Unexpected NGD - F-412

Grassdog

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Okay so I don't know whether to be proud or embarassed about this. Got an early start this morning. Noticed that the clocks moved forward with Daylight Savings. Did some laundry, cleaned up the kitchen, figured I'd head down to Guitar Center to get some accessories. Needed some strings, a couple polishing cloths, another Oasis humidifier, etc. Absolutely no intention of looking at a guitar. I've already made a couple of purchases this year and I've got a couple with my luthier (or guitar tech) getting some extensive work done. So I have no business looking at a guitar. Well you know where this is going. I thought I'd take a glance inside the acoustic room and I see what appears to be an F-412. I was like, no way, I've been wanting a F-412 but haven't found the right one yet. So I walk up and do a quick inspection, it's indeed a Corona F-412 in pretty decent shape, plenty of saddle, binding in great shape, a couple of nicks on the top. I see they've got the price on this at $1,199. Okay I figure something has to be wrong with it. So I look closer all around it and I see 1) a slight bridge lift on the bass side, and 2) the dreaded soundhole crack by the neck revealing a very slight shift forward of the neck block (maybe a 16th of an inch) on the treble side. So now I'm taking photos of it and sending them off to my repair person hoping he'll see it right away and shoot me back an estimate for repairs. In the meantime I'm hanging out and playing this thing, loving the sound, and starting to bond with it. Finally the sales rep comes up and I started asking him questions about it. He said he couldn't even sell it to me yet because it was supposed to go in for the bridge to be re-glued first. I said why don't you knock a couple hundred off the price and I'll take care of that. He said I'd have to talk with his manager, that the guitar wasn't even supposed to be out on the floor yet. So long story short I talked to the manager and he agreed to let me have it for a grand out the door (including tax). I don't know folks. I'm thinking I might have reached a little too far on this (not knowing how much I'm going to be spending on the neck block/soundhole crack issue) but I really wanted a maple 12. Was this worth the risk?

Now the pics after I got her home

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twocorgis

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Great score! I owned a Corona JF30-12 that was a great guitar, and lost out ultimately to my F512 only because of the latter's slightly slimmer neck profile.
 

chazmo

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Outstanding score! It may need nothing except bridge re-glue and hopefully just some cleating at the soundhole crack.

Slack the strings and subject it to over-humidification for a while. See what happens. But definitely get that crack cleated.
 

Cougar

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....So long story short I talked to the manager and he agreed to let me have it for a grand out the door (including tax).

No way! What a score! I don't know much about that soundhole crack/neck block issue, but I don't figure you can possibly go wrong with that beauty at that price. Wow! Major congrats! Yay! Another NGD 12er on the boards!
 

dreadnut

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Yeah, only thing about un-cleated cracks is they tend to become bigger un-cleated cracks.

Congrats on this one, she's a beauty and an affordable price.
 

Br1ck

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I'm no luthier, and I fixed a friend's old Epiphone Caballero that was split clear to the binding on the upper bout. You can clamp the lower bout to a bench, put a piece of wood under the neck block as a fulcrum, and clamp down on the neck. Should just move back into alignment. My job was drastic so I fashioned a mahogany cleat that I could glue not only under the crack, but to the neck block as well. These usually come loose from the cross brace, but that is a routine brace reglue. A small cleat added under the sound hole completes the job. It's a common repair to an area that has minimal sonic value.

You did good to buy it.
 

Grassdog

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Thanks everyone. My guitar tech looked at some close-ups and he is optimistic that the sound hole crack will only need to be cleated (says he just did the same repair on a F-512 and the crack was exactly like this), and the bridge will need to be pulled and re-glued. Hopefully the bridge isn't curled on the bottom (looks to be flat). We'll see. It has a crisp, focused tone. You can be really aggressive with it but the sound doesn't get overpowering or muddied up. Everything stays in it's place, if that makes sense. I hear clear, focused tone when pushing it.
 

Brucebubs

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Very nice looking guitar. I have a 2002 Corona F-412 and I found the intonation seems to work best with a straight saddle exactly like your F-412.
I'm using ebony pins and D'Addario Nickel Bronze strings.
It plays and sounds superb.

mqaCGSdl.jpg
 
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Brucebubs

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That red one is a nice looking one as well! But 2008 can't be right. By 2004 Guild moved from Corona to Tacoma. Just saying.

And congrats to Grassdog!

Ralf

You're right ... it's been pointed out to me here on the LTG forum that based on that color it's a 2002 model, my typo. I have the correct year in my sig.
 
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Grassdog

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Very nice looking guitar. I have a 2002 Corona F-412 and I found the intonation seems to work best with a straight saddle exactly like your F-412.
I'm using ebony pins and D'Addario Nickel Bronze strings.
It plays and sounds superb.

mqaCGSdl.jpg

Thanks. I think you're right on the intonation and the straight saddle. It sounds dead on all the way up the neck. I'll have to give those D'Addario Nickel Bronze 12's a try. I'd never seen those before.
 

Cheab

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Seems like another example of a guitar finding it's way to the right person.
 
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