GB 22 Circa 1975

[Hooty]

I bought this guitar in 1975 from a small music shop in Halifax. According to the label inside, it was made in Korea.
The action was always rather high and I always had difficulty keeping it in tune. I didn't really care much because it would only come out to play when I was sitting around a campfire in the summer or at sea during my time in the Cdn Navy. It has suffered much abuse but still sounded OK. Last year I was thinking about getting rid of it because the strings were so high and the local music shop said it really wasn't worth the money to have a luthier lower the action. Sooooooo.

I took it home, removed the strings, took out the saddle height adjuster and ground the bottom of it down enough to lower the strings. I couldn't lower it enough without the bridge interfering so I put a flapper sanding disk on my 4" angle grinder and shaved almost 3/8" off the bridge. The old plastic saddle was so brittle it broke into four pieces when I tried to take it out of the holder so I replaced it with a new bone saddle. I was then able to reduce the tension on the truss rod to give it a bit of neck relief. I still have to finish sanding the mahogany bridge to remove the marks from the angle grinder but it doesn't look too bad.

One thing I noticed already, with the lower action, and the adjusted truss rod, the intonation is much improved and it stays in tune much better. But, I noticed today that I am getting a few flat spots on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd frets under the 3rd, 2nd and 1st strings. To many campfire GCD songs I guess! I don't know how difficult it will be to change them but I but I don't want to ruin the fredboard. It still is in great shape.

I have some pictures on Photobucket. The url's are below but for some reason the right side of the pictures don't seem to show.

[aallen]

too bad for that crack in the neck joint. Halifax Folklore Center?

[charles]

Looks like you had to take some fairly drastic measures, but at least the outcome has been mostly favorable!

I have the same guitar - the action is terrible but it's fine as a knock-around guitar beside the computer. I wish I had the adjustable bridge saddle like yours - mine just has a poorly shaped hunk of bone that I did not shape accounting for the neck radius; resulting in some pretty noticeable buzz.

Enjoy it

[Barry]

Hello Hooty, and welcome.
Wow, you removed 3/8"??? Good Lord!
Looking at the picture of your bridge assembly I am very concerned that you have lowered the saddle too far. In acoustic guitars there needs to be a sharper "break angle" from the saddle to the pin. This is critical in transmitting string vibration to the sound board...too shallow and you loose considerable volume. You might want to raise the saddle up.

I'm also a bit worried that you may have thinned the bridge too much. This could ultimately weaken its ability to hold the pins/string ends, and cause it to lift or crack.
The normal repair/adjustment would have been to cut an angle in the the saddle slot in order to reduce a too high saddle (allows it to lean forward instead of being vertical).

If you're still experiencing fret buzz, as Charles remarked above, check the radius or top curve of the saddle. If it doesn't match the fret board or is flat that's likely the cause.

[charles]

I probably would have done one of these:

Acoustic adjustable saddle conversion

[shakin]

Picked one of these today, identical except for truss rod cover (bell shaped as opposed to "A" shape). Good sound so far, I'll play it a while longer before I decide on whether I want to change the action.
A few scrapes and scuffs but great for the years

[shakin]

So I've been playing it for a couple of weeks now. Lowered the action a wee bit, nothing much else to do . Sounds ok, not a POS but certainly not as good a sound as my MIC Fender. I'll be changing the strings shortly so we'll see if that makes any difference.