Sep 13 2007
Mystery POS Acoustic Guitar
All I know is that this instrument belonged to my mom, and that it was bought a long time ago, and probably for very little money. The neck is fat and thick, bowed, with frets that are super thin. It is difficult to play, and the intonation goes to hell if you wander above the 5th fret. It was intended to be a ‘classical’ nylon string guitar but when I replaced the frozen tuners, I strang (stringed) it up with phosphor bronze strings instead.
probably not a good idea using steel strings – this guitar may not have a truss rod if it was built for nylon/catgut strings. It would eventually destroy the neck, it will either warp twist or bend and without a truss rod there is no way to correct it.
intonation can be corrected by adjusting the bridge or saddle and if doesn’t have a saddle you can add one with a little routing.
The 1st thing I’d do is take a look at the top and see if it is solid wood (no knots) and how thick it is. The acoustic properties are predominantly influenced by the wood type and thickness.
It might be fun to monkey with, put a piezo on it, play with the bridge and see if you can get the action down without too much buzz. worst comes to worst you have some parts to repair another guitar with….