And so it begins.....F-50R repair/resurrection.

[kostask]

Updates arrived today.

According to the luthier, the factory bridge is in the wrong place, and the saddle slot is too far forward. Also the spruce under the bridge was damaged by the previous bridge work, and he is going to have to address that before the new bridge can be put on. buffing out of the top has been completed. Pictures below, or it didn't happen:

Two pictures of the Saddlematic being used to see where the saddle slot is supposed to be:


This is the old bridge, and it appears that the saddle slot was too far forward. The Saddlematic pins/pointers indicate the location of the front edge of the saddle.


Next two pictures show the torn up area under the bridge.




And lastly, the area under the bass side of the bridge where the previous work left a void that will be addressed prior to the new bridge being glued on.

 

[wileypickett]

Digging the process / progress. Thanks for letting us follow along!

 

[marius]

According to the luthier, the factory bridge is in the wrong place

Seems like the sort of thing you want to know before a full refinish of the top.

 

[kostask]

Luthier says its not a problem, as the new bridge, being slightly oversize in all dimensions, will cover everything, from our conversation.

He also said, that if needed, if there is anything slightly uncovered, he has more of the lacquer he used to spray the top to do touchup, but really doubts he will need it.

 

[Rambozo96]

Wow, night and day difference. So glad this got a proper resto and didn’t get wasted.

 

[Rayk]

Wow very cool !

 

[Nokomite]

Wow, what a project! I love the new finish. Won’t be long now, it looks like.

 

[kostask]

Further update received today. Area under the bridge is being brought back to level. In my conversation with the luthier, he suspects that whoever did the previous work on the bridge pulled some of the soundboard wood off while removing the bridge, and just couldn't be bothered to remove it from the bottom of the bridge and glue it back down. From all evidence, the old bridge was removed, sanded down on the bottom side, and the pickup added. Seems like the previous owner/luthier didn't want to just sand down the bottom of the saddle to accomodate the pickup, so the bottom of the bridge was sanded down (so much so that the saddle slot bottom actually broke through, see some of the previous pictures). Picture of the guitar as it sits a couple of hours ago:

 

[Nuuska]

Looks like it is being done right this time !

 

[kostask]

Luthier is a perfectionist, and very detail oriented. He knows what goes into making a guitar sound its best, and doesn’t cut corners. In this case, he will be sanding the area smooth as soon as all of the missing wood has been added. Idea is to have maximum wood gluing area, both for strength and sound purposes.

 

[kostask]

Another update today.

The luthier is in the process of relocating the bridge so that the intonation is correct. Bridge pins, as well as the bridge slot, and indeed the entire bridge needs to move back between 1/8" to 1/4". He is using the new bridge to help locate the location of the new bridge holes. Pictures below:





Moving the bridge pins back is going to result in more of an oval hole than a complete new hole, so he will be filling the front part of the hole with spruce on the top, and either rosewood or maple (I forgot to ask what the bridge plate material is); he is going to use the same wood as the bridge plate in any case.

Luthier said that this guitar has never played in tune its entire life.

 

[geoguy]

I'm surprised that defect would make it past Guild's QC.

 

[kostask]

To be honest, so was I when he told me about it. It is true though (see the above picture with the Saddlematic), and there is no evidence that the bridge pin holes were messed with, even though the original bridge was, so that it appears that the original bridge was put on in the wrong place. I have seen other guitars with bridges in the wrong place (even on hand built guitars), but never on a Guild, although I haven't seen all the Guild guitars, obviously, so I cannot say that this is a common problem. My luthier was speculating that the pickup was added because the guitar wouldn't play in tune, and that the previous owner would use it in a loud rock band setting where the poor intonation would be masked by the overall volume.

 

[Opsimath]

Coming along very nicely. Looking forward to your comments when it's finished and you get to play it - in tune for the first time in its life!

 

[geoguy]

Is it possible that the neck was previously reset? If too much material was removed from the heel, then all of the frets would be shifted a bit too close to the bridge.

 

[kostask]

Is it possible that the neck was previously reset? If too much material was removed from the heel, then all of the frets would be shifted a bit too close to the bridge.

My luthier doesn’t beloeve so (it was my first thought as well). There is no evidence of the finish around the neck heel having been disturbed, and this is a guitat in wixh the nitro for the neck and body were sprayed at the same time. Also, the Saddlemstic, when used without the bridge in place, shows that the bridge pin holes are far too close to where the saddle slot should be. It goes a long way towards explaining the string slots/ramps in the old bridge, I think. You can see how close in the Saddlematic picture above. If the saddle would be in the right place, the low E bridge pin may have hit the saddle.

 

[kostask]

Luthier has been using the Saddlematic for at least 20 years, and he knows how to set it up. He also double checks the Saddlematic against a properly intonated guitar. It is not a Saddlematic issue, nor a measurement set up issue.

BTW, he has seen just about every manufacturer’s guitars with a badly placed bridge, including Martin, Taylor, Gibson, Larrivee, Collins, and also handbuilt guitars. This is the first Guild he has seen it on.

 

[Nokomite]

It's nice to have someone working on it with such good attention to detail. You will be so pleased.

 

[kostask]

My luthier, while really the go to guy around Calgary, and indeed, all of Southern Alberta, has been doing this for 30 years or so. He actually had a Bachelor of Arts degree in ancient musical instruments (his specialty was the lute), then went to a guitar repair course on top of that. After which, he apprenticed and worked at one of the best music stores in Montreal for about 10 years, then moved to Calgary.

Some of the details he works out frankly surprises me, not because it is necessarily difficult, but because he thinks it through before he even starts doing anything. Things like working out the grain lines in some of the first repairs he did on this guitar. To me, it would have been sufficient to just make it structurally sound, but that is not sufficient for him. Things like making sure that everything under the bridge was perfectly flat before the bridge is to be glued back on.

And yes, we are friends, and we do hang out together sometimes. We do go back and forth a lot, and the back is usually me asking some dumb questions, and the forth is him explaining why things are done the way they are, and sometimes the theory behind that as well. I sometimes help him out with some of my background in electronics manufacturing and computers, so it isn't always one directional.

 

[Nokomite]

My luthier, while really the go to guy around Calgary, and indeed, all of Southern Alberta, has been doing this for 30 years or so. He actually had a Bachelor of Arts degree in ancient musical instruments (his specialty was the lute), then went to a guitar repair course on top of that. After which, he apprenticed and worked at one of the best music stores in Montreal for about 10 years, then moved to Calgary.

Some of the details he works out frankly surprises me, not because it is necessarily difficult, but because he thinks it through before he even starts doing anything. Things like working out the grain lines in some of the first repairs he did on this guitar. To me, it would have been sufficient to just make it structurally sound, but that is not sufficient for him. Things like making sure that everything under the bridge was perfectly flat before the bridge is to be glued back on.

And yes, we are friends, and we do hang out together sometimes. We do go back and forth a lot, and the back is usually me asking some dumb questions, and the forth is him explaining why things are done the way they are, and sometimes the theory behind that as well. I sometimes help him out with some of my background in electronics manufacturing and computers, so it isn't always one directional.

Maybe he can figure out whatever happened to the binding on my F50R fretboard ;-)