ClydeTower
Member
Ok, the title might be a bit exaggerated, but that's how I felt at the time...
A few weeks ago, the unthinkable happened... As I was recording my F55 with a condenser mic, the mic stand fell over and came crashing down on my F55's beautiful sunburst top. I froze for a second, trying to process what had just happen. And when I looked down, I saw it... a huge gash across the upper bout near the pickguard. I was so pissed off with myself as I usually put a sandbag on mic stand's feet, but this time I had neglected to do so... big mistake!
I brought my guitar to my luthier to see if there was any chance he could fix it. He looked at me and sighed. The gash was deep, compromising the NCL and sunburst finish. The wood was dented. Bringing it back its original condition would be difficult if not impossible since the damage was right in the middle of the sunburst's transition from light to dark. He was also afraid of sanding through the finish if he attempted to fill the divots with NCL. We contacted CMG to get the specs on the finish. Nowadays, most guitars with NCL finishes are not nitro all the way through. Many manufacturers apply NCL only as a top coat over a poly or pre-cat finish.
So the finishing manager at CMG confirmed that the finish is a conversion varnish base coat with a nitro top coat. Basically the same recipe as Gibson uses to speed up the drying process. The finish is 9 mils thick and color match is Mcfadden EL3128 dark salem.
So, after discussing it, we decided to try to repair the NCL top coat by filling the gash with a special filler compound that dries much faster than NCL and can be sanded down and buffed just like NCL. We knew however this would only make it slightly better. And that's exactly what I got, maybe a 30-40% improvement, but the gash still very visible... and still bugging the hell out of me. I'm pretty anal about this kind of stuff. If I buy a vintage guitar, I love every scratch and dent, its part of the history and character of the guitar. But if I buy a new guitar, perfect in every way, and then put a huge gash in it, its gonna bug me.
So my luthier gave me an idea. Since the damage was near the pickguard, maybe a custom pickguard could be designed to cover up the gash. So I thought about it, and started to draw some designs in Photoshop. I tried to stay within the Guild pg style all while making it so it was just large enough to cover the problem area. I printed the design on paper, cut it out and stuck it to my F55.
The result was good enough that I decided go on to the next step of physically having a pickguard done. But if I was going to do this, I was going to do this right. So I contacted Taylor Mullins at Holter Pickguards. I had read a lot of positive feedback about Taylor and decided he was the man for the job. He makes custom pickguards out of Chattanooga TN with 100% real celluloid, beveled and polished. We looked at different options, tortoise colors, thicknesses and beveling, but ultimately decide to keep the look as traditional as possible.
So I proceeded to remove the old pickguard carefully using a blow dryer and artists knife. It worked like a charm. I then removed all of the residual glue with lighter fluid (nafta). Gotta admit, the F55 didn't look half bad without the pickguard. I mailed Taylor the template for my new pickguard with the old pg to make sure the fit would be perfect.
And a few weeks later it arrived. I was really stoked! Applying the new pickguard was as easy as removing the protective backing and sticking it onto the guitar. I made sure that everything was properly lined up.
I gotta say, I'm really happy with the end result. The pg material is of better quality than the original one. And the look, although not the shape of the original pg is quite "Guildish" if I do say so myself. Taylor did a fantastic job and was really a nice guy to collaborate with. I would recommend him without hesitation to anyone who wants a custom pickguard: https://www.facebook.com/holterpickguards/
So my F55 has been restored to its full glory. Some might argue that changing the pickguard could affect resale value. That may of may not be true... but the gash in my F55's top had already done that. The traditionalist might prefer having the mojo of a gash rather than a custom pg. Me, I prefer looking at my F55 and thinking, I contributed something to that guitar... she's definitely mine now
A few weeks ago, the unthinkable happened... As I was recording my F55 with a condenser mic, the mic stand fell over and came crashing down on my F55's beautiful sunburst top. I froze for a second, trying to process what had just happen. And when I looked down, I saw it... a huge gash across the upper bout near the pickguard. I was so pissed off with myself as I usually put a sandbag on mic stand's feet, but this time I had neglected to do so... big mistake!
I brought my guitar to my luthier to see if there was any chance he could fix it. He looked at me and sighed. The gash was deep, compromising the NCL and sunburst finish. The wood was dented. Bringing it back its original condition would be difficult if not impossible since the damage was right in the middle of the sunburst's transition from light to dark. He was also afraid of sanding through the finish if he attempted to fill the divots with NCL. We contacted CMG to get the specs on the finish. Nowadays, most guitars with NCL finishes are not nitro all the way through. Many manufacturers apply NCL only as a top coat over a poly or pre-cat finish.
So the finishing manager at CMG confirmed that the finish is a conversion varnish base coat with a nitro top coat. Basically the same recipe as Gibson uses to speed up the drying process. The finish is 9 mils thick and color match is Mcfadden EL3128 dark salem.
So, after discussing it, we decided to try to repair the NCL top coat by filling the gash with a special filler compound that dries much faster than NCL and can be sanded down and buffed just like NCL. We knew however this would only make it slightly better. And that's exactly what I got, maybe a 30-40% improvement, but the gash still very visible... and still bugging the hell out of me. I'm pretty anal about this kind of stuff. If I buy a vintage guitar, I love every scratch and dent, its part of the history and character of the guitar. But if I buy a new guitar, perfect in every way, and then put a huge gash in it, its gonna bug me.
So my luthier gave me an idea. Since the damage was near the pickguard, maybe a custom pickguard could be designed to cover up the gash. So I thought about it, and started to draw some designs in Photoshop. I tried to stay within the Guild pg style all while making it so it was just large enough to cover the problem area. I printed the design on paper, cut it out and stuck it to my F55.
The result was good enough that I decided go on to the next step of physically having a pickguard done. But if I was going to do this, I was going to do this right. So I contacted Taylor Mullins at Holter Pickguards. I had read a lot of positive feedback about Taylor and decided he was the man for the job. He makes custom pickguards out of Chattanooga TN with 100% real celluloid, beveled and polished. We looked at different options, tortoise colors, thicknesses and beveling, but ultimately decide to keep the look as traditional as possible.
So I proceeded to remove the old pickguard carefully using a blow dryer and artists knife. It worked like a charm. I then removed all of the residual glue with lighter fluid (nafta). Gotta admit, the F55 didn't look half bad without the pickguard. I mailed Taylor the template for my new pickguard with the old pg to make sure the fit would be perfect.
And a few weeks later it arrived. I was really stoked! Applying the new pickguard was as easy as removing the protective backing and sticking it onto the guitar. I made sure that everything was properly lined up.
I gotta say, I'm really happy with the end result. The pg material is of better quality than the original one. And the look, although not the shape of the original pg is quite "Guildish" if I do say so myself. Taylor did a fantastic job and was really a nice guy to collaborate with. I would recommend him without hesitation to anyone who wants a custom pickguard: https://www.facebook.com/holterpickguards/
So my F55 has been restored to its full glory. Some might argue that changing the pickguard could affect resale value. That may of may not be true... but the gash in my F55's top had already done that. The traditionalist might prefer having the mojo of a gash rather than a custom pg. Me, I prefer looking at my F55 and thinking, I contributed something to that guitar... she's definitely mine now
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