Westerly Guild F50...Need Help Quickly Please

sixx · Jul 26, 2017

So I'm a noob to Guilds but I've been hanging out over at AGF for quite a while. Time I should have been practicing. :nevreness:

Here's the deal:

I played a '79 F50 today in good shape cosmetically, the frets are playable (big honkin' jumbo frets), the neck is straight, and I pushed and tapped - didn't hear any loose braces. The guit sounded pretty darn good (me likey) but volume was a bit lacking because:

1) Had low tension silk and steel light gauge strings, because:

2) It needs a neck reset. Not much saddle at all and the action is already "highish" with the low tension strings.

3) The bridge is lifting.

I'd like to have the guitar but I'm not sure what a neck reset on an older Guild would cost plus the bridge reglued at the same time.

Anyone have any thought as to potential costs and also can recommend a luthier in the AZ area? I'm going to need to offer a price today. Tks much

sixx · Jul 26, 2017

So I played a '79 F50 today in good shape cosmetically, the frets are playable (big honkin' jumbo frets), the neck is straight, and I pushed and tapped - didn't hear any loose braces. The guit sounded pretty darn good (me likey) but volume was a bit lacking because:

1) Had low tension silk and steel light gauge strings, because:

2) It needs a neck reset. Not much saddle at all and the action is already "highish" with the low tension strings.

3) The bridge is lifting.

I'd like to have the guitar but I'm not sure what a neck reset on an older Guild would cost plus the bridge reglued at the same time.

Anyone have any thought as to potential costs and also can recommend a luthier in the AZ area? I'm going to need to offer a price today. Tks much

chazmo · Jul 26, 2017

Welcome aboard, sixx.

I don't know what it'd cost to have someone in AZ do it, but you could contact "fixit" here (Jacobs Guitars) in S. FL. If anyone can steer you in the right direction, it's him.

I would say to you that starting out with a guitar that needs this work is a bit challenging. An F-50 is certainly worth the effort, but you might get turned off by the distractions involved in getting an old guitar to play the way you want it. It's really good to have a local luthier that you can work with if you're just getting started. Others of us, who've been at this a while, understand the risks and costs of investing in a great, old beast like the one you mentioned.

adorshki · Jul 26, 2017

HI Sixx, welcome aboard, I hope this info is still timely because your first post may have been delayed while being screened by moderators.

Anyway, prices for resets are all over the map depending on location and level of complexity (like, will it get re-fretted at the same time?)
See the first couple of pages in this thread for recent discussion:
http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?193608-Buying-old-vintage-Guilds/page6

Westerly Wood · Jul 26, 2017

if in PHX area, buy this one instead: https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/m...234321958.html

Neal · Jul 26, 2017

I would add this question to the discusion: if the bridge were reglued, might that alone lower the action and buy you some time before a neck reset is needed?

If it needs both a bridge reglue and neck reset, I would not offer more than $1000 for it.

bobouz · Jul 26, 2017

After you get some price quotes on having the repair work done, add it to the purchase price. Then consider what you might be able to buy that's already structurally stable. There are a lot of good guitars out there.

Hope it all works out well for you!

adorshki · Jul 26, 2017

Westerly Wood said:
if in PHX area, buy this one instead: https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/m...234321958.html

Yeah I wondered if it might be the same guitar when I saw Sixx's location.

Westerly Wood · Jul 26, 2017

adorshki said:
Yeah I wondered if it might be the same guitar when I saw Sixx's location.

ah totally could be. Phoenix has several shops that carry older Guilds. I should take a drive up there someday. But I rarely head up there, and I like just holding out for the local CL in Tucson. There are several good options close to me, but I am not in a buying period

D35 SB, Westerly: https://tucson.craigslist.org/msg/d/nice-guild/6185803345.html
D50 Tacoma made: https://tucson.craigslist.org/msg/d/guild-bluegrass-special/6138927253.html
F20, Hoboken: https://tucson.craigslist.org/msg/d/guild-nt/6222698643.html

I find it quite ironic and a tad painful that I could in one fell swoop, get my D50 and D35 Guilds back. Well, not the ones I sold, but the combo I had at one time. alas...

sixx · Jul 27, 2017

Tks everyone for your help.

Bought it. :nevreness: Pics to come.

PTC Bernie · Jul 27, 2017

In following this thread over on AGF it was mentioned that neck resets are harder on Guilds because a "nautical" glue was used for the neck joint.

Can anyone confirm or refute this, and what would be the advantage over a hide or aliphatic glue?

fronobulax · Jul 27, 2017

We have been discussing resets in general as a veer in this thread.

I think $400 is where the discussion starts for a reset but sometimes other neck work is needed and included. $400-$600 would not raise any flags for me. There were claims of quotes upwards of $800 but I think we think the luthier didn't really want the job. A bigger problem will be finding someone local who will do the job.

Not much and nothing more than my opinion but since you are in a hurry ;-)

Edit: OK. Too late and irrelevant but that's what happens when we mods don't catch duplicate threads

fronobulax · Jul 27, 2017

PTC Bernie said:
In following this thread over on AGF it was mentioned that neck resets are harder on Guilds because a "nautical" glue was used for the neck joint.

Can anyone confirm or refute this, and what ould be the advantage over a hide or aliphatic glue?

What is a nautical glue and what makes it different or inappropriate for guitars? If I said "Guild used nautical glues" and someone threw the BS flag at me I'd have to plead guilty.

I've never heard or read that here so if there is something to it we both might learn something.

The only Guild glue story I can recall is that the hideglue pot was not always "clean" and so some of the joints glued from it may have had contaminated glue. Metal shavings stick in my mind as one of the contaminants.

sixx · Jul 27, 2017

"In following this thread over on AGF it was mentioned that neck resets are harder on Guilds because a "nautical" glue was used for the neck joint."

I was wondering (and worrying) about the same. Maybe that's after the luthier changes the flux capacitor? :wink:

chazmo · Jul 27, 2017

1.21 Jiggawatts!

Westerly Wood · Jul 27, 2017

Having spent some time on sail boats, even a clipper ship on a run from Buzzards Bay to Acadia park in Maine, nautical glue is quite binding.

Default · Jul 27, 2017

Sounds like bovine feces to me, courtesy of the AGF. If Guild used anything other than hideglue and Titebond, we would have known about it a long time ago.

Christopher Cozad · Jul 27, 2017

Seaworthiness: I have taken the necks off about 15 Guilds, to date. Sadly, I have ne'er encountered Nautical Glue in that neck joint. They all had used hide glue, and none of them were more difficult to remove than any other glued-in dovetail I have ever encountered.

adorshki · Jul 27, 2017

Westerly Wood said:
nautical glue is quite binding.

Dang I wish I'd said that!
:glee:

Default said:
Sounds like bovine feces to me, courtesy of the AGF. If Guild used anything other than hideglue and Titebond, we would have known about it a long time ago.

Agreed.
BTW Sixx, Westerly builts were "All hideglue, all the time".
No mention of Titebond until New Hartford ca 2011, although there's been a question (unresolved as far as I can remember) about whether it could have been introduced in Tacoma ('05-'08).
Documentation of production changes in Tacoma was poor.

bobouz · Jul 27, 2017

I've owned & been a fan of Guilds since the '70s, and have never ever heard the term Nautical Glue applied in reference to the construction of these instruments. I'd give that one a pants-on-fire rating!

Westerly Guild F50...Need Help Quickly Please

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