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Old 09-13-2018, 09:24 AM
MJPhoto45 MJPhoto45 is offline
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Default Gibson L30 acoustic

Hello to all,
I have a question about my Gibson L30 guitar. I would like to know more about the guitar. It needs new tuners because the old ones crumbled off. I an thinking of replacing the tuners with some originals from the 1930s. Is this worth spending $300 to fix?

I can send pics if you email me at [email protected]
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Old 09-13-2018, 09:58 AM
upsidedown upsidedown is offline
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Hi,

If you decide that $300 is too much, you can do as i did on my L30: replace the tuners with Golden Age Restorations from StewMac.

These particular buttons are a little bright but the luthier who did the work had them in his shop. StewMac has other shades of white now. Anyway, the tuners worked great (I recently sold the guitar, and is often the case, regret my decision to do so).




Last edited by upsidedown; 09-15-2018 at 11:51 AM.
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Old 09-14-2018, 11:48 AM
MC5C MC5C is offline
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I'd fix up a Gibson L30 for sure, worth it in every sense even though it will never be a really valuable guitar. BB King started his career on an L30. You have two routes forward, both you can do yourself at home. One is the aforementioned Golden Age tuners, either in bright or aged tones. They should be available in a hole-for-hole accurate replacement fit, they will preserve the appearance of the guitar and you can put the originals in the case for posterity. Or, if the tuners are otherwise in good shape you can simply clean up the posts and install new buttons. You heat up the post with a lighter or a soldering iron and when hot you just press on the new buttons, hard to get simpler than that. Neither will be even close to $300 - the tuners are under $50 for the set, and the buttons are around $15 for 6.

https://www.stewmac.com/Hardware_and...allop-end.html

https://www.stewmac.com/Hardware_and...ner_Knobs.html
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Around 15 archtops, electrics, resonators, a lap steel, a uke, a mandolin, some I made, some I bought, some kinda showed up and wouldn't leave. Tatamagouche Nova Scotia.
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Old 09-15-2018, 09:44 AM
Howard Emerson Howard Emerson is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MJPhoto45 View Post
Hello to all,
I have a question about my Gibson L30 guitar. I would like to know more about the guitar. It needs new tuners because the old ones crumbled off. I an thinking of replacing the tuners with some originals from the 1930s. Is this worth spending $300 to fix?

I can send pics if you email me at [email protected]
If it just needs new buttons, but you want them to look older, it is very easy to age the new buttons.

Get Ivoroid buttons, soak in a strong tea solution for a few days, let them dry out for a couple, and then install.

In case you're wondering: Ivoroid is 'porous'. I aged some Ivoriod bridge pins, and they got seriously limp after soaking. They firmed up in a couple of days, but I can't tell you why it happens.

HE
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