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Famous Last Words
A dear friend’s son hand-delivered to me his dad’s Guild 12-string, a 1994 D4-12 NT, for repair. When this instrument first left the factory in Westerly, RI, it was an $800 guitar featuring a Mahogany archback with Mahogany sides, plastic fret position dots, plastic binding, minimal plastic purfling, dark-tinted (brown) back and sides, a satin finish, and a very unattractive soundboard with obvious runout (one half of the soundboard was much darker than the other).
Twenty years later, the bridge had lifted significantly, rendering the guitar unplayable. I assured the son that this was a straightforward repair and I should be able to turn it around for him fairly quickly ; that is, once I was able to get to it. He was most understanding of my schedule, informing me that there was absolutely no hurry, and to please, get to it whenever .
With the strings loosened, the guitar went back into its case and took its place in line amongst the projects. Nearly a year would pass before the Guild would find its way again onto my shop bench for an inspection.
I truly had no plans to alter or modify this guitar in any way. I fully intended to simply put the guitar back in playable condition and get it back into the hands of it's owner, my friend. Ah, the best laid (and vocalized) plans often suffer from foot-in-mouth disease.
I had that guitar in my shop for a year! What should have been a simple repair became a complete remake.
Here is how it all happened.
Inspection
When I first viewed the guitar, when it was first brought to me, it was under string tension. The bridge was obviously lifting. I had no intention of simply squirting glue into the opening at the back of the bridge, clamping it overnight, and calling it "fixed".
I would take the bridge off, look for a cause to address, check for a loose brace, and re-glue the bridge. I couldn't get to the repair immediately, so I loosened the strings, and put the guitar in its case.
Four months passed, and that Guild finally made its way onto the bench.
With no strings attached (literally) I was able to slide a palette knife more than 3/8" under the back of the bridge across its width without resistance. Hmm ...
Severe Bridge Lift
I was able to slide a small palette knife between a section of the X-Brace and the soundboard, running directly alongside the bridgeplate. The glue bond had failed on treble side in a section about 2" long. The bass side exhibited a 4" long gap.
I didn't take a "before" photo, so the only image I have of the area is an "after" shot on the bass side. These sections are not easily accessible through the soundhole. When introducing glue between the brace and the soundboard, it is necessary to come from the far side of the brace, toward the bridgeplate.
Severe Glue Failure
A Bridge Lift Primer
The bridge of the acoustic guitar is expected to be fully bonded, wood-to-wood, with the soundboard beneath it. String tension is attempting to rotate the bridge forward and soundboard bracing is there to prevent that from occurring. Should a gap be present (or develop) along the back of the bridge, there is high probability that it will be exploited.
A bridge will lift as a result of an insufficient wood-to-wood bond. The glue simply fails to secure the bridge to the soundboard. Much like prying a lid from a container, the bridge will appear to "lift" away from the soundboard.
One guitar may show the smallest of gaps at the back of the bridge for decades. For another guitar, the gap may visibly increase over time.
Addressing a bridge that is lifting at the back seems like it could be a very straightforward repair. Why not simply squeeze some glue into the opening between the bridge and the soundboard, and clamp the bridge down to allow the glue to dry? Doesn't that work?
Let me take a moment to explain "How" most bridges are secured to soundboards, and I will show you why it may not be anywhere near that simple to repair.
An acoustic guitar's wooden bridge should only be glued directly to the raw wood of the soundboard, and never be glued to the finish.
To secure a perfect bond, the bridge can be glued onto the soundboard prior to applying the finish. However, this makes it difficult to achieve that clean, beautiful transition between the glossy finish of the soundboard and the (typically unfinished) bridge that the buying public have all come to expect. This is especially true for sprayed finishes.
It is possible to apply finish to a soundboard and, after the finish has dried or cured, to then remove finish only where the bridge will be attached. This is not as straightforward as it sounds, though, and in many cases may not even be viable.
It is much more common to "tape off" the footprint of the bridge prior to finishing, to prevent any finish from being applied in the area where the bridge will be glued. Tape is first applied to the raw wood of the soundboard. The outline of the bridge is then traced onto the tape.
Lastly, the tape is cut along that outline, and any tape remaining outside the cut is discarded. This leaves a protective barrier of tape precisely where the bridge will attach, and allows the body to be finished, right over the tape.
Why go to any of this effort? For appearance's sake. The goal is to make it appear as though the bridge is sitting on the finish, with no unsightly gaps between the finish and the perimeter of the bridge, though it is primarily glued to the raw wood of the soundboard.
Imagine what might happen if, instead of carefully cutting through the tape along that traced outline, someone is either trying to "play it safe," or is in a hurry, or {fill in reasonable explanation, here }, and cuts through that tape leaving a larger-than-necessary border of tape (and, more importantly, finish beneath it) between the tape cut line and the traced outline of the bridge?
Instead of 99% to 100% of the bottom of the bridge making direct contact with the raw wood surface of the soundboard, only 70% (or even less) of the bridge is making a wood-to-wood bond. The back of the bridge ends up resting on a section of finish (having little to no glue bond) and, as soon as the bridge begins to rotate forward under string tension, the back of the bridge begins to visibly lift.
A more worrisome cause of bridge lift is a cascading effect of glue bond failure, potentially beginning with the glue holding the soundboard to the bracing (typically the X-brace) beneath it. This type of failure permits the thin soundboard to pull upward, away from the bracing. The bridge, which is already rotating forward, is inadvertently rotated forward even more, enough to let the string tension have its way.
At this point, either the glue bond holding the bridge to the soundboard fails or, worse, the wood of the soundboard shears and/or tears. This is no longer just a matter of squeezing a little glue beneath the bridge a calling it "repaired".
A comprehensive repair will address any soundboard-to-bracing bonding issues, remove the lifting bridge (if it has not already torn completely free from the soundboard), clean and repair (if needed) the mating surfaces, remove finish from the soundboard where needed, and then re-attach the bridge.
The Simple Repair
I applied a little heat and this bridge practically fell off. That is not a good sign.
At some point, when the bridge originally "lifted," it tore wood from the soundboard beneath it. That wood was securely attached to the bottom of the bridge when I removed it from the guitar. As I would later learn (quite painfully), this tear-out was due to severe runout in the soundboard, but I didn't catch that initially.
In what would clearly demonstrate itself to be an utterly wasted effort, I carefully removed the wood fibers off the bottom of the bridge, and re-glued them into the divots from whence they came.
I re-glued the braces to the soundboard in the sections where I had been able to slide the palette knife, clamped things together, and left it all to dry.
The satin finish on this Guild had been beaten up pretty bad. It had taken me this long to even get to the guitar, and I was feeling guilty. I wanted to surprise my friend by presenting him with a shiny new (renewed) guitar. So prepared the instrument for a simple light sanding, repair, and refinishing.
Simple repair? Oh, just you wait ...
I sprayed the guitar with clear lacquer and left it dry for several weeks. Afterwards, I sanded and buffed the finish. I did a complete fret job on the guitar, as the frets were original from 1994. I glued the bridge back on and set the guitar aside for a few days.
I remember stringing up the guitar, as I was eager to hear the results. The sound did not disappoint; it was quintessential Guild. I recall walking the instrument out of my shop to my wife so she could hear it, and got the nod of approval. "That is a Guild 12-string, alright," I remember her saying.
I left the instrument overnight as I planned to give it a final polish the next day. I almost contacted the owner's sons with the good news, but got busy with something and never made the call ...
The Disaster
That next day I went to retrieve the guitar for buffing and nearly wept when I saw it.
Unbelievable!!!
The bridge had torn almost completely loose from the guitar. This time, it took the section of the soundboard it was glued to right along with it. It was as though the bridge told the surrounding soundboard and bridgeplate beneath, "It's okay. You can all stay here, but me and this section of soundboard, we're leaving!"
I had never seen anything quite like it, and it was horrifying to behold! At this point the top was obviously ruined.
What was so apparent on this soundboard was the degree of runout in the Spruce. While this helps to explain both the initial and subsequent failure, it certainly didn't make me feel any better about the whole experience.
SEGUE : I didn't take any photos of the bridge area runout, but I do have photos from the upper bout of that soundboard, which literally snapped off during removal.
My original plan, to re-glue the bridge along with any bracing that needed addressing, was out the window. My guilt-ridden, revised plan, to re-glue the bridge along with any bracing that needed addressing AND refinish the guitar, was also out the window.
I hadn't planned on a photo documentary, so I was only taking an occasional snapshot up to this point. Once I saw the shearing in the soundboard, though, I did try to take a few more photos.
Runout
More Runout
The Makeover
As I saw it, I had no options before me. I would re-top my friends guitar.
That meant first removing the neck. In the event I am going to put things back together and retain the original finish, such as when performing a neck reset, I like to carefully scribe the lacquer with a warmed scalpel where the neck joins the body, as it often makes for a cleaner removal.
Guilds were spray finished after the the necks were glued on. Failure to release the lacquer "seal" around the neck heel severely complicates neck removal, adding to the urban legend of the difficulties with the "Infamous Guild Neck Reset".
Scribing the Heel
Having removed the fretwire directly above the neck-to-body joint (Yes, I removed my own newly-installed fret!), I drilled two holes through the fret slot and down into the dovetail joint. A little heat applied to both sides of the dovetail saw the neck come off nicely.
NOTE : There was no "Guild Neck Reset" drama, as no excessive amounts of glue were present. A pain-free Guild neck removal, though common in my experience, does not seem to make a dent in the "Guild Neck Resets are a Nightmare" meme.
The dovetail tenon was one of the most chewed up and sloppiest cut tenons I have ever encountered, quite a surprise for a Guild guitar. This neck looked like it was made from scrap wood in a total of about 10 minutes, start to finish! I can only guess at what decisions were made back when this guitar was assembled. Rather than re-make a neck, I opted to rebuild the tenon using Mahogany and epoxy.
New (Re-built) Dovetail
It was time to remove the soundboard. There are two ways to accomplish this task, and both are pretty straightforward. One involves simply cutting through the binding from the side of the guitar.
The other involves routing through the top, removing it from the kerfed lining. I used the first option and had a look inside the box. What caught my eye was the curious addition of a stick lightly glued onto the tailblock, which had been glued on off-center.
I have seen these on many (most) of this era's Guilds, and have assumed it was used to counterbalance the weight so that, when the guitar was stood on its tail, it would stand vertically - not tilt to one side. Kind of like adding a weight to a wheel so it rotates without wobble. If anyone knows different, please let me in on the secret.
Tailblock
I didn't like the stick, so I took it off. I also braced the sides by adding 8 little "sticks" that run perpendicular to the kerfed lining. I cleaned up all the slopped and glopped-on glue that had never been removed. It is looking so much better inside ...
Inside the D4-12, Cleaned and Braced
ASIDE : You may have noticed the absence of braces glued to the back. This is one of the laminated archback Guild models, requiring no bracing.
I turned my attention to the focal point of this acoustic guitar - the soundboard. I went to my stash of AAA Sitka tops that I had acquired from a former Westerly employee and selected just the right one for my friends guitar. None of that dreaded runout would be allowed back on this instrument, no sir!
At some point along this crazy journey, something in me snapped! No longer was my goal a "restoration" or "renovation" of an older guitar for a friend. I was determined to put a superior instrument back into the hands of its owner. I started with some Paua inlay around the soundhole.
Soundhole Inlay
I cut my braces from a large stash of Adirondack (Red) Spruce. I radiused the braces to fit the shallow contour of the inside of the top. I have been using a 52 foot radius for nearly all my soundboards, as was used during the era of the so-called “Flat-Top” guitars.
Radiusing the Bracing
I wanted to effect increased bass response over what I had heard from the D4-12 (just prior to its demise). This guitar is a dreadnought body style.
If you were curious, my X-Bracing re-glue efforts were successful. With the soundboard removed from the guitar, I had full access to test the brace-to-soundboard bonds. It is little consolation at this point, but tall of he braces were perfectly intact.
Guild D4-12 Bracing Pattern
Having done this a few times, I chose to widen the X-brace after the spec's of Guild's jumbo body styles. It really works.
Guild Jumbo Bracing Pattern (left)
I laminated a large Rosewood and Maple bridgeplate and glued it in place.
Bridgeplate
To stay true to the Guild 12-string sound, it is necessary to emulate the bracing pattern. Guild used three (3) tone bars. On these X-Braced guitars, where I deviate from tradition, is in the upper bout. I reinforced the inside of the upper bout with two (2) additional layers of Mahogany and added a solid wood soundhole binding. This design negates the need for both a transverse brace and a fingerboard patch.
The sides of the body are notched to receive the thicker upper bout, and the now unified neck block/soundboard system isn't going anywhere. This particular approach is only 20 years old, but has demonstrated itself to be effective at stabilizing the body against the shifts that require neck resets to address.
The New D4-12 Soundboard
I combine brace scalloping and tapering with top deflection measurements and frequency response when tapped, working toward target numbers achieved over time, over many guitars. The results are consistent.
Reimagined Guild D4-12 Soundboard
I attached the soundboard to the body, ensuring all parts mated perfectly prior to adding any glue. In place of the plastic that shipped with the original guitar, I used wood binding and wood purfling around the perimeter of the body.
"Closing the Box"
The final step needed to complete the body was to cut the dovetail mortise that will mate with the tenon of the neck.
The Dovetail Mortise
Having come this far, I decided to go all the way and fashion a new fretboard and matching bridge. I had already cut the dovetail joint and fitted the neck, so it was critical to not alter any neck dimensions. To ensure success, I routed off the old fretboard (after holding a brief memorial service for the fabulous fret job I had completed, earlier).
Neck Fitting and Glue-up (sans fretboard)
I added Paua fret position markers along with smaller Paua side dots to the new Rosewood fretboard and glued it on. The bridge would be added after the finish is applied.
The Finish
I was inspired to improve the visual appearance of this guitar, so I sprayed a deep tobacco 'burst onto the arched back and finished the top with a vintage tinted clear lacquer. It turned out very pretty. This guitar was now ready to be set aside to allow the lacquer to fully dry.
An Archback Tobacco 'Burst
I glued the bridge on (if anyone remembers: this is where I originally started!) and I fashioned a custom pickguard. I fretted the new board with Nickel frets, and made a new bone nut and bone saddle. I strung it up and ...
... I kicked myself for not recording a Before and After sound sample of this transformation! It was so dramatic of an improvement.
Front View
Wowsers! What a beast! It sounded just gorgeous! Lush and deep and rich and everything you could want from a Guild 12-string, or from ANY 12-string, for that matter!
The Renewed Guild D4-12
Completing the Story
I had this Guild D4-12 in my shop for more than 14 months. What started as my assumption of a quick and easy repair took me down a road I had never intended to be on. But it resulted in a delightful outcome. contacted the sons of the owner and asked if they remembered me {smile}. They returned the guitar to their dad, one surprised and happy Guild owner.
Enjoying his Guild
