2015 Gibson F-9.
Tuners are a bit stiff and seem to slip a bit. What is a good replacement set?
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2015 Gibson F-9.
Tuners are a bit stiff and seem to slip a bit. What is a good replacement set?
Alan, post a picture so we can ID the tuners. I'd be looking at the nut slots and tuners can be serviced.
Nut or bridge slots are not the issue, as the mandolin was just re-fretted and a new Weber trad bridge was fitted/installed.
Those are Gibson Grover tuners, made by Grover specifically for Gibson. I used a set for several years before swapping them out for Waverly tuners. I'm actually surprised, they seemed like really decent tuners.
I repaired F-9 few years ago with the same tuners that were worn to crap because they installed them wrong. The screws holding the tuners on headstock were all drilled near edge of the hole on plate and at an angle forcing the whole plate to side which jammed all posts in the bushings and also forced the the gear wheels to an angle with plates completely ruining thin plastic bearing surfaces underneath (there are metal tabs and clear plastic over that). I first replaced the plastic but the new ones were not slippery enough so I tried to flip them and put the metal over the plastic and it worked OK with a dab of lubricant (most older tuners don't have any plastic bearings anyway). Of course they needed to be reinstalled on the headstock without unnecesary tensions so I plugged the bad screw holes and carefully drilled new lead holes well centered.
The tuners got a bad rep (more of these were reported as fail) and were used just for very short time, perhaps it was the person mounting them at that time as otherwise they looked just like any other mid-grade tuners of good quality. Perhaps they were less forgiving of inproper installation.
They were used for well over 10 years. They could possibly still be using them, I don't know. They replaced the Schaller's spec for spec so they didn't need to retool. I don't have a whole lot of reports of them failing here and I would if it was common. I can't say anything about the way they were installed I haven't seen it. The ones on my Gibson were flawless. They were on the Ferns on down. The gold tuners had MOP buttons.
Alan please post a pic of the top side too.
Have you tried a tiny bit of grease in the nut slots and to lube the tuners? I bought the Daddario syringe of it (lubrikit), but it smells like Vaseline. I was skeptical but it seemed to work in my situation. I had oiled before but the grease worked better for me.
I will see about the grease, thanks for the tip(s). I will post a front pic later. Just this am, the mandolin needed tweak tuning (G,D,A fell flat overnight) again. And turning the pegs, I feel real stiffness there.
The mandolin is signed by David Harvey, so I have to think the tuners were well-seated/installed in 2015. Skip Kelley did the very recent EVO full re-fret and Weber trad bridge installation/seating. Perfect job on both. The mandolin plays well and sounds very good.
A mandolin going flat overnight is no biggie, happens all the time, unless it goes sharp. Room temp and humidity can do that easily.
The tuners feeling stiff is another matter and it if is your nut slots being too tight it would go sharp, not flat.
I removed those black nylon round ended washers from a set of (non-Gibson) Grovers once and the tuners worked better after, so they are definitely not needed.
Just about the only connection between Gibson Grover and regular Grover tuners is the name Grover. The buttons and screw sizes aren't even the same.
For anyone that is looking for information on these tuners here is every thread on the Cafe with the term "Gibson Grover" in it.
Getting back to Alan's original question, if you do choose to replace them they are worm under tuners. The screw holes may not match up exactly on anything and that's not a big deal. Wavery, Rubner, Gotoh, Schaller, and the rest should fit the post holes. The only set of tuners that might cause you issues are the current Grovers as they don't make the top button shaft as long as the others and the button "might" hit the side of the peghead.