Wow... I don’t log on to LTG for a month or so and my old ‘58 Freshman thread sort of blew up. Cool!
I’d go point by point, but others have addressed quite a few of your “questions” already, and I thank them all quite enthusiastically for that. And some of the things you wrote about were also addressed during the year or so before you happened upon my old post.
First, the luthier in question is a very good luthier. His name is Dave and he works here in Vermont. I can give you his phone number and you can give him a call... chat about old archtops with him. He’s worked on a lot of them... rebuilt a lot of them. He’s very knowledgable, especially about old Epiphones. You can tell him the “baloney... big BS” stuff yourself.
The serial number here is 8213. That dates this beautiful guitar as a ‘58... probably. It’s near the end of the ‘58 run, according to the Guild website, which puts the last ‘58 serial number at 8300 (as stated above by another LTGer). It also has a ghost label which, according to Hans’ indispensable Guild Guitar Book, was introduced in ‘59 and used through ‘60. So mine COULD be a ‘59, but I don’t think so. The serial number says ‘58. Kind of a tweener. Perhaps Hans will tell us exactly when my guitar was built. He most certainly knows. Does your guitar have a similar serial number? Does it have a silhouette, ghost, or oval label? Hans can most definitely tell you when your guitar was built if you provide the requested serial number.
Everything I’ve read and heard here and on other websites tells me cherry was very rare, or even nonexistent, in ‘58, and although my original feeling was this is the original paint, I trust Dave’s judgement that the overspray he found is evidence of a repaint. Therefore, because of these two factors, I don’t believe this is original paint, and I do believe it was repainted a very long time ago. I suppose Dave could be wrong, and if he is, that would make him both wrong about the paint on this guitar AND a very competent, honest, and talented luthier, because those facts can all exist in the same world at the same time.
I believe the following: The tuners are non-original, as stated in the original post. That was obvious from the get go. The pickup is original. The knobs, bridge, and pickguard are original. I’ve heard from several folks here (all of whom are far more knowledgable than me) about the headstock and I’ve concluded the most likely headstock scenario is that the heatstock was originally painted black with a gold script - painted on - Guild logo that probably started peeling and was eventually refinished. Perhaps someone randomly sanded the original logo off, or inexplicably thought it would look better with a matching paint when they repainted the body. But honestly, the headstock paint doesn’t match the body very well... so it remains kind of a mystery. I also had this guitar refretted and some binding work done. Bindings shrink on these so there was a little gap to fill.
I’ve never seen anyone come on this website and inform another Guild collector their guitar was worth $0 and/or “zilch.” You did both. That’s an interesting, and highly inaccurate, take. A pristine example of a ‘58 M-65 would obviously fetch a better price, but vintage guitars often have a checkered history... through no fault of their own. And the M-65 was an entry level guitar to begin with, so it doesn’t fetch premium prices anyways. But the pedigree you list as your signature tells me you already know all of this, making the “zero-zilch” thing a bit of a conundrum. I’m sure I’d have no trouble getting a fair amount of money for this guitar from many Guild guitar collectors reading this post right now. But that won’t happen because I’d never sell this guitar. It’s family now.
Your ‘61 Tremolux seems like a nice amp. I’ve heard good things about them.