1970s Japan-made Guild Madeira A30M Dreadnought Guitar




These Guild Madeira guitars show up somewhat frequently around here so they must've been a popular model when they were made. All of them sound pretty good and can be made into great players, but they have a very definite structural weakness revolving around the super-thin laminate tops and bracing that's not tough enough. The soundboard always warps at the bridge and curls the braces with it as they age.

This one was in for lighter work -- a fret level/dress and a new, wider, saddle -- and it came through just fine. Its owner had shaved the bridge and made an interesting plastic/brass "mixed media" nut in the past. I also really enjoy the reverse-mounted Baggs M1 (passive) pickup in the soundhole!




Everything on the guitar is maple -- it has a maple neck, a dyed-maple fretboard, laminate flamed maple back and sides, and -- oops -- the top is laminate spruce, sorry.













The owner uses medium strings which has really bulged the top over time. Oh well! It continues to hum along 35+ years into its life so I suppose one shouldn't worry too much.
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Eddystone said…
I have an identical guitar, and the bridge area looked exactly like yours. I installed a Bridge Doctor (my first time) and managed to get the bulge almost flat. Improved the action and break angle on the strings. Someone had shaved the bridge down at some point. It was almost unplayable, but this made it play quite well, almost as well as my favorite guitars.
March 3, 2024 at 9:38 PM
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