How to resolder parts to a national cover plate ???

[aaron]

On the underside of any national cover plate there are four tiny bolts soldered to the surface, these grab the tiny screws that hold the hand rest in place. 

I was experimenting with the Mike Dowling method of palm muting and when I took the hand rest off, one of the four tiny bolts came loose and fell off. 

I have now taken the cover plate off, and attempting to resolder it back in place, but the solder wont stick. 

So now if I put the hand rest back on I only have 3 points of attachment not 4, 

How do I fix this? How do I rescuer that fourth bolt to the underside of the hot plate. 

Thanks for any info

[davey]

Hot soldering might mess up the finish, you might try epoxy putty like Milliput in place of the nut which has come loose, or epoxy glue to hold the loose nut in place. Once the screw has grabbed the nut it should remain in place.

[rbe]

Those are not soldered. Press fit, maybe with epoxy or superglue. NRP might be able to give you pointers if you contact them.

[pete1951]

rbe knows National guitars inside and out (especially out) , if you would like to post a photo of the back of the cover plate someone might give different advice, but I doubt it.

[snakehips]

Hi there !

I assume you mean a National Resophonic guitar, and not a vintage National guitar.
These removable handrests are only held on by the screws, hence removable !
ie. they will not be soldered on.

You could stick it on with "Hot Glue" then screw the screws back in.
With hot glue, you could heat with a hair drier to soften the glue, if you ever wanted to remove the handrest again.
You can get glue guns pretty cheap these days.

However, the screws should be doing the job fine anyway, and would need to unscrew "themselves" quite far before they fall off, which you should manage to spot before they ever fell out

[Michael Messer]

Mike Dowling is a fine player and his method of removing the handrest for muting works well for him, but it has caused no end of problems for people trying to do the same thing.

I have been playing and muting National and National-style guitars for 40 years and never felt the need to remove any part of a coverplate

Shine On
Michael

[pete1951]

If you are putting the hand rest back permanently, the answer is easy, but it will mean restringing. Remove the cover plate, hold the (previously captive) nut and tighten the screw, put a little nail varnish on the end of the thread to stop it loosening with vibration, put in the other screws and replace.
The screw-on handrest is a great convenience when the instrument is being made and set up. It should not need to come off for some years.
Pete