What's happened to this guitar?

camf · July 2018

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This Collings guitar is on sale locally on Gumtree and the owner is claiming this as just some minor lacquer damage - "finish has flaked away slightly. The finish is not flaking any further and as I say is purely cosmetic." Seems a bit worse than that to me. Any thoughts?

Phil_aka_Pip · July 2018

I'd want to see a straight edge laid across the soundtable "horizontally" across the lower bout just behind the bridge, and "vertically" parallel to the strings on both the bass side and the treble side. If the soundtable isn't flat then I'd suggest the string tension is causing it to bow outwards, hence the laquer is cracking off.

camf · July 2018

Yeah, not much more on the advert. https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/collings-c10-a-sb-custom-boutique-acoustic-guitar-with-original-case.-fantastic-/1305503217

Shame, as it's a nice guitar but I think there's a lot more wrong with it than the seller is suggesting.

ICBM · July 2018

It looks to me like the bridge has lifted at the end and been extremely badly and unprofessionally reglued, probably with superglue, which has attacked the finish, and then most of the damaged finish has (been) peeled off.

If I was buying it I would want to discount it by at least the amount it would cost to have a proper luthier remove the bridge, refinish the top - the whole top, if it isn't possible to touch it in cleanly which might be tricky on a sunburst - and refit it.

ie by about £500 below what a repaired one of that model would be worth...

Lewy · July 2018

The “oh it’s no biggie, just a bit of flaking” attitude of the seller would have me running a mile from that one...at best it’s spent time in the hands of someone totally clueless....

artiebear · July 2018

That is, as ICBM has said, a very badly botched bridge reset. There are appears to be a line of what looks like glue or badly melted finish along the whole edge of the bridge. It's sad to see this on Collings in the first place, but any movement in the top can cause this. It's even more sad to see such a nice guitar messed up like this for the sake of a bit of professional TLC. Personally, I would steer clear. C10''s do seem to come up from time to time on the used market, usually in great condition as most I see have been very well looked after couch guitars.

camf · July 2018

To be clear, I wasn't looking to buy it, I just thought it just looked a bit sad. Hopefully somebody manages to sort out a decent deal for this and can get it restored to something close to its former state.

impmann · July 2018

+1 to what ICBM said. Looks like bridge lift to me.

Clashman · August 2018

If it's flat to the Guitar it's not a problem if it's uneven to the soundboard it could be bulge.

camf · August 2018

It’s definitely flat to the board. I checked with a couple of folk, and one who had already seen the guitar and gave a quote for fixing the finish. According to him, it does seem just to be the finish. Which is just as well, as I’ve bought the guitar. A part-exchange deal I couldn’t resist. It’s a fabulous guitar.

Clashman · August 2018

I'm the same can't resist a bargain that's why I'm not bothered about a few blemishes on my Freshman FA-500

with gold waverly tuners and LR Baggs vst for £180

camf · August 2018

It's only because it was so blemished and proving really hard for the seller to move on that I had any chance of buying it. The guitar I traded was spotless and a much easier sell for him, so it made sense for him, I guess. The fact that it already has such a visible fault makes me feel a bit more relaxed about taking such an expensive guitar out gigging - and it will be gigged. It feels perfect for me and having just moved from a smaller body 12 fret, the 14 fret cutaway offers much more flexibility than I'd expected - I'd never imagined heading up the 'dusty end' on an acoustic but I can with this guitar - and remarkably easily. As well as sounding absolutely lovely, the Adirondack top seems to handle some moderately heavier strumming more effectively than the 12 fret parlour I traded for it. That might also to do with being slightly bigger, but it's a big plus. This is the first Collings I've played and I'm very impressed. I like it a lot.

Gagaryn · August 2018

camf said:

It's only because it was so blemished and proving really hard for the seller to move on that I had any chance of buying it. The guitar I traded was spotless and a much easier sell for him, so it made sense for him, I guess. The fact that it already has such a visible fault makes me feel a bit more relaxed about taking such an expensive guitar out gigging - and it will be gigged. It feels perfect for me and having just moved from a smaller body 12 fret, the 14 fret cutaway offers much more flexibility than I'd expected - I'd never imagined heading up the 'dusty end' on an acoustic but I can with this guitar - and remarkably easily. As well as sounding absolutely lovely, the Adirondack top seems to handle some moderately heavier strumming more effectively than the 12 fret parlour I traded for it. That might also to do with being slightly bigger, but it's a big plus. This is the first Collings I've played and I'm very impressed. I like it a lot.

Out of curiosity are you going to do anything to cosmetically fix it or has it become a non issue now that you own it and know how good it sounds?

camf · August 2018

That's something I'm pondering. I need to get the end pin drilled for a jack socket so I'd wondered bout just having the top repaired then. It really doesn't bother me as I have no plans to sell it... but, as we all know, plans change.

Aside from the huge saving, there's something to be said for having a pre-dinged guitar, so you don't need to be so concerned about its value dropping with every scratch - something that's pretty hard to avoid if you're taking it out gigging. I'll definitely discuss it when it's in for repair and see what the cost would be. If it's just added to the end pin drilling, it might be a bit cheaper getting both jobs done at once, but it really doesn't bother me that much.

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What's happened to this guitar?

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