good evening. I have a question for Guild Jumbo experts and the owners of these models. I want to talk about models from the past (Westerly). I want to understand what are the differences of X bracing and reinforcements of the upper part between the JF30 and F50 models.
I would be surprised if there was actually any difference in bracing for examples of the same model year, and in fact when Jf30 was introduced in '87 there was no F50 in that year and bracing was shown as
scalloped (Guild's best bracing )for the JF30:
The differences were largely in top grade and cosmetic appointments, and fretboard/bridge woods depending on which years were being compared.
I would also like to understand if the reinforcement X and the reinforcements of the JF30 model are similar or equal to those of the F412 model. I suspect they are the same.
For the F412 specifically I don't recall ever seeing a confirmation of difference, but I can tell you for sure that F-112's got a stronger bracing structure than the F30's they were based on to help deal with the added top stress.
I recall Hans Moust confirming one member's F30 had been re-topped at Westerly with a an F-112 top, most likely because it was what they had readily available at the time.
Hans could confirm it was an F112 top when he saw pics of the bracing.
SO I'd be very surprised if similar bracing enhancements weren't used on F412s (and all the 12-string models, for that matter).
But Has is the best authority on that, pending photographic confirmation from other members, and taking into account changes in patterns that occurred over the years (neck block in particular).
