How to remove non-screw tuner buttons? Crack with pliers??

**johnsoba** · Jun-10-2012, 8:43pm

I want to replace the pearl with ebony, but there's no screw. And what a good source for ebony or horn tuning buttons?
Thanks!
Bruce

**mrmando** · Jun-10-2012, 8:57pm

If they were Klusons you could just wait 50 years and they'd dry up and fall off.

I wonder if you could heat the shafts and then just pull off the buttons?

**sunburst** · Jun-10-2012, 9:00pm

Most people just crush them with a pair of pliers. Before you do, be sure you know the new ones will fit, and how you're going to instal them.

**MikeEdgerton** · Jun-10-2012, 9:10pm

Check out this page on Frank Ford's www.frets.com.

**sunburst** · Jun-10-2012, 9:19pm

So, I did check out Frank's page, and I found this quote; "Gotta be careful, because the first time I tried the glue, I shot some glue right back out with the pressure of inserting the shaft!". I had a similar experience, and the superglue got me right in the eye (had to take the rest of the day off, most painful thing I ever got in my eye), so by all means, wear safety glasses if you press buttons onto shafts with a drop of superglue in the hole!

**G7MOF** · Jun-11-2012, 3:07am

Watch the super glue doesn't go on the gearing either!

**Tim2723** · Jun-11-2012, 3:10am

I took one of the glued-on buttons off my last Ovation by dropping it on a tile floor. I can't recommend that, but it works.

**Paul Busman** · Jun-11-2012, 7:02am

I'd put the super glue on the shaft, not in the hole. Not too much either, and blue masking tape over the actual gears and bearing points isn't a bad idea. Whatever oozes out can be scraped off after it dries.