The latest project, a 1967 Fender Wildwood II originally owned and played by Van Stoneman of "The Stonemans" and then his brother Gene. I bought this guitar on eBay as a fixer upper relatively cheap from Gene's daughter Robin and her husband Kerry without knowing anything about its history. It's my plan now to locate proper parts restore it to relatively original (not new) condition.
Prior to owning this guitar, in 1965 at least I see that Van was using a Gibson J50 fitted with a DeArmond soundhole pickup. He evidently transferred the pickup to the Wildwood II after switching to this guitar. He had it mounted initially, as pictured, under the guard which likely interfered with his strumming. By the '70s the guard had been removed and there are visible signs of wear in what would eventually be a hole, pictured in the '80s or '90s. At some point the original bridge was replaced, at least once, with a more traditional acoustic bridge and saddle. The entire upper portion of the spuce top was covered with an oversized three-ply pickguard in an attempt no doubt to cover the wear and cracks in the top.
They apparently salvaged the original machine screws that held the original bridge and re-drilled them into the newer bridge for reinforcement. Both the bridge and the guard were easily removed and the top cleaned with not too much effort.
There were also steel shims added in the neck pocket no doubt as an attempt to elevate the neck and unsuccessfully lower the action. When I reattach it I'll likely use a maple shim at the heel if need be to adjust the angle instead of the metal.
I located an adequate replacement pickguard and a DeArmond pickup on eBay. I contacted Top Shelf Music in Buffalo who has Fender Kingman with the same type of bridge hoping to get measurements of the saddles and set screws to make new ones and as luck would have it they told me they had a complete Fender N.O.S. bridge assembly in stock that has been sitting on the shelf for about 40 years. They plugged the inner two holes of four mounting holes since it was for a later model, to replicate the two hole versions used on the 66/67 Wildwoods.
The pickguard covers most of the wear hole in the Spruce top.
I fit the bridge using the two original mounting bolts and masked the area of the top to prep it for gluing. I had previously repaired some of the additional holes that had been drilled to accommodate replacement bridges used when Gene got it. After gluing and clamping it I've let it sit for 48 hours and am awaiting some brass plates to make a bridge plate reinforcement as sold by Stew Mac since they don't carry ones for the proper string spacing of the Fender acoustics.
After drilling the brass for the string holes and filing the slots I sprayed it with 3M Super 77 adhesive and used a couple of pieces of twine and spacers to assist pulling it up to the bridge plate while self aligning with the string holes in the bridge. I then clamped and secured it till it set. I installed the DeArmond pickup and jack and then put it all back together with a small piece of maple shin in the neck pocket. There was an older set of D'Addario strings in the pocket that were either Van's or Gene's that I used to set up the guitar with and will leave it as is for now. It plays like a bear, but doesn't sound too bad through an amp. Now to figure out what to do with it.