Turning Into A Bit of a Refurb

As mentioned the other day, I was planning to throw some nylon "classical" guitar strings on my Recording King Dirty 30s Single O parlor guitar. I decided to do that yesterday.

Things quickly changed, and then things quickly went wrong.

What changed is that when I pulled the guitar out of its gig bag, I remembered that it's an acoustic-electric with a gold foil pickup rather than a straight acoustic. Magnetic pickups don't work with nylon strings (duh).

What went wrong is that as soon as I started to unstring it, the nut came loose ... and then two of the six string pegs broke as I used the peg-puller to remove them.

No biggie with the nut. A little wood glue, done.

I don't remember if the string pegs were original or if they were el cheapos I bought on Amazon or Temu, but instead of hunting up some lying around the house, I decided to just order some reasonably priced brass pegs that ought to look nice on a "tobacco" colored guitar with a gold foil pickup. $5.99 on Amazon (not an affiliate link), with a peg puller and spare nut/saddle included. No use for the nut/saddle at the moment, but even with all that, the pegs were at a good price point. Barely more expensive than the same kind of plastic crap that broke, less expensive than bone pegs with abalone inlay that wouldn't look as good IMO.

The pegs will be here today. In the meantime, I gave the guitar a good dusting and wipedown, and also hit the saddle and fretboard with olive oil (I've seen that recommended both for and against, but it's what I had handy). Both looked a little dry when I bought the guitar, and were pretty sad after a year of sitting in the gig bag. They soaked the oil right up, and I think the coloration looks better with the rest of the instrument. When the pegs arrive, I'll string it up with Martin Retro Acoustics.

I don't remember how much I paid for the guitar, but I do remember that it was on sale for well below MSRP. I think I got a fairly good deal. I wouldn't pay MSRP for this guitar. It's not a bad guitar, but the hardware is pretty cheap, the fret markers are paint rather than inlay, etc.

I like the way it plays, and I prefer playing a parlor-size guitar. Obviously not the volume of a dreadnought, but I mostly play around the house anyway and this one can be amplified if I prefer. The action isn't as smooth, the frets dressed as nicely, or the tone as rich as, say, that of the Epiphone Hummingbird, but that's only to be expected. Here's the guitar I'm referring to:

Update, 06/04: The pegs arrived. Got the guitar strung. Sounds pretty sweet. Except, I forgot about a problem the guitar has, a problem that mostly explains why I put it away for so long. On the high E string, at the seventh fret -- only on the high E string at the seventh fret -- that string is muted/buzzy when playing. Which means the seventh fret isn't tall enough at one end (and only at one end). If the fret was too high, I guess I could file it down. But raising it is a job for a luthier, and the guitar just ain't worth that much. I do have an DIY idea -- dab a thin layer of epoxy on the fret there, let it dry, try it out, repeat until the epoxy makes the fret high enough to get rid of the problem -- but I'm skeptical of it working. Any luthiers reading this? Advice appreciated!