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I have a Guild acoustic guitar coming in for a repair. I've already looked at it before.
The binding/perfling on the top are loose and the binding on the back is cracking and falling off, even missing in some places.
Question is... The action is a little high... probably about .120" or more to my eye, but surprisingly still easy to play. the bridge is lifting and needs reset.. I figure that will knock the action down at least a few thou...
but it's still too has as far as I'm concerned and the owner is not opposed to having it reset either. so, I'm thinking, it would probably be easier to replace the binding with the neck off anyway, right?
Either that or I will have to carefully cut the binding perfectly as it meets the side of the neck.
so should I just go ahead and do the neck reset?

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PMoMC

Without knowing the year of the instrument I can't say for sure but some Guilds have gigantic neck joints that don't always like to come apart as easily as other makers guitars and many of them were finished after the neck is attached to the body making for a lot of touch-up. I know that doesn't really answer your question but, it's something to keep in mind while quoting a price.

Interesting. Thanks for that. I'm kinda finding out from other sources as well that the neck removal might be a bit more tricky than I'm expecting and maybe I should try to do the repairs without removing the neck. So then, my question is... If it doesn't need a neck reset, then what's the best way to go about removing and reinstalling the binding? The reason I feel the need to remove it is that someone has tried to fix it before. I looks like they tried gluing it back in place with CA, but it didn't hold and now there's a big glob of superglue in the gaps. What I'm afraid of is that the plastic has shrunk. so if I just carefully cut it off at the neck on each side is may not go all the way around and there will be a gap against the neck. is that a valid concern? if so, how can I avoid it without removing the neck?
btw... don't know if it changes your answer any but it's a binding with full height purflings inside it, several b/w/b layers into a single full height channel.

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PMoMC

It either needs it's neck reset or it doesn't. I can't decide that from here. I was just trying to offer some insight into that job on that guitar. Sometimes it doesn't take much to get way too far into something than one originally intended to. If it were me, I would do whatever is necessary to make the guitar play well then address any cosmetic issues such as binding, purfling, finish etc. To me, removing all of the top binding and purfling from a guitar, replacing it and touching up the finish isn't a cheap job and often is not necessary.

Okay, so I have the guitar in my possession and I think I have all the pertinent facts.
It's a '96 model Guild D4-NT-HR
Neck relief is <.010"
Action at the 12 fret is .130". Bridge is just barely starting to come loose so I'm not sure that it will bring the action down much, maybe .010 or .020" at the most I'm thinking, which still puts the action around .110"
the plane of the neck hits 5/64" below the top of the bridge.
saddle height is 1/16"
there is no abnormal top deflection.

So, what do you think?

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PMoMC

High action, low saddle, straightedge test fail: the, "Needa Reset", trifecta...

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https://soundcloud.com/jeffreylsuits/he ... -runnin-13

That's what I suspected, but it seemed like I kept getting pushback when i talked about resetting. It wasn't that I wanted to take the neck off just to make it easier to to fix the binding, but it sure would if I had to do it anyway.

so what do you know about the '96 era neck joints? I'm about used to being surprised by now, but if I can at all know beforehand that would be kinda cool for a change.

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PMoMC

96 is much newer than anything I have seen however, if I am not mistaken, they were still being made by original Guild employees then. Look for a heck of a lot of glue in the dovetail. Check the finish. It probably needs to be scored all around the neck joint and FB prior to removal.

I'm figuring that out. This neck is kicking my butt! I got the fingerboard extension loose just fine. Then I scored all the way around the heel. I steamed and steamed and steamed. It never came loose. the heel cap popped off, but not even so much as a wiggle. If I didn't know any better I'd think it was a doweled but joint and half ready to saw it off. But I won't do that. (not yet anyway.)
I tried putting vinegar between the heel and the body, but no help so far. I also tried your trick of applying heat and tuning the strings wayyyyyy up, and nothing. Of course I think if it is a traditional dovetail that wouldn't be very effective anyway.
I've seen pictures and it looks like the dovetail is relatively small and the heel block is huge which makes for a massive gluing surface and no way for the steam to get to it. I'm a bit stumped. I may just try again later when I'll have time to work it a little more.

Edit: sorry, I seem to be getting a couple of these threads mixed together, but you know what I mean.

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PMoMC

Have you had any luck yet? Further thinking about this, I should have said; chop completely through the finish all around the joint.

Oh yeah. All done. Customer loves it!
Problem was, I've never had to use one of those neck removal jigs, you know the one, that clamps onto the guitar and puts pressure on the bottom of the heel... so I didn't have one. I made one and I like it a lot. I also went ahead and let it steam a little more than normal before trying to get it loose. I used a 1.25" flexible putty knife (that I ground down and put a sharp edge on) to get between the heel and body and with a little heat, steam, determination and only minor blood loss, she came off. did all the rest of the work neeed, reset the neck and got her goin'.
Thanks for walking me through it, btw.

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PMoMC

Cool. Glad to hear it.