A 1987 Westerly-made GF-40 is my first Guild acquisition

[welshtoast]

Disaster.

I decided to take the Guild to my local luthier, who’s great and worked on a bunch of my guitars, to have the block drilled out for the K&K pickup.

He called me today to say things hadn’t gone according to plan.



I am sad about this.

 

[geoguy]

Holy crap. I can't imagine how that would happen.

Was he using a hammer drill at the time?

 

[geoguy]

Thinking about it a bit more, I assume he was too aggressive with the size of the drill bit. And maybe using a somewhat dull bit, too.

edit: Too late for this guitar, but it appears that a stepped reamer bit (aka a unibit) might be the way to go.

 

[chazmo]

Oh, boy, welshtoast. Very sorry to read about this damage.

 

[welshtoast]

I’m not too worried. My luthier is a stand-up bloke and when he says he’ll make it right he’ll make it right.

Post-repair it’ll have a couple more battle scars is all.

 

[geoguy]

I'm sure it can be repaired . . . sorry to hear of this trouble.

 

[Stagefright]

I guess that answers any questions I had about forcing an end pin into my GF-50.

 

[fronobulax]

I’m not too worried. My luthier is a stand-up bloke and when he says he’ll make it right he’ll make it right.

Post-repair it’ll have a couple more battle scars is all.

That is the best part of this story. Accidents happen and mistakes can be forgiven.

 

[Norrissey]

My luthier is a stand-up bloke and when he says he’ll make it right he’ll make it right.

You have a great attitude Welshtoast! I can only hope I would be so understanding in the same situation. But of course Frono is right, "accidents happen and mistakes can be forgiven"

 

[plaidseason]

Ugh. I'm so sorry.

I've successfully reamed an endpin before, but it's not as basic as it might seem, which is why for my last three pickup installations, I've least had one of my preferred guys drill/ream the hole. Accidents can and do happen, even to the most skilled of us.

 

[JohnW63]

That scares the crap out of me. I keep thinking of putting a DTAR dual source pickup in one of my Guilds but I've never the drilling thing.

 

[davismanLV]

Oh wow, so sorry to hear and see!! What a mess. It can be repaired and I'm not sure what else to say. That's so sad.

 

[welshtoast]

I know you've all been waiting with baited breath for an update on this...

The luthier has mostly glued up the split with only a small section on one side to go. He's trying to avoid using cleats if possible (his rationale is that he tries to avoid adding wood mass during repairs), and he's fairly confident they won't be necessary for strength because of the amount of glueing surface between the split parts of the block. They should hold the guitar together very reliably.

It may still come down to putting some cleats along parts of the split sides to prevent flexing of the glue joint.

From here he's going to finish the glueing and start on filling, staining, and applying coats of nitro. It'll be a slow process due to the slow curing times for nitro! I'll take some photos along the way if I can.

 

[7GuildsandanSG]

I know you've all been waiting with baited breath for an update on this...

The luthier has mostly glued up the split with only a small section on one side to go. He's trying to avoid using cleats if possible (his rationale is that he tries to avoid adding wood mass during repairs), and he's fairly confident they won't be necessary for strength because of the amount of glueing surface between the split parts of the block. They should hold the guitar together very reliably.

It may still come down to putting some cleats along parts of the split sides to prevent flexing of the glue joint.

From here he's going to finish the glueing and start on filling, staining, and applying coats of nitro. It'll be a slow process due to the slow curing times for nitro! I'll take some photos along the way if I can.

Hope this works out and you'll have a great guitar you can enjoy! To me this is a masterclass on how to handle a situation like this.

 

[JohnW63]

I'm still sad.

 

[tommym]

....It may still come down to putting some cleats along parts of the split sides to prevent flexing of the glue joint.

This is one type of repair where I wouldn't object to cleats being used to reinforce the repair work. Just make sure he doesn't glue the cleats on the exterior.

Tommy

 

[bobouz]

I’d want cleats or reinforcement strips for sure. A little extra wood mass on the sides will make virtually no difference tonally. Guild and other quality builders have historically installed vertical reinforcement strips (cloth or wood) on the sides of many instruments. If this guitar did not originally have them, it would certainly be the perfect candidate for wooden strips now - and visually, they would not look out of place at all if done in the traditional method.

 

[welshtoast]

My luthier has opted for cleats. The glue joint at the block will have the strength to stop it pulling apart the back from the soundboard, but lateral movement of the crack is too much of a risk without cleats. It's been nearly about 9 weeks since he broke it and we're finally in the last rounds of reapplying nitro, buffing, applying... another month and it should be fully repaired.

I have a question for you guys. When I booked the guitar in for work, the total cost was estimated at around $400 (new bone nut, new bone saddle, and installation of K&K pickup). However, given the circumstances I'm curious about how payment will work now that the guitar has been badly broken and very obviously repaired; the original work will still be done.

Anyone got any thoughts about what's reasonable to expect in terms of payment for materials/services in this situation?

 

[wileypickett]

He should be paying you!

 

[HeyMikey]

Loss of value to the guitar should make the prior work a wash. His out of pocket cost is probably $100-150. The rest is his labor.