Used guitar neck reset general concern

[sinistral]

Originally Posted by Mandobart

My dad's 70+ year old Martin classical guitar never had a neck reset and is very playable. Though they're not standard wood guitars, I've had my Applause 6 string and Ovation 12 string for over 40 years, always kept in standard tuning and moved all around the US from coast to coast. Never had a neck reset on either and both still have comfortable low action.

My Eastman archtop and Altamira M20D were both built in 2007 and neither is anywhere close to needing a neck reset. My other guitars were built in 2017 or later so it's too early to say.

I'd be interested to hear from other players with guitars that required a neck reset in 25 years or less. I'm not sure it's that common.

Martin’s classical guitars are in the overbuilt category, which is why they are even less collectible than Martin archtops, which can at least be converted into flattop guitars. Lightly built classical guitars often need neck resets, which poses a problem because the Spanish heel design does not lend itself to being reset. Frank Ford (RIP) has a tutorial on how to reset the neck on a classical guitar:

An impossible job? "Spanish Heel" Neck Reset

Frank Ford also has tutorials on how to reset a neck on a Collings, Taylor (both of which have bolt-on necks, but are different), a vintage Epiphone and a Gurian (with a pinned mortise neck).

The luthier who reset the neck on my 1993 J-40 says that she gets guitars from all of the boutique brands (her main focus is on vintage instruments, though). My theory is that people who spend $8k on an instrument are more educated about the potential need for a neck reset after 20 - 30 years, and so don’t complain about it on the internet. Martin also has made hundreds of thousands of guitars in that time frame, and the boutique builders collectively a tiny fraction of that (if they’ve even been in business that long).