished. Even with the re-finish, though, the damage under the (oversized) bridge was too significant to be able to go back to an original-size bridge. Also, I never did find the original factory-installed pickup that had been removed. Since an actual restoration was out of the question, I elected to make aesthetic changes that would make the guitar more beautiful -- at least to my personal taste. The first of those changes were to switch from a rosewood bridge to an ebony one and to go with a black pick guard. With the ebony fingerboard, I've always thought black bridges and guards were really classy. I also found and sent Third Coast ebony pot dials.
The last decision was what to do about the area immediately below the finger board where the original pickup was mounted. I learned that Guild pickups from the 1960's were often Hagstom units. I contacted them and inquired what they knew about Guild pickups from that time. They replied that no one there knew much about that, but that in the warehouse they had found a "very old-looking" pickup, one that looked almost identical to the photo I had sent them. I bought it. In keeping with the all-ebony theme, I asked Third Coast to replace the rosewood face plate on that pickup with an ebony one. The only visual difference I could see between the new pickup from Hagstom and the photos I have of the original pickup is that the original had lines (metal inserts, as I recall) running through the face plate. The final touch I requested, then, was to take that new ebony face plate for the pickup and put 2 MOP lines in place (MOP because of the MOP inserts on the finger board) to replicate the lines on that original pickup.
The work took nearly 9 months in total, but the result, in my opinion, is elegant and beautiful. And the guitar is unbelievably playable. It was a long time coming and not exactly inexpensive, but it was one of the most worthwhile checks I wrote in 2017. Here is the result:
I want to close with a special thanks top the guys at Third Coast. They were as excited about the project as I was and were willing collaborators in all major decisions. And they were great to humor request like changing the pickup face plate and putting MOP lines on it.
If anyone has questions about any decisions I left out, let me know.
I ended up, after lengthy talks with Nate and his crew, taking the F-412 down to Third Coast Guitar Repair in Chicago. It needed a neck reset, which was no surprise for a 48 year-old guitar. Beyond that, there were numerous small cracks in the spruce top. Beyond that, they said they would take up the rosewood guard and let me know what was under there. All future decisions would flow from that information. The good news was that the original Guild rosette was in pretty good shape, aside from numerous additional cracks around the sound hole under the old guard. We decided the rosewood guard was most likely applied to cover those cracks. between all the cracks, a slightly lifting bridge, the damage from the rosewood pick guard removal and the repair needed to hide the damage from the "shooting star" patch that had been applied to cover the holes where the original pots were located, I made the call to have the entire top re-finished. Even with the re-finish, though, the damage under the (oversized) bridge was too significant to be able to go back to an original-size bridge. Also, I never did find the original factory-installed pickup that had been removed. Since an actual restoration was out of the question, I elected to make aesthetic changes that would make the guitar more beautiful -- at least to my personal taste. The first of those changes were to switch from a rosewood bridge to an ebony one and to go with a black pick guard. With the ebony fingerboard, I've always thought black bridges and guards were really classy. I also found and sent Third Coast ebony pot dials.
The last decision was what to do about the area immediately below the finger board where the original pickup was mounted. I learned that Guild pickups from the 1960's were often Hagstom units. I contacted them and inquired what they knew about Guild pickups from that time. They replied that no one there knew much about that, but that in the warehouse they had found a "very old-looking" pickup, one that looked almost identical to the photo I had sent them. I bought it. In keeping with the all-ebony theme, I asked Third Coast to replace the rosewood face plate on that pickup with an ebony one. The only visual difference I could see between the new pickup from Hagstom and the photos I have of the original pickup is that the original had lines (metal inserts, as I recall) running through the face plate. The final touch I requested, then, was to take that new ebony face plate for the pickup and put 2 MOP lines in place (MOP because of the MOP inserts on the finger board) to replicate the lines on that original pickup.
The work took nearly 9 months in total, but the result, in my opinion, is elegant and beautiful. And the guitar is unbelievably playable. It was a long time coming and not exactly inexpensive, but it was one of the most worthwhile checks I wrote in 2017. Here is the result:
I want to close with a special thanks top the guys at Third Coast. They were as excited about the project as I was and were willing collaborators in all major decisions. And they were great to humor request like changing the pickup face plate and putting MOP lines on it.
If anyone has questions about any decisions I left out, let me know.
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PH_Graphics
Junior Member
I don't know why the photos don't show up. Which is very embarrassing, since I'm a full-time photographer and graphics professional. As far as I can tell, I'm doing everything correctly, but I'll keep trying.
Until I figure that out, below is a direct link to a gallery I've posted on my website showing a dozen or so "then & now" views of my F-412. Click on or copy and paste it into a browser window. Once at the gallery scroll down from the header image to find the rest of the posted images. Click on one to enlarge it. After that you can peruse the entire gallery using the left and right arrows.
https://thepaulhundleygallery.com/set/guild-f-412/my-gallery/
Until I figure that out, below is a direct link to a gallery I've posted on my website showing a dozen or so "then & now" views of my F-412. Click on or copy and paste it into a browser window. Once at the gallery scroll down from the header image to find the rest of the posted images. Click on one to enlarge it. After that you can peruse the entire gallery using the left and right arrows.
https://thepaulhundleygallery.com/set/guild-f-412/my-gallery/
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sailingshoes72
Senior Member
Thanks for posting the gallery of photos of your F-412 "project" guitar! I think that the refinished top looks beautiful. The time and money that you spent to restore this guitar produced amazing results. I would never have recognized it as the same instrument. I like the detail of the Guild headstock outline on the ebony faceplate on the pickup. Most important... it plays well and you enjoy the ringing 12-string tones it produces! :applause:
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