Official Luthiers Forum!

I've recently come into the possession of an older Guild D-6. It's in need of the full works (neck reset, bridge reset, replace truss rod, etc...) The neck isn't too terribly out of whack but it's enough to warrant the work to make it a player.

I want to use it as a learning opportunity as I've never done a reset on a Guild before but I've only read that they can be problematic. If I total the neck I have a backup plan.

Besides taking it slow and steady what are some tips that you guys do to keep things going smoothly with these? The heel is pretty thin but there should be enough material present to pull it off.

I haven't done a rest of a Guild but I turned down a beautiful maple 12 string about a year ago. One thing that I am aware of is that at least some Guilds have the finish (lacquer) applied after the neck was installed - you will have to scribe around the heel and there probably will be some finish damage. Otherwise I think its a straightforward dovetail

Guild finished their guitars with the necks on making scoring the finish and usually a goodly amount of finish touch-up standard. They are also well known for gluing the cheeks to the sides with way too much glue.

What results with Guild's very thin heel design is that the heels often break or crack in the removal process.

That's what causes the difficulty in neck resets with Guilds but the fun does not stop there. Because of the higher than normal likelihood of cracking or breaking the heel, having to cut the finish back in the filet that forms from finishing with the neck on substantial finish repair is usually the hardest part of the job.

FYI we do neck resets all of the time including a Guild once in a while when we need the business and don't want to refer it to someone that we don't like.... When my personal D-25 was due that I had bought new in 1977 when home from overseas on leave I decided to do myself a favor and sell the thing with full disclosure that it needed a neck reset AND agreement from the buyer that I would not do the reset so that he had to take it elsewhere. When I started building 12 - 13 years ago I started playing my own stuff exclusively as a motivation to improve anyway so the guitar was no longer used by me.

There is experience to be gained resetting these just get some Xanax or Valium from your Doc and know in advance that stuff will happen that you are not happy about.... But, nonetheless it is a conventional dovetail making fitting, removing, resetting, the fret work that should accompany a well done reset and a new nut all valuable experience.

Good luck and hopefully with eyes wide open you will enjoy the experience more so than finding out some of this stuff the hard way.

The xanax goes in the morning coffee so no worries there. Thank you for the advice, this is something I really need to learn to do better in my skillset so I'm going to muscle through. I have a back up plan in case the neck gets totaled.

For this one the truss rod is indicating that it's broken, adding tension does nothing to the relief. My thought in removing the neck and maybe making it slightly easier is to remove the fingerboard in order to get at the truss. We will see, going to start cracking at it soon

Good luck Dan it could go fine. What I report to you is the stuff that is well known in the industry and to be considered. It does not mean it can't be done it just is a list of things to be mindful of.

Some shops charge more for Guild resets also because of the above but again this does not mean it can't be done.

I can understand the extra charge just by looking at it. Thanks as always for your advice sir

My first reset ever was a '74 Guild D-25. I knew nothing of the inherent difficulties and waded right in. Scribed the neck joint, but still had a little chipping. It wasn't too bad and the guitar was my own, so I didn't give it much thought. Everything else went fine. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

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George :-)

The D-25's were/are great guitars, that's what I had and mine was a 77.

Dan-

I own a 1976 D-35 in need of a neck reset, total re-fret, a new bridge(original shaved way down), new saddle/nut/strings, setup, etc. It's in average cosmetic condition and would be worth $900-1000 if all problems were fixed correctly. I contacted two respected repairmen who each quoted over $1200 for the repairs needed, so it's not worth it financially to fix. It plays and sounds good, so one day I'll just fix it myself.

Dan, when you fix your guitar please post pics. It'll be nice to see what I'll be getting myself into.

It's good knowing others have done this too and give their advice freely. Thanks guys!

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

Chuckling here John because we call this level of work "the whole nine yards"and we charge about $1,200 to do it. Maybe it's time to raise prices.

Those repair quotes were from over 10 years ago, so yeah, it may be time to up your rates!

Hesh, I appreciate your advice about the Guild neck reset and its specific pecadillos. Thanks!

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

I recently did a 60's D-40 guild neck reset and restoration similar to what you are facing and it was a PIA as usual with those necks. I cracked the heal too! The dovetail should be accessible through the 15th fret. You might want to drill two access holes in it to get it from both sides. It's a tough one but you won't total the neck. If the heal cracks just treat that as normal and fix it. Some of the Guilds like the D-40 have laminated center maple stripes which require extra care with all the extra steaming required so as not to delaminate it.