Silvertone Archtop- mod or repair?

[Astrochimp]

Got this a couple of weeks back-

http://s185.photobucket.com/albums/x119 ... CN0685.jpg

Great tone, looks like it was never played, plays well, even with its problem-

http://s185.photobucket.com/albums/x119 ... CN0688.jpg


I think the neck set is ok, but the arch in the top of the body has flattened.(?)
Almost no gap at neck to body joint- between paper and thin pick gap at bottom.

Plan one is to buy a new bridge and cut it lower. Stock one is 5/8" between stings and body lowered as much as possible. If it was about 3/16 lower action would be great.

OR-

Plan two is replace nut or buy a slide nut extension, and just play slide on it.

First I MUST buy new tuners. I had forgot how bad these can be.

I keep having thoughts of a surface mount P-90, LP style control back plate for access, and body mount vol/t pots. But worry that would screw up the great tone this thing has.


Help! What should I do?

[cheepaxes]

I'm can't tell exactly what's going on from the pictures and I'm not an expert, and you may know way more about this stuff that I do, so take this all with a grain of salt.

First, if it were me, I'd endeavor to make it playable if possible without resorting to the slide route. There are plenty of guitars that are beyond help that become slide guitars. For that matter there are 2x4s that can become slide guitars. Since your guitar is most of the way to being a fret-able guitar, it's probably worth trying to get it all the way there.

Second, you may be aware but, lowering the bridge will only work so far before there's not enough tension across the bridge to hold the strings in place. I had that problem with a Gretsch that needed a neck reset. I dealt with it through a combination of having the action higher than I'd like and not hitting very hard. I didn't end up playing it much. Ultimately I got the neck reset. So you can get the lower bridge but you may ultimately decide you need a neck reset, at which point you migh decide to go the slide route after all.

For pickup alternatives, I've known people to install piezo pickups on archtops. The guy I know best who did this wasn't very happy with the output though -- very weak -- so consider that. There's also a pickup available from GFS for archtops that screws to the edges of the neck. There was another recent archtop/pickup discuission here where I posted a link to that, and people suggested other alternatives too. Let me see if I can find that.

Good luck,
-Scott

[Spud1950]

If the neck to body connection is okay,I would guess that there is some internal damage that is causing the top to depress and the neck to be pulled at such a radical angle. If you have to pay someone else to repair the neck angle, it's definately not worth it. It's a way too expensive repair for what is basically a cheap guitar. If you can do it yourself, there's no harm in trying if you think you're up to it.

[Astrochimp]

Wife killed the pickup idea. " you will hate it, it will sound like ass and ruin the sound it has now."

As for the neck- it is playable now, just very high action past say the 7 th fret. Nice and low at the nut. The bridge just seems very high off the body, so I think my next step is to buy a replacement and see if I can make it lower. It looks like if you raised the bridge as high as it will go, but the bridge is fully lowered.

Scott- I did not know about loss of tension at the bridge. Would grooves help?

I need to replace the nut, it has the cheap guitar high E at the edge of the fret board thing.

I tuned it to open D and have been playing (learning) slide on it. With a homemade copper slide it sounds perfect, that old blues slide sound. Bottleneck slide is too bright.

New tuners showed up today, Guitarfetish Vintage LP Jr style. Looks like a perfect fit, but will install tonight.

Thanks for the input so far

David

[Astrochimp]

The tuners were almost a perfect fit.

They would not fit the tiny factory bushings, and I would have to drill to install the bushings that came with them, but the existing holes were 'perfect' in size so I installed with out bushings (for now).

Any reason not to keep it like that?


The rear plates on the tuners are shorter, covered the old screw holes, but not the dirt from under the original ones. New screw holes would cover if originals were installed.

Tuners work very well, and look right on the guitar.
They don't have the gear feel of some $$ sets I have, but for about $30 total, are better than expected. I would guess equal to most new mid range factory stuff.

David