Tx, Yes I regretted letting it go although I never bought it to re-sell it. The BRW was identified by more than one vintage guitar specialist who were all very interested in assisting. However for my repair work, all I heard was "But we prefer to work with the original tone woods" and "it will be worth more that way".
I have done luthier work where I totally replaced parts in very authentic fashion, and they were never criticized as being repaired as such. On the other hand, I never liked doing repairs on top of other older repairs, just to "keep it all original". But I had never replaced a top before, and preferred to find an expert do it for this F612. Most luthiers charge $90+/hr. to do the bare minimum, whereas I would often put in many hours unreimbursed on my own work. I was always interested in a great end product, especially considering that the goal was to bring a great old guitar back to the best state of sound and long term preservation.
The hardest part was in hearing even the former Guild repair bench in New Hartford wanting $150/hr. but would not agree to do what I was asking them to do, but instead they also proposed to "keep the original tone woods", which meant to keep all the old cracks still on the guitar.
I certainly do enjoy the enthusiasm of anyone that owns an F612. It is quite an event to own one of so few made. As for "my" F612 I played it a few times tuned to pitch, but for 2 years I left it tuned 1 1/2 steps down at C# and only played Paul Stookey's Wedding Song, which he did originally in that pitch.
But my plans were to play it at pitch, once the cracked wood was all replaced with an authentically crafted new top and new bracing.
