Hi All,
All this talk about nice archtops lately leads me to a bit of a conundrum with my X175. I bought this guitar at the now defunct Silver-Horland music store on West 48th Street in NYC in the early '80s. I was playing in a wedding band at the time (back when you could get away with playing jazz) and the acoustic-electric Ovation that I had at the time just wasn't getting the job done. I sold that to a good friend who still has it, and went off in the search of an real jazz guitar. I found it and a Gibson ES175 of a slightly newer vintage at the time at this same shop, and liked the Guild a lot more. It also didn't hurt that it was about half the price, too.
It's been a great guitar all these years, and the only really issue I've had with it is the dreaded shrinking binding thing, which is pretty common according to my luthier.
Here's a face shot of the way it is today. It still shows pretty well, as long as you don't look too close.
Here's a closer shot of the body. There's some finish checking, but it's still in pretty good shape for a 51 year old.
And a shot of the back, again showing some finish checking, but overall pretty good shape.
Now onto the shrinking binding. It's probably worst here on the cutaway.
There's more spots on the waist and the lower bout.
I'd like to address this binding thing, but I'm pretty sure you can't replace it without refinishing the guitar at the same time, which I'm not at all sure I want to do. My luthier thinks that this will be an ongoing problem, and one the guitar has obviously had during its life. It did make me feel better when he said that Gretschs are even worse in this respect.
I also don't know the effect refinishing would have on the value of the guitar, or even if it's worth enough at this point for it to be worthwhile.
Next issue is the machine heads. In a fit of stupidity, I replaced the originals (which admittedly didn't work very well) with some Schallers when I bought it. The Schallers, do work better, but the guitar loses some of its patina in the process I suppose.
Is it even possible to get an original set, or are there suitable replacements? At this point is it even worth doing?
What sayeth the archtop gurus on this forum? Thanks in advance!
All this talk about nice archtops lately leads me to a bit of a conundrum with my X175. I bought this guitar at the now defunct Silver-Horland music store on West 48th Street in NYC in the early '80s. I was playing in a wedding band at the time (back when you could get away with playing jazz) and the acoustic-electric Ovation that I had at the time just wasn't getting the job done. I sold that to a good friend who still has it, and went off in the search of an real jazz guitar. I found it and a Gibson ES175 of a slightly newer vintage at the time at this same shop, and liked the Guild a lot more. It also didn't hurt that it was about half the price, too.
It's been a great guitar all these years, and the only really issue I've had with it is the dreaded shrinking binding thing, which is pretty common according to my luthier.
Here's a face shot of the way it is today. It still shows pretty well, as long as you don't look too close.
Here's a closer shot of the body. There's some finish checking, but it's still in pretty good shape for a 51 year old.
And a shot of the back, again showing some finish checking, but overall pretty good shape.
Now onto the shrinking binding. It's probably worst here on the cutaway.
There's more spots on the waist and the lower bout.
I'd like to address this binding thing, but I'm pretty sure you can't replace it without refinishing the guitar at the same time, which I'm not at all sure I want to do. My luthier thinks that this will be an ongoing problem, and one the guitar has obviously had during its life. It did make me feel better when he said that Gretschs are even worse in this respect.
I also don't know the effect refinishing would have on the value of the guitar, or even if it's worth enough at this point for it to be worthwhile.Next issue is the machine heads. In a fit of stupidity, I replaced the originals (which admittedly didn't work very well) with some Schallers when I bought it. The Schallers, do work better, but the guitar loses some of its patina in the process I suppose.
Is it even possible to get an original set, or are there suitable replacements? At this point is it even worth doing?
What sayeth the archtop gurus on this forum? Thanks in advance!
