Guild Surfliner project...need advice

[Nick]

Bought a Casio MIJ strat neck a while back from Love of Fuzz for $50.

Have been hankering for a Guild Surfliner Deluxe in metallic green since they came out.

Found a loaded body on eBay for a good price.

Guild.png (3.99 MiB) Viewed 828 times

25.5" body 25.5" neck. Fits the pocket like a glove. Looks fricken sweet, better than the original Guild neck if I say so myself. Need to drill new holes since the Guild has them drilled further back. But that's OK.

But then this....

Guild Scale.jpg (300.71 KiB) Viewed 828 times

Right now I'm weighing my options....sell both? Wait to find a surfliner neck? Fill the posts and move them back, maybe try to buy a large Harmonica type bridge to partially cover the doweled holes?

ugh - why would they do this? I was forgetting that Fender no longer owns Guild, so it KIND of makes sense that it's not compatible but why is this not standardized on a 25.5" bolt on guitar by now?

[Bacchus]

This probably isn't the answer you want to hear, but the neck looks terrible on that guitar anyway, while the body looks sweet as fuck and a little bit special.

Search on. There must be a neck that doesn't mean surgery on the body.

[cooter]

There's a maple surfliner neck on ebay right now. $150 shipped. Stamped Used on back of headstock but you can probably steam that out.

[Nick]

I saw that one on eBay - it looks like there may be a truss rod issue though. And all said and done I’d be in it for not much less than a used one goes for regularly- so if I must go that route I’d like to make sure it’s solid.

I’d also prefer to find a rosewood neck from a deluxe. Slightly annoying that those are all matching headstocks, but at least either green or black would work for me, and I could always paint the pink one black if it turns up first.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/266487656790

A little mad at myself for not just buying that one when I saw it….I had a small window to after buying the body and even considered it, before I realized there was a scale issue

I set up a save search on eBay and I guess I’ll just play the waiting game. I also realize if I move the bridge back, the pickups will also be that much off…the bridge pickup will be practically a middle pickup etc. not good.

While I’m waiting I might just list the body and neck separately on marketplace for what I paid. I really don’t need another guitar

[cooter]

I saw that one on eBay - it looks like there may be a truss rod issue though. And all said and done I’d be in it for not much less than a used one goes for regularly- so if I must go that route I’d like to make sure it’s solid.

I’d also prefer to find a rosewood neck from a deluxe. Slightly annoying that those are all matching headstocks, but at least either green or black would work for me, and I could always paint the pink one black if it turns up first.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/266487656790

A little mad at myself for not just buying that one when I saw it….I had a small window to after buying the body and even considered it, before I realized there was a scale issue

I set up a save search on eBay and I guess I’ll just play the waiting game. I also realize if I move the bridge back, the pickups will also be that much off…the bridge pickup will be practically a middle pickup etc. not good.

While I’m waiting I might just list the body and neck separately on marketplace for what I paid. I really don’t need another guitar

Yeah, I agree, that body is too nice to mess with and a rosewood neck would be perfect. You think there's a 24 fret aftermarket neck that could be modded to work? I don't think I've seen a 23 fret neck before.

[Nick]

Ah it didn’t occur to me it was a 23 fret neck- I was counting wrong and figured it just had the 22nd on the heel instead of on a fretboard overhang

My Ovation Tornado is actually 23 frets, but other than that I’ve never seen it anywhere else

[Nick]

Ended up “winning” a maple surfliner neck from eBay…got a few bucks cheaper than the other one posted here, and the truss rod is said to be working well.

Few options and tbh I haven’t really had many guitars with maple fingerboard…maple on sherwoodish green is still a good look and I do kind of like the idea of having something a bit different.

I also think I could have just used a 24 fret neck, but options with tasteful headstocks are few and far between, also I might have had to shave off the 24th fret overhang to get it to fit.

[cooter]

Great. Looking forward to seeing it together.

[dots]

yeah, glad you went that route as the finish on that body deserves preservation if possible. also looking forward to seeing the finished result.

[Nick]

The neck arrived yesterday, although I’m not calling this quite finished yet - the necks on these maple models feel rough and unfinished…these are necks on supposed $500 guitars, tbh it feels rougher than the $150 Bullets or Sonic Series or whatever they’re called now. Wondering if someone had sanded through the sealer in spots but it also looks like it came this way. Could probably peel the Guild logo right off.

That said, I had a lot of fun playing it still, the neck profile is a comfortable shape, and the pickups sound great.

the plan now I think is to finish the neck when we get some warmer weather.

[NickD]

That looks lovely!

[cooter]

Nice....

[NickS]

Looks good.

[dots]

Flows really well, looks like they always could have been together.

[sunshiner]

Looks really nice, especially the guitar-amp combo!

In my experience, what people tend to call unfinished neck on "budget guitars" is a regular, thick finish done with matte lacquer. It can sometimes reach like a couple of millimetres in thickness and people would still be calling them unfinished. I myself love them - they are never sticky and they're better protected from the elements than true oiled necks which you have to regularly reapply true oil to. People don't like "unfinished necks" because this method is applied only on "cheap" guitars and because the necks are usually pasty(you can tint any laquer but manufacturers prefer no to on their bottom of the line models). At the same time people would go as far as sanding down the gloss on their "finished" necks either slightly or all the way in order to true oil them.

Cheapness of the neck for me is usually manifested in sharp and/or unpolished frets. Sharp fret edges can be the result of poorly dried wood used in these necks. They file the edges neatly at the factory but as the wood continues to shrink, frets start to stick out.

[Nick]

Looks really nice, especially the guitar-amp combo!

In my experience, what people tend to call unfinished neck on "budget guitars" is a regular, thick finish done with matte lacquer. It can sometimes reach like a couple of millimetres in thickness and people would still be calling them unfinished. I myself love them - they are never sticky and they're better protected from the elements than true oiled necks which you have to regularly reapply true oil to. People don't like "unfinished necks" because this method is applied only on "cheap" guitars and because the necks are usually pasty(you can tint any laquer but manufacturers prefer no to on their bottom of the line models). At the same time people would go as far as sanding down the gloss on their "finished" necks either slightly or all the way in order to true oil them.

Cheapness of the neck for me is usually manifested in sharp and/or unpolished frets. Sharp fret edges can be the result of poorly dried wood used in these necks. They file the edges neatly at the factory but as the wood continues to shrink, frets start to stick out.

I know what you mean, I didn't mention that this neck was sold as a "used" stamped factory second with the serial number altered (last digit or two gouged out) - on closer inspection it does look like it has a light matte/satin clear sheen, but also has some spots that are rough/coarse, especially on the headstock, where it looks like it might not have been sprayed at all, or sanded through. It is straight though, so the damage just seems to be cosmetic.

[sunshiner]

I had a Squier Bullet Strat with a "used" stamp on the neck and the serial number also gouged out that I had bought off ebay too. It was perfectly functional, though the body weighed a ton.

You can probably check if the neck is finished at all by taking one of the tuners off and see around the tuner hole and the screw holes. The lacquer can be peeling slightly because of the tiny wood ruptures when they tightened the screws. If it turns out to be finished, the rough spots might be the damage on the finish and it might be smoothed out by fine sandpaper.