OUR GUITAR FROM VIETNAM

One of the first guitars I ever touched was a guitar my Dad brought back from Vietnam in 1970.

He was a US Army officer stationed in Da Nang, Vietnam in 1969-70 with the 52nd Signal Brigade. It was his second deployment to Vietnam. He was there in 1962-63 with Military Advisory and Assistance Group (MAAG) Vietnam in Pleiku.

I had a photo of my Dad playing this guitar somewhere in Nam wearing Jungle Fatigues. I am still trying to track it down because it is meaningful to this story. In the world before iPhones, taking a photo could be a difficult and forgotten task. I can't believe that I don't have any photos of him - or me - playing that guitar.

I was always curious about these guitars. Here is a shot of American GIs getting on a C-141 Starlifter. You can see the Soldier's Phung Dihn guitar resting on the tarmac.

It is interesting when I see these photos. I don't remember the fingerboard on my Dad's guitar being dark, and top looked different.

I had not seen the guitar in a long time when my Dad passed away.

I hung it on a hook in my studio and tried to figure out what I should do with it.

I considered trying to spray it to look like it did in Vietnam, but decided to do a plain top and neck and a dark back. I just wanted to preserve it and make it playable. I can do a retro restore on it later, but I wanted to make sure I could make it playable before I did any more work on it.

One point - it is interesting that this guitar looks very much like a Gypsy guitar from the old days. You can see the French influence in its look and build - plus the Fender headstock!

Step 1:  Prep the Top

For some reason the guitar had been completely stripped of finish and the back and sides were spray painted semi-gloss black. I do not specifically remember my Dad doing this work, and I know that I didn't do it.

The top had separated and there was an open seam about 1/8" wide from the sound hole to the end pin.

All of the original hardware was present (tailpiece, plastic bridge, tuners, and nut...plus a pick), and only about half of the binding was still on the guitar.

I stripped all of the remaining finish off of the guitar using Citristrip and Lacquer thinner, and I have to say it was one of the toughest stripping jobs I've ever done. The black paint had gotten into the filler on the back - what ever it was - and it was clear that I was going to have to do a dark finish on it to cover the mess.

I used a long piece of spruce from another project to fill the crack. I used Titebond to glue it up. The top had some strange coloration, and I am not sure what kind of wood it is. I put a small cleat on the inside of the soundhole to stabilize the repair.

 

Step 2. Prep the Back and Binding

The neck still had some clear finish on it and it was particularly difficult to remove. Note the small volute on the neck.

I sanded and sanded the back, then used a heat gun to help remove the old binding. Once the channel was pretty clean, I used a binding bit and fixture on my Dremel to clean the bindind channel. I  installed white binding from StewMac using their binding glue.

Once the binding was dry I sprayed the dark stain from StewMac. It is not completely opaque - you can still see some grain through the finish. Once it got almost dark enough I spray a coat of niitro lacquer to lock it in.

It has been my experience that if I spray the finish until it looks right, it will be too dark with a coat of clear on it. I know - witchcraft - but it does work for me!

Here is a shot of the completed guitar (and the Vietnamese guitar pick).

I sprayed nitro lacquer on the top, neck, and headstock. The inlays on the neck were not level with the fingerboard, and I had to reglue and level them

II did a lot of level-sanding on the top and finally buffed it out. The finish turned out nice, and the guitar looks very shiny and smooth.

I reinstalled the original tuners, tailpiece, and plastic bridge.

I strung it up with some light gauge D'Addario loop-end strings, and it came to life.

The first song I played on it was "Silver Wings" by Merle Haggard. It seemed appropriate, and I was both delighted and relieved that it played and sounded like a great old guitar.

One Last Thing - The Label

The label stayed intact throughout the tour in Nam and the trip back. While Saigon no longer exists, there are still Phung-Dihn guitars being made.

This is the address of the shop:

Phùng-Đình 118-120, Hồ-văn-ngà

I think this part is the model number and founding date:

NHÃN HIỆU CAU chung SO: 10591 ngay 3-7-64

Common CAU BRAND NO: 10591 dated 3-7-64
 

I thought this date might be a troll of the US Military. On March 7, 1964, the United States military, under President Johnson, ordered U.S. Marines to land at Da Nang, marking the beginning of the deployment of the first American ground combat forces into South Vietnam. This deployment was portrayed as a defensive measure but was actually the initial step in a much larger escalation of the war, with the goal of bringing hundreds of thousands of American troops to the region.

Actually, the date is 3 July 1964 which is closer to the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964.

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