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"Hand Rubbed" finish?
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Author:  Kirt Myers [ Wed Jul 18, 2007 1:23 am ]
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I posted this a couple weeks ago, must be in the archive somewhere.

Anyway, I reglued this plastic binding on with LMI's FCA contact adhesive. Everything went well with the glue, but I have a couple spots where I removed the tape and some of the finish came too. Not all of the finish, but it left a light "shadow". That brown paper binding tape has some major stickum. I should have stuck it to my shirt a couple times to weaken it.

This picture is from before the fix.



It's a Guild dred with a so-called hand rubbed finish. Does anyone has a guess as to what the finish might be? It's a thin, very low gloss finish.

I was thinking I could pad on a little tung oil, and very lightly go over the whole surface to blend.

Thanks so much,
Author:  KenH [ Wed Jul 18, 2007 1:58 am ]
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Hey Kirt!


I'm not sure what the finish is, but if this was a westerly, R.I. Guitar it is worth a small fortune. I would make real sure of what the finish is before I put anything else on it.


As you probably know, Guild was bought out by Fender guitars a good while ago. You should be able to get the answer you require by contacting their customer relations department at


Telephone: (480) 596-7195
Fax: (480) 367-5262
E-mail: consumerrelations@fender.com


Be sure to include the serial number with your correspondence with them.


Hope this helps!
Author:  Kirt Myers [ Wed Jul 18, 2007 2:11 am ]
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Thanks, Ken & Todd,

I will try to contact Fender. This is the only picture I have here at work. I'll post one of the "effected area" tonight.

Looks like I'll be doing a bridge re-glue on this too. Had to check with the owner, he didn't know it was pulling up. He said go ahead, so I will probably replace his leaning plastic saddle with a bone one.

This is all freebee work so I can get some repair experience. But I still want to do it right.

Author:  Miketobey [ Wed Jul 18, 2007 10:44 am ]
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I have a Westerly D-40 mahogany /spruce Dreadnaught. Nice but not my favorite- the Martin D-12-28 (1976) and Taylor 1994 710 are my favorites. PM if someone is interested in the Guild.mt
Author:  Rick Turner [ Wed Jul 18, 2007 3:27 pm ]
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Ken, why would a Westerly Guild be worth a small fortune? I think many Hoboken Guilds were better guitars, and the Guilds they're building up at the Tacoma factory beat most Westerly guitars by a good 16 oz.! I see the Westerly guitars as being quite overbuilt and not up to the quality of the ones made before when some of the original Guild guys (the ones who came from Epiphone) were still involved. There seems to be a mystique about Westerly that I do not see supported by the guitars built there...for the most part. In the flattop world, Guild's reputation was established during the folk boom of the mid 1960s...pre-Westerly. The 12 strings were the best on the market, and they had artists from Richie Havens to Mississippi John Hurt to Dan Hicks playing their guitars...Hoboken-made ones.
Author:  KenH [ Wed Jul 18, 2007 3:36 pm ]
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http://www.adirondackguitar.com/Resources/Guild_dating.htm
Author:  crazymanmichael [ Wed Jul 18, 2007 10:35 pm ]
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i agree with rick on the issue of guild values. having repaired instruments from both the hoboken and westerly eras, the hoboken guilds always impressed me a being better built.

naturally provenance can influence value, and a notably pre-owned westerly(say reliably attributable to havens or denver) might well attract a higher price than a more humbly pre-owned hoboken example, but i don't think it would be on the basis of quality.
Author:  Kirt Myers [ Wed Jul 18, 2007 11:21 pm ]
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It's a D4HR. From what I found they started making them around 1991. Don't know if that makes it a Hoboken or a Westerly. It's heavily built and would make a good starter instrument. Can't say much for the tone, but the strings look as old as the guitar and the bridge needs major work.



Haven't had a chance to contact Fender yet.
Author:  Rick Turner [ Thu Jul 19, 2007 5:00 am ]
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It's a Westerly.   They moved there in the late '60s.
Author:  Kirt Myers [ Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:00 am ]
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[QUOTE=ToddStock] Hmmm...so I'm thinking the single black bridge pin probably does not make this guitar any more collectable, eh?



[/QUOTE]

Kinda has a black eye doesn't it. Its a 5 degree pin in a 3 degree hole too, so it only goes about half way in. The pins are plastic so I bought 6 new similar pins for it so at least they will all match and fit the holes.

Author:  Don A [ Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:02 pm ]
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I've got a '64 Guild D-40 which is the Hoboken years. I love its sound and it is the guitar I always grab to play (whether standard or open tuning). It is definitely the sound I'm shooting for in my own builds.
Author:  Miketobey [ Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:26 pm ]
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Me too. Mine is clearly overbuilt- dead compared to my first Guild 1963 D 40 3 digit- Brooklyn made. Why do you guys think I want to unload it?mt
Author:  Kirt Myers [ Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:51 am ]
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Hi,

Thought I'd bring this Guild back to light.

I have an email into Fender about the finish. Now it remains to be seen if they reply or not.

So in the meantime I've removed the bridge for reglue as I mentioned above. Came off pretty easy with some heat and a thin putty knife with rounded corners.

I'm not sure what kind of glue was used on this, but I think it is some type of PVA. As I scraped the old glue from the bride I used a small amount of distilled water. It softened the glue slightly but not to the extent that I think Hide glue would have. It did scrape off much easier with some water that it did dry. I've scraped back down to wood now and I really don't want to remove much material because I don't want to thin the bridge.

So my question is: Is there any problem with gluing this back on with hot hide glue if there is still some PVA residue left in the bridge? Or, if not, what would be the best glue.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Author:  Kirt Myers [ Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:54 am ]
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I didn't scrape glue from the bride, she might have got mad.    I scraped it from the BRIDGE.
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