Hi,
I recently bought a Guild D-25BR from eBay, as a project (the eBay listing revealed the damage, no issue with that, or the seller). Guitar needs a lot of work (bridge is cracked through the pin holes, needs a neck reset, bad side crack needs to be undone then repaired properly, and one of the back braces is loose). Serial number is 51425 (seems to date to 1970 from Hans' bible, but the label doesn't show a location (i.e. Hoboken, or Westerly), anybody know for sure where it was made?
What I would like some advice on is the replacement of the tuning machines. The current ones are in pretty bad shape, I have tried both lubricating them, and also tried to tighten them up, but they need to be replaced. I tried to identify them, they are open back, 3 on a plate types, with sort of rounded off rectangular buttons. Again, from Hans' book, they could be the Kolb type (based mostly on the shape of the backing plates of the tuners), or what Hans has described as Japanese tuners in his book (I'm tending towards the Japanese tuners). Can somebody suggest a replacement set of tuners? I would have thought the Stew-Mac Vintage Style might be the closest fit, but I"m not sure if everything lines up properly. Has anybody tried this? The other alternative is to go to individual machines, which will leave visible marks on the back of the peghead. I welcome any ideas/advice on this; although my idea is to go for Grover Rotomatics in chrome, 18:1 tuning ratio.
Kostas
I recently bought a Guild D-25BR from eBay, as a project (the eBay listing revealed the damage, no issue with that, or the seller). Guitar needs a lot of work (bridge is cracked through the pin holes, needs a neck reset, bad side crack needs to be undone then repaired properly, and one of the back braces is loose). Serial number is 51425 (seems to date to 1970 from Hans' bible, but the label doesn't show a location (i.e. Hoboken, or Westerly), anybody know for sure where it was made?
What I would like some advice on is the replacement of the tuning machines. The current ones are in pretty bad shape, I have tried both lubricating them, and also tried to tighten them up, but they need to be replaced. I tried to identify them, they are open back, 3 on a plate types, with sort of rounded off rectangular buttons. Again, from Hans' book, they could be the Kolb type (based mostly on the shape of the backing plates of the tuners), or what Hans has described as Japanese tuners in his book (I'm tending towards the Japanese tuners). Can somebody suggest a replacement set of tuners? I would have thought the Stew-Mac Vintage Style might be the closest fit, but I"m not sure if everything lines up properly. Has anybody tried this? The other alternative is to go to individual machines, which will leave visible marks on the back of the peghead. I welcome any ideas/advice on this; although my idea is to go for Grover Rotomatics in chrome, 18:1 tuning ratio.
Kostas