Guitar Top Is Sinking

[Taylor Martin Guild]

I was looking at a Guild D-44? at a jam last week. It's a late 70's Maple Dred.
The top of the guitar is sinking in, around the sound hole where the neck joins the body of the guitar.
Is a lack of humidity the cause?
If so, will adding humidity help restore the shape?
The guy has always used light strings and never added humidity.
We are in Northern Utah, with very low natural humidity.
Thanks,
TMG.

 

[chazmo]

Almost certainly.

Depending on how far gone it is, humidifying might not restore proper shape, but it will likely help quite a lot.

 

[GuildFS4612CE]

Sounds like a bigger structural issue.

The guitar needs to go see a guitar dr.

 

[GardMan]

I'd bet it's more than a humidity issue... sounds like it got overheated at some point, softening the glue holding the top braces and/or neckblock. I'd get it looked at, sooner rather than later...

 

[West R Lee]

Another culprit for this symptom is way too much string tension, what are you stringing her with?

West

 

[Taylor Martin Guild]

This isn't my guitar. It belongs to a guy that I jam with.
He said that he has always used light strings and never added humidity to the guitar.
As I stated eariler, here in Utah we have very low natural humidity.
Thanks for your responses,
TMG.

 

[Scratch]

TMG,
I had an Epiphone do that once. Why? I (stupidly) left it very near a wall heater for a couple of day. Luthier fixed it like it had never happened.

 

[Punkybub]

Let us know if humidity helps with this. I have a friend w/an older Guild that has this problem - nice looking guitar but that dip in the soundhole area freaks me out... :shock: :!: :!:

I can imagine how to fix almost everything else on an acoustic except this problem - do you, like, iron out the soundboard to get it flat again :roll: ? Seems like once that top gets used to the bends in that area, you'd have to un-brace, then re-brace the top to sorta re-form it.

There's a luthier in this area who's done 3 stellar, near-perfect neck resets on Guilds for me (not all on the same guitar... :wink: ) and even he's unsure about how to really fix a problem like that...

 

[chazmo]

Let us know if humidity helps with this. I have a friend w/an older Guild that has this problem - nice looking guitar but that dip in the soundhole area freaks me out... :shock: :!: :!:

I can imagine how to fix almost everything else on an acoustic except this problem - do you, like, iron out the soundboard to get it flat again :roll: ? Seems like once that top gets used to the bends in that area, you'd have to un-brace, then re-brace the top to sorta re-form it.

There's a luthier in this area who's done 3 stellar, near-perfect neck resets on Guilds for me (not all on the same guitar... :wink: ) and even he's unsure about how to really fix a problem like that...

I guess it depends on how bad the misshaping has progressed. My mahogany classical has some creases on the top from dehydration and they won't come out (except with as you said disassembling of the guitar).