1987 GF30 nut & saddle material?

[Milomilo]

Hi everyone!

I have had a 1987 GF30 - bld for a few years that I love. The nut and saddle have a beige / cream / brownish color, I guess due to with age, that I've never seen on any other guitar before. The rest of the guitar is not dirty from say spending decades in a heavy smoking studio.
Does anyone know what material they are made of?
I've looked at the catalogue from that era where the GFs are advertised and it is not mentionned.
A wild guess : it's some kind of plastic that reacted strangely after staying in a closed case for a very long period of time. What tends to make me think this is that thin layers of the pickguard were chipping off when I got the guitar, like the plastic material was deteriorating although the guitar is only 35 years old.
Which leads me to think the nut and saddle are plastic, and that maybe I should change them to bone. Or tusq.

I would love to know your thoughts on this.
Thanks!

 

[chazmo]

Is the nut discolored as well? If not, do you see lines on the saddle when you remove it that correspond to the bridge making contact with the saddle? If so, it's probably rosewood, right? This kind of staining does happen. If the nut is discolored too, it's probably just the plastic aging, I guess, as you suspected. Probably nothing wrong with them, regardless.

IMO, you can't go wrong substituting in a bone nut and/or saddle for the plastic that's already there. TUSQ is a good material too, but I like bone.

 

[wileypickett]

Taylor used Micarta for their saddles and nuts for many years and they discolored in the way you describe.

(I prefer bone to Micarta -- at least for the saddle. I've replaced all my Micarta saddles with bone.)

 

[hansmoust]

Taylor used Micarta for their saddles and nuts for many years and they discolored in the way you describe.

(I prefer bone to Micarta -- at least for the saddle. I've replaced all my Micarta saddles with bone.)

Wileypickett is correct! Your '87 GF30 originally came with a micarta nut & saddle. Not only Taylor used micarta; Martin guitars already had them during the early '70s.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

 

[wileypickett]

Wileypickett is correct! Your '87 GF30 originally came with a micarta nut & saddle. Not only Taylor used micarta; Martin guitars already had them during the early '70s.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

Holy cow! A tip of the hat from Hans! Can I have this thread bronzed please, so I can hang it from the rear view mirror of my car?!

 

[Milomilo]

Thank you so much for the info!
I'll see how a bone saddle sounds, for the sake of experience.
Cheers from France.

 

[fronobulax]

Holy cow! A tip of the hat from Hans! Can I have this thread bronzed please, so I can hang it from the rear view mirror of my car?!

Closest I can help you get is to embed the quote in your signature.