Bone nut, saddle, bridge pins for Martin D-15

[smathis]

A couple years back, I got a little over-ambitious about setting up and adjusting my 1990s Martin D15 acoustic. I sanded down the saddle, filed the nut slots, and adjusted the truss rod, but I didn't have any experience in setting up guitars and did very little research. Needless to say I screwed it up. It's not too terribly bad, but I have fret buzz, my neck relief is out of whack, and so on.

 

​​​​​​I would like to purchase a bone nut, saddle, and a set of bone bridge pins and have them professionally installed at my local store, along with a full setup. Which brings me to my question. Will these work?

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B018S...n+guitar&psc=1

 

Or do you guys (and gals) have any other suggestions? I want to make sure to get the best product on this guitar. It is extremely valuable to me for sentimental reasons, and I want it to be as playable and enjoyable as possible.

[Freeman Keller]

Smathis, let your setup guy pick the parts - he might even have them in stock. I do a lot of setups and I have a drawer full of bone nut and saddle blanks, I make each one to fit the particular guitar that I'm working on.

 

Without either seeing your guitar so I could measure the existing parts or doing a bunch of research (which may turn out to be false) I can't say if those parts will work. Nuts can either sit on the angled portion of the headstock or the flat (most Martins are angled) and I never trust precut nut slots to be anywhere close to what the player will like, pins come in many sizes and two different tapers (and the holes on a Martin should be reamed to fit the pins) and Martin saddles come in a couple of different sizes. I usually don't make a new nut unless there is something wrong with the existing one (however I will frequently lower the action at the nut). In blind listening test many people couldn't tell the difference between stock Martin pins and expensive replacements (however I do use bone pins in all of my builds but its mostly for aesthetics).

 

If you setup tech knows what he/she is doing then just sit back and trust them to do it right.

[smathis]

That's probably the best course of action, thanks!

[Mikeo]

Definitely have your luthier set that one up.

 

Will also suggest that you might like woolly mammoth ivory.

 

I have a couple of 00016'a and a buddy of mine has a couple of 15 series, including a Dreadnought. Make sure during the winter you humidify the heck out of that guitar.

 

My buddy's end up at the shop in the humidifier case, the luthier has. I have seem my tops shrink, but they come back when the the humidity gets higher in the warmer months.

 

I just started humidify my acoustics for the winter and even if a guitar doesn't get played often I check them every other week.

 

I have a bunch of homemade travel soap boxes with small holes drilled into them. I get sponges and wet them up. Then put the damp sponge in the travel soap box case. I'll wrap them in a paper towel and let nature do it's thing, in side the case.

 

The 16 and 15 series, seem to have thinner tops, and are prone to humidity changes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Freeman Keller]

I humidify every one of my guitars all year long. I also fix a lot of guitars that aren't humidified and the tops crack, frets get sharp and action goes all wonky.

 

I'll add that my personal ethics don't allow me to use any ivory from any source no matter how long its been dead - I simply don't want to be in that dilemma. I'm perfectly happy with cow bone for saddles and nuts on all my guitars. Your milage and feelings may vary.