Need opinions on a D-30 Blond

Hi All!

I found an 80's D-30 Blond at a local shop and was pretty impressed with it. The neck is good, lots of saddle left and some road wear, but it plays and sounds great!

Nice bling, including GOLD tuners.

The low E bridge pin was raised above the others, so I loosened the string and tried to reset the pin but it raised up again when I re-tightened the string.

I took an inspection mirror and looked at the bridge plate. The hole for the low E string is enlarged allowing the ball end to slip up into the hole, raising the pin . There's no real damage to the bridge plate other than the enlarged hole. It's not chewed up, just oversized.

Can this be easily fixed?

Does the whole bridge plate need to be removed and replaced? (No, I'm not going to put one of those metal plates there, sorry.)

Any idea what a fair price for a repair like that would be?

Also, any idea what a fair price for the guitar would be considering the work needed?

Thanks to all in advance for your comments.

If the hole isn't grossly oversize, the bridge could be reamed out for slightly oversize bridge pins. StewMac and Elderly both sell them. That would be a pretty cheap fix. Or . . . maybe the guitar has undersize replacement pins in it right now and just finding the proper pins might be good enough. Something as simple as slotting the bridge and going with un-slotted pins might do the trick as well.

Bridge plate repairs can get super expensive unless you are willing to have a small piece of Formica (yes, Formica really works for that) glued to the bridge plate and the holes re-drilled . . . or find a shop that has the StewMac Bridge Saver tool. That's a much bigger job.

I once put a brass Plate Mate in a seriously beat up old Yairi I had. You said you didn't want to do that, but it worked well for me and I didn't notice any deterioration in tone. (It's very small and quite thin, so it doesn't really add much weight to the bridge.) I'd do it again. Heck, I change strings a lot so I'm thinking about putting them in the newer guitars I have just to prevent premature bridge plate wear. If I'm not happy with the results, it's easily reversible.

Bernie,
I wouldn't expect a repair, if needed, would be too costly.

A plate mate is one option, of course... I have heard good and bad comments about those.

Another fix is to use StewMacs bridge plate repair tool... it basically cuts a small disc out of the plate, and a corresponding plug that is glued in. The hole would then be re-drilled. I had a shop do this for an old Gibson LG-O my wife inherited... it had a soft spruce bridge plate, badly damaged from the ball ends of the strings. Plugging all six holes with hard maple plugs was only ~$50 (ten years ago).

Another common fix is to mask the holes inside the body, and then fill/pack them with sawdust (from the same wood as the bridge) and glue... either hide glue or super glue. After the glue sets, the hole can be re-drilled and reamed for the proper pin. Again, I don't think this is a pricey proposition.

Lastly, some might put a thin wood shim over the bridge plate from the inside... but if the hole is too large along the entire shaft, I am not sure this would be the best option.


Good luck...

If the local shop really wants to sell it, ask them to go to their used parts bin in the back and bring out a bunch of bridge pins of different diameters. Try as many as you need to until you find one that is the right fit, and hopefully the right color.

What Neil Young's techs would do is cut off the ball ends of the previous set of strings, and put them on the new set of strings, like string thru the old set's ball ends. I am not explaining this well at all, but basically, it creates a stop gap. I used to do this with my HD-28. Works great.

Westerly Wood said:

What Neil Young's techs would do is cut off the ball ends of the previous set of strings, and put them on the new set of strings, like string thru the old set's ball ends. I am not explaining this well at all, but basically, it creates a stop gap. I used to do this with my HD-28. Works great.

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Sure. The old dual balls trick.

Neal said:

If the local shop really wants to sell it, ask them to go to their used parts bin in the back and bring out a bunch of bridge pins of different diameters. Try as many as you need to until you find one that is the right fit, and hopefully the right color.

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+1. And maybe point this out to the shop, if you haven't already, and ask them what they would charge to fix it. Or, talk to a local tech/luthier and get an estimate, and if you still want the guitar make your best deal! "Neck is good and lots of saddle left" on an 80's D-30?...if the one pin slipping up is all that's wrong with it, sounds like a winner!

I was checking back on this thread, and just noticed a missing word in my post (now added in red). I think a repair would NOT be too costly...

You actually had it right the first time Gardman!

Thanks for all the replies folks.

My Luthier-of-choice also suggested non slotted or oversized pins as a first try.

I pulled the trigger and will let you know when I have her. She was at a shop in Asheville, I think. I'm having it shipped to a GC nearby. I covered 1200 miles this week and some details are fuzzy ;-)

There was also a nice Westerly 12 string there if anyone is looking for one.

The Retro Rocker said:

You actually had it right the first time Gardman!

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Yep... fixed the double negative. Senior moment.

Replacing a bridge plate is extremely delicate work. What you are doing is essentially pulling a glued piece of hardwood (maple or rosewood in most cases) away from a softer poece pf woot (spruce or cedar tp[ plate). There is an excellent probability that the softwood doesn't survive that without at least some tear out, in an area that is structurally important . All of the luthiers that I know really do not want to do a bridge replacement, and charge accordingly.

All of the above suggestions for a repair are workable. I think the fastest and easiest is the oversize brdige pin route.

Thanks again to all.

It was the Knoxville store

BTW they also had a great F212XL for just under a grand.

PTC Bernie said:

It was the Knoxville store

BTW they also had a great F212XL for just under a grand.

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I gotta say, GC has quite a few interesting looking Guilds in their Used Gear section. Some in great shape. Some not so much.