New old guild questions

Ajbaum77

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I’m helping fix up and sell (maybe to myself) my mother in laws 1966 f-20. She bought it new in 1967 or 68 to use in her job as a middle school music teacher. Been in its case in a closet for about 40 years. Overall seems in excellent shape other than tarnished frets and cracks in the bridge along the pins and at the saddle. Taking it to a local luithier soon for that. My question is about the strings. Currently has classical strings mix of nylon and steel. Was this original or were the original all steel? The hang tag says it was originally strung with L-310 strings.
thanks
 

geoguy

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Welcome to LTG . . .

That would have been strung with steel strings originally. Maybe post a photo or two of the guitar, including the cracked bridge? Folks here love pictures!
 

Ajbaum77

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Sure thing
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GGJaguar

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Welcome to LTG! That's a beautiful F-20. Once you get the bridge repaired it should be good to go and serve you well for many years.
 

wileypickett

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Lovely!

In the event the bridge needs to be replaced, does anyone here know if there are period correct replacements in that style available?

I'd slacken the strings so as not to make the cracks worse, in case your best option is to have the original bridge removed, repaired and reseated. (I had this done on one of my old Guilds and it came out great -- yoiu can't tell it was ever cracked.)

You also might want to hydrate the guitar, get some moisture back in there. You can get hydration packets from any good guitar store.

Good luck, and welcome!
 

dreadnut

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They can replace that bridge and you'll never know it from the appearance - I'm thinking that one is too far gone.

Beautiful guitar though!!!
 

Br1ck

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I agree re: bridge. But that is a very clean example I would not let get out of the family.
 

beecee

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a burst F-20.....sigh....

Yeah hydration and be paitient!

Hans Moust can more than likely assist with the correct bridge. Member here, knows a thing or two about Guilds
 

beecee

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Gotta send out a shout out to GAD for making it so user friendly to add pix to this site. Really has increased the Guild-ography on the Forums
 

dreadnut

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Seriously, replacing that bridge is not a big deal compared to keeping this guitar if the family. You can get a perfect facsimile of that bridge somewhere.
 

Cougar

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Now, that's the way to include some photos! Welcome to the forums, AJ! That is a gorgeous old F20! Your luthier will be able to tell you whether he can salvage the bridge or if he thinks it's better to replace it. Looks like the saddle is slanted, which put too much torque on the rosewood bridge. Either way, it's a relatively easy fix and shouldn't be too expensive. At the same time he should give it a good setup so it's easy to play and sounds its best. Depending on your tastes, you may want to have him install a pickup at the same time. Pickups have come a long way in the past 40 years. There are undersaddle pickups or K&K pickups or even dual source, which have an undersaddle AND a small microphone in the soundhole. Or even magnetic soundhole pickups. Lots to choose from if you're so inclined. Best of luck!
 

donnylang

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Curious - why do most suggest replacing the bridge? If this were mine I would prefer to repair it. And keep the original saddle too if I could.

Donny
 

Ajbaum77

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Thanks for all the feedback. I’m predominantly a bass player. Dabble a little with electric guitar but haven’t really given much thought to acoustic so the insight is appreciated.
Any ideas on what the value for these is? Reverb doesn’t seem to have any ‘66 a few 63 and 64 and a 67 but I know from the research I’ve done they produced a lot more f-20s in 66 than those years and that 67 was a transitional year for the factory location. I’d love to try and keep it in the family but I know my mother in law needs to get a fair value for it. Either from myself or someone else
 

donnylang

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I’m not sure a ‘66 vs ‘67 would be much difference in value, but the sunburst color and clean condition would likely be selling points. Certainly this would depend greatly on what work is done on the guitar and playability.

There’s a ‘67 on Reverb for $1100, and it looks pretty clean - natural color. It may sell for less though. I would guess if the repair work were done and it’s playing great, maybe something in the $1500 range for your sunburst? I’d probably list around $2000 and take offers. Others may have more insight, as I’m not sure how much additional value the color adds.
 

wileypickett

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Curious - why do most suggest replacing the bridge? If this were mine I would prefer to repair it. And keep the original saddle too if I could.

Donny

AJ:

I vote with Donny for having the original bridge repaired -- if your luthier thinks that's an option.

Whether you repair it or replace it the old bridge has got to come off. Having the old one repaired will cost a bit less than buying a replacement and it keeps the guitar original which is important to some folks, especially if you plan to sell it.

I had a 12-string bridge with cracks across both sets of bridge-pin holes. I wrote it off and planned to get it replaced. In the midst of the repair, my luthier sent me a picture of what I thought was a brand new replacement bridge. Nope! He'd glued and clamped the original, which completely closed the cracks, and cleaned off years of grunge with some fine sanding. I couldn't detect the slightest evidence that that bridge had ever been cracked -- it looked perfect.

Where I disagree with Donny: I'd replace that original plastic saddle with bone in a nano-second!

With a little investment you can have that guitar sounding better than it ever did.

Glenn
 

Cougar

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I'd listen to Glenn. He's got a lot of experience... and a lot of Guilds!
 

donnylang

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As a buyer, I’d pay more for the original bridge yep!

I don’t care too much about saddle BUT it’s so rare to see an original saddle, and that one looks like it’s full height? Seems to be a cool thing IMO. At least put it in the case!
 
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The posts here clearly show that there's a range of opinion about the solution to the bridge problem, but I'll add one more. About 25 years ago, my '65 D40 cracked across the pin holes and my then-repairman fixed it by routing out a channel across that section of bridge, inserting a piece of ebony, and re-drilling the holes. While he was at it, he filled the saddle slot and re-routed it to take a drop-in saddle. That held for a couple decades, until the repairs started to fail. My current repairman decided to make a whole new bridge, found a piece of matching Brazilian rosewood, and produced an exact reproduction, which I suspect will hold longer than I will.
 
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