Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello all, i'm at the stage of having to choose a set of tuners,the gotoh lookalikes with the brass gear from LMI look nice, has anyone used them and how do they compare to waverlys in finish quality?Opinions would be appreciated.Thanks Rob

They work very smoothly and the finish quality is very good. Certain details of their design/construction, however, make them look less elegant or classy (IMO) than Waverlys. Another option, though, which I recommend, is Santa Cruz tuners. They are available direct from Santa Cruz Guitars.

_________________
Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Thanks for the reply Todd i'll take a look at the santa cruz site right now.Rob.

I'm fairly certain that the Santa Cruz tuners are Grover Sta-tites with the Santa Cruz name on them. I've used the Grovers ...the new and improved version works well. The other nice thing about Grovers is that they can be directly replaced by Waverlys.

_________________
JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

I like the Gotoh's. They're smooth and precise, just what you'd expect from Gotoh. I like Waverleys too, but I won't spend that much on tuners unless the customer wants to. I use the open back Gotohs for "vintage" style tuners and Gotoh 510's if the customer wants a "modern" tuner. I've got the open back Gotoh's (from LMI) on my personal guitar.

_________________
I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

The Santa Cruz are indeed Grovers, but you get other button options with Santa Cruz, like ivoroid ovals, and (I think) ebony.
They are somewhat higher, but I understand they give luthiers a discount.

_________________
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008907949110

The second generation Santa Cruz tuners are not exactly the same as the new version of the Grovers. The shape of the base plate is different, more like Waverlys.

I am basing this on the photos I've seen of the new Grovers (on the StewMac web site, for example); I have not actually had any of the new Grovers in my hand. I do have some of the Santa Cruz tuners. They are very nice.

If you look at the photos here:
http://www.santacruzguitar.com/products ... tml#tuners

...and here:
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Guit ... ml#details

...you can see the difference.

_________________
Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

They do give a discount to luthiers, and the button options are great, too.

_________________
Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

I just put a set of the new Grovers on and liked them. They fit the Waverly bushings (The Gotohs don't). That's nice because the Grover bushings are a little big for the Waverly countersink reamer I have and don't look as nice so I just used Waverly replacement bushings. You do have to relieve the back side of the peghead a little for the spring washer on the Grovers. (Gotohs as well) Something you don't have to do for the Waverleys. I think I'll be using the Grovers as my less expensive option. I'm sure the Santa Cruz's are fine but I can't bring myself to put the name of another maker on my guitars.
Terry

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

If you go with the LMI's, be careful when you order. I just got 2 sets in. I ordered the one's that say chrome open gear, and the gear is chrome too. Looks like you can get the nickel ones with brass gears, but not the chrome.

_________________
Rob

Huh ?? .... Gotohs dont fit Waverlie bushings ???? .. are you sure ???? ... I have done it twice recently and they work just fine. The Gotoh catalog lists the post as 6.35mm .. thats .250 inches. The Waverlies in the last Sm catalog are .249 .... the fit isnt that tight....

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

I recently put gotohs into a waverley bushing. Good fit. I have only done that on one guitar but all six tuners fit nicely. When next I decided to use the waverley tuners that had been replace by those gotohs on another guitar, I used the gotoh bushings on the waverley tuners. Another good fit, BUT, I had to ream out the hole a little so that the gotohs would press fit into the hole that a dedicated Waverley reamer had prepared for them. I hope this makes sense, its a little unclear to me and I wrote it.

I think I like the grover version of the open back tuner better than the gotoh. The base plate on the gotoh is too thin and I had to replace several posts and gears (I had too sets of gotohs) to get one good tight working set of tuners.
I think the cast base of the grover and the overall mechanics of the grover is better.

Maybe I got a bad set but a while back I tried to put some Gotoh brass open geared tuners in a guitar with 3/8" holes using the SM Waverly conversion bushings and the fit was too tight. I tried them in some regular Waverly bushings and it was similar. One or two barely fit through and the others bound up. Good to hear that it was probably just a unusual thing. It was around two years ago so maybe it was a quality control issue that's been resolved.
Terry

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I used the open-back Grover sta-tites on my last guitar and the string holes in the pegs had nasty burrs on the countersinks. I broke at least 3 strings setting the guitar up (all different strings). I deburred them each myself and that seems to have taken care of the problem, but I found it annoying to have to do that. Has anyone else encountered this, or did I just get a bad set?

I'd decided never to use them again, but it seems quite a few of you really like them.

_________________
-Clint Beacock

I've used 2 sets of the Grover Sta-tites and both have been fine. I like them both visually and functionally.

Joe