Grover F5 Tuners difference

[Stefan]

Can anyone tell me the difference between the 309fn and 309fvn tuners?

[lenf12]

v

Len B.
Clearwater, FL

[George R. Lane]

The "v" is for vintage style. Never have seen them.

[Stefan]

The "v" is for vintage style. Never have seen them.

Yes, I know the V is for vintage, but physically they look the same and the specs are the same. Could it be that Grover has just dropped the V and they are the same as the 309FN's?

[Roger Moss]

"Vintage" equipment is often artificially aged in some way to replace older parts without looking brand new. The "v" tuners don't look tarnished or un-shiny in any way? Maybe both are actually "vintage" already.

[MikeEdgerton]

The images I can find of the FVN are worm under. The FN images appear to be worm over unless I got the only two wrong images. I would suspect that is the difference as I don't see anything else to distinguish them.

For anyone not familiar with the difference between the tuner types this page on Paul Hostetter's site has some illustrations that will show you the difference. Paul did an excellent job showing the differences.

I'll also note that the chances are that the worm over model of the Grover's will turn backwards as I believe they simply used the same worm gear in the worm over configuration.

[Stefan]

The images I can find of the FVN are worm under. The FN images appear to be worm over unless I got the only two wrong images. I would suspect that is the difference as I don't see anything else to distinguish them.

For anyone not familiar with the difference between the tuner types this page on Paul Hostetter's site has some illustrations that will show you the difference. Paul did an excellent job showing the differences.

I'll also note that the chances are that the worm over model of the Grover's will turn backwards as I believe they simply used the same worm gear in the worm over configuration.

Well, StewMac shows the FNs in both worm over or worm under. The FVNs I have are worm under. Perhaps that is the difference. The FVNs only come in worm under, while the 309FNs come in both configuration. This all causes me to believe that the FVN mod. is the same as a FN worm under. Perhaps Grover just dropped the FVN designation to describe a 309FN worm under?

[MikeEdgerton]

Who knows, I've kind of lost faith in some manufacturers including Grover for taking the easy way out and not offering true worm over products. When I looked for the two numbers on Amazon one was worm over and one was worm under. The V for worm under would make sense. They might very well have either dropped the V or added it.

[Stefan]

Who knows, I've kind of lost faith in some manufacturers including Grover for taking the easy way out and not offering true worm over products. When I looked for the two numbers on Amazon one was worm over and one was worm under. The V for worm under would make sense. They might very well have either dropped the V or added it.

Ah, case closed. I just got a response back from StewMac. This is the way Grover distinguished between worm over and worm under. 309fn's are worm over. 309fvn's are worm under. Seems of late however, the 309fvn has been dropped. They are all called 309fn's and you must designate when ordering if you want worm over or worm under.

[MikeEdgerton]

OK, so the pictures didn't lie me. Makes sense.