Question about neck & binding on a 60s CE-100D

[jinsog]

Greetings people of LTG,
New member here and hopefuly a soon-to-be Guild owner.

There’s a 66 Capri for sale not too far from me that I’m thinking about getting. But I noticed a couple of things and wanted to ask the opinion of you Guild fanatics before going to see it. It’s a 2.5 hour drive from me, so I only want to do that drive once (or not at all). (Sorry about the lo-res pics, direct from the owner.)



The guitar looks clean overall and seems to be all original. But I have questions about the neck and the binding and was wondering if any of you could enlighten me.

Firstly, the action looks like it is fairly low, but from this picture it looks like the bridge is screwed all the way down.



Does this mean that the guitar might need a neck reset? I like guitars with very low action, so if I couldn’t adjust it to be quite low, it would be a problem for me. Basically, how do I tell if the guitar needs a neck reset? Or might it just need a truss rod adjustment? And any idea how much a neck reset would cost? (I have a good luthier who I’m sure could do it, but I might need to barter with the seller to make it worthwhile.)

Secondly, and less important, the front binding on the top side of the guitar looks cracked and perhaps split at one point.



It’s hard to tell from the photo exactly what the condition is. But if the binding is truly split at this point, is that something easily fixable, or would it require some serious work? And would this just be cosmetic, or might it start to split more?

Any advice would be welcome. The guitar is selling for around 2500, which I suspect is a bit higher than it is worth, but there really don’t seem to be many similar models selling for much less anywhere at the moment (from looking on Reverb, etc.) and it’s rare to find a Guild in my neck of the woods (France) so I don’t mind overpaying slightly.

Any advice would be welcome. And I have more photos if you'd like to see other views. Cheers!

 

[chazmo]

The market is quite different in France than here in the US, jinsog. So, just keep in mind that it's a little hard for us to advise you on the price.

That guitar looks pretty nice to me, but I would certainly want to see what the back looks like first... As for your more detailed questions, I'm sure our gang will chime in here, but as you said it's a little hard to tell you much with the photos...

Again, welcome aboard and best of luck!

 

[GGJaguar]

Yes, from the photos it appears the saddle is as low as it can go. You would need some string height measurements to know if the action is acceptable or if it will need a neck re-set. Also, the binding appears to be suffering from "binding rot" which means the binding material is degrading. It's sort of like a disease and often spreads to all the binding on the guitar. So, you need to consider that as well because re-binding a guitar is very expensive. Good luck with your Guild hunt!

 

[jinsog]

Thanks for the input. The back looks pretty clean!




Basically the whole guitar looks nice, but it's just the neck and binding that worry me slightly.

 

[chazmo]

Hmm... FYI, I think that guitar has been sitting in that awful stand with the rubber tubing that has started eating the finish on the neck heel. Given that, the same might be true on the bottom of the guitar where it rests on the feet. Another thing to look at.

 

[jinsog]

Hmm... FYI, I think that guitar has been sitting in that awful stand with the rubber tubing that has started eating the finish on the neck heel. Given that, the same might be true on the bottom of the guitar where it rests on the feet. Another thing to look at.

Oh interesting, yeah I wasn't sure what that was, or if the neck was just dirty. If I go see the guitar I will definitely inspect that more closely.

Yes, from the photos it appears the saddle is as low as it can go. You would need some string height measurements to know if the action is acceptable or if it will need a neck re-set. Also, the binding appears to be suffering from "binding rot" which means the binding material is degrading. It's sort of like a disease and often spreads to all the binding on the guitar. So, you need to consider that as well because re-binding a guitar is very expensive. Good luck with your Guild hunt!

Thanks for alerting me to "binding rot." I though maybe the binding was checked or cracked a little, but from what you say it seems like the discoloration might point to something worse. Does binding rot happen often with Guilds?

 

[jinsog]

Just for info, I'm not getting this guitar (and I didn't get a chance to check it out in person), but if anyone in or near France is interested here is the link:

https://www.leboncoin.fr/ad/instruments_de_musique/2626070312

 

[GGJaguar]

That's an odd one - it has a 1966 serial number, but it has the older moustache headstock.