'72 F-30R... reviving a great old friend

I haven't played my '72 F-30R in a LONG, LONG time because I felt that the nut/neck width was just too small for my aging hands. But I pulled it out today, got it in tune (DADGAD) and WOW!!... my old friend that I did the majority of my touring with back in the 70s and 80s sounds better than any guitar I own. Lots of mojo, aged, beat to death and well broken-in, and still sounds amazing. It has some issues but I was so inspired, I decided to do some work on it and get it back in playing condition. I reset the neck back in the '80s, installed a new ebony fretboard and bridge and the setup is still excellent with no buzzing. But the pin holes in the bridge plate had been eaten away by the ball ends over time, allowing the string windings to extend into the saddle (another reason I stopped playing it), so I made a new secondary plate today out of ebony, got it installed and all is well. I had an old Baggs LB-6 pickup in it with onboard EQ that I installed on the side, but the pickup no longer worked, so I removed it all except the EQ plate on the side since I had to cut four small slots into the side for the sliders. The plate will be fine until I can find time to fill the slots with pieces of rosewood and smooth it all out. The heel plate is missing, so I'll make a new one soon. But it's playing great and what a wonderful tone!! I'll force myself to get used to the smaller nut width than what I've become accustomed to in my newer guitars (1-3/4). This guitar has seen a LOT of miles and venues in every state and throughout Canada, and it's not over yet!





DC

Awesome! Share any clips?

Sounds great, DC... When you say a "secondary" plate, are you saying you installed it on top of the bridge plate without removing the original? I guess I'm wondering... couldn't you have fixed this by replacing the bridge itself rather than mucking with the plate? Just wondering.

Congrats on reviving an old friend!

Westerly.... I'll try and do some recording when I get some time.

Chazmo... There are different ways to repair worn bridge plate holes, such as replacing the plate itself which can be quite a time-consuming job, plugging the holes and re-drilling, or a very standard repair of installing a small secondary plate such as the "PlateMate", a small thin rectangular metal plate which is simply attached to the existing wood plate and holes drilled to match the pin placement. http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/Tools_by_Job/Bridges/Plate_Mate.html Instead of the metal PlateMate, I decided to make a secondary plate from some excess ebony I have. I've performed this repair on several guitars over the years when I was a repair tech, and using a bandsaw, drill press and table sander, it was quick and easy to do, took about 20 min and fits perfectly. Ebony will provide a very strong base for the ball ends to seat...stronger than maple. Your suggestion of replacing the bridge itself was out of the question since there's nothing wrong with the bridge and it has nothing to do with the plate inside....not to mention replacing a bridge is a major operation. The problem was with the worn holes in the bridge plate and nothing to do with the bridge. But all is well now.

Here's the secondary plate. As you can see, the original plate is quite large and would be a lot of work to replace...and unnecessary since it's still basically in good shape and firmly secured to the top. With the small secondary plate, there's still plenty of room to install three K&K transducers. It works great as-is but I may thin it out a bit more, although probably not necessary. It's currently not glued in and held in place by string tension until I'm satisfied with it.

You can see the excessive ball end wear in the original plate showing beneath the secondary plate.

Cool. Nice.

Very nice story, thanks and congratulations!