Eastman Tuner Button Screws

[thedunk]

Hello all,

One of the tuner button screws on my mando vanished into the abyss recently, and I'm in need of some assistance replacing it. The instrument is an Eastman MD505, made in 2015. I believe that means it should have the Schaller tuners that Eastman used to put on their mandolins (instead of the Pings that they currently use), but I'm not sure. Any assistance vis-a-vis what these screws are, or how I might track one down, would be greatly appreciated.

(Sorry for my first post being a cry for help. I've been using the cafe for a while, but I'm only in college & never felt like I had the credentials to start posting. If there's anything I ought to do to be productive around here, y'all let me know.)

Here's a picture of the side of the headstock.

[MikeEdgerton]

Schaller's don't have screws holding the buttons on. Post a picture of the back of the headstock.

[thedunk]

Here y'are. If there's anything I ought to focus on or light up better, let me know and I'll do my best.

[MikeEdgerton]

The button screws pretty well rule out Schaller's. The Schallers I'm sitting here looking at are a whole lot cleaner in their engraving and finish. The only Grover tuners with the slot head screw on the cog were the Gibson Grover tuners. The screw is reminiscent of the Grover tuners in its style. I'm going to hazard a guess in that these were not made by any of the big names but possibly one of the later companies like Pingwell from Asia. A quick search has turned up that Eastman was indeed using Pingwell tuners.

It doesn't answer your question but they are being discussed.

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...or-Eastman-315

Hopefully someone that has removed a pair might have a screw they could send you. You could also take one of the screws that you have and try to size it at a local hardware store that has small metric screws. Even if you can't get the right head you can probably find something if you know the screw size.

[robw95]

Mike is right, those are Pingwells. Your tuners are identical to the ones on my 2019 MD505. The thread that Mike linked to mentions allparts so you might want to peruse their website but the path of least resistance might be an email to Eastman as they will likely just send you the screw. They are good about answering emails and their final inspection/setup is done in Pomona, CA and I'm sure that they'll have a spare screw around to send you. Welcome to the forum!

Rob

[thedunk]

Thanks, guys. Mike, I think I skimmed both those threads at some point, and just got mixed up—sorry to make you jump through extra hoops.

Rob, to your point about Eastman—I recently had a string holder snap on my tailpiece (as in this thread: https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...ce-replacement), wrote Eastman about it, and they very kindly sent me a replacement tailpiece. Then I wrote them about the screw, and no response. Since I've already been a thorn in their side (and this isn't a faulty part, just presumably my carelessness) I wanted to post on here before I asked again and burned any bridges. (Sorry, I should have led with that. I'm a mess. Anyhow, I'll give Eastman another shout soon, unless an alternative comes up.)

I couldn't find any Pingwells on allparts, and the link to the Ping website on that same thread seems to be dead. Crazy how fast things change on the web.

[robw95]

Rob, to your point about Eastman—I recently had a string holder snap on my tailpiece (as in this thread: https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...ce-replacement), wrote Eastman about it, and they very kindly sent me a replacement tailpiece. Then I wrote them about the screw, and no response. Since I've already been a thorn in their side (and this isn't a faulty part, just presumably my carelessness) I wanted to post on here before I asked again and burned any bridges. (Sorry, I should have led with that. I'm a mess. Anyhow, I'll give Eastman another shout soon, unless an alternative comes up.)

I wouldn't read anything to not getting a response these days, with the pandemic and civil unrest maybe their offices were closed temporarily. I'm sure that they get a lot of emails and the fact that they sent you a replacement tailpiece for a faulty one would not qualify you as a thorn in their side. I sincerely doubt they would even connect the two requests. I would suggest sending them another email asking where you can buy a single screw and I'm betting that they will just send you one.

Good luck. Rob

[CES]

And, you didn’t bother Mike. The man is a human search engine. Seriously.

[Richard500]

General hint about tiny hardware. Even if you have a sample screw, matching it can be very difficult unless you happen to have a clearly labelled tiny nut to test with, and I haven’t seen very small hardware in the general store assortments, so sometimes just buying an eyeglass repair kit with a good screw assortment will give you good possibilities, especially for metric, and slot-head. Also will likely contain pointy tweezers and a suitably tiny screwdriver. Tweezers reduce handling frustration considerably. For the more bench-oriented folk, a few carcases of items containing tiny hardware is a good resource. Electronics, cameras, etc.
And old eyeglasses.

[MikeEdgerton]

General hint about tiny hardware. Even if you have a sample screw, matching it can be very difficult unless you happen to have a clearly labelled tiny nut to test with,..

Unless one happens to have a set of tuners that need the screw.

[thedunk]

Gonna round this one off for anyone who's like I was, searching the webs for a way to replace their lost screw.

If for whatever reason, your manufacturer or local hardware store can't get you what you need, or you don't feel like dealing with them, here's what I ended up doing, and in hindsight, probably ought to have done much earlier.
1. Pull out another of your screws and measure it. https://www.wikihow.com/Measure-Screw-Size
2. Go to https://www.boltdepot.com/ and order a couple of the four or five types of screws that are closest to what you think your measurement is. Don't forget that metric screws are a thing. (Mine were 2.5 mm x 0.45 mm x 12 mm metric machine screws, although that won't help anyone, as I'm about to get into.) With regular shipping this shouldn't run you more than about $6.
3. Pray that one of 'em works.

Anyhow. First thing I did was contact Eastman. They told me that they didn't put any kind of tuners on their mandos that had screws in the buttons, and my tuners must have been installed after the fact by the shop I bought it from. Called the shop, they told me they would never do that, which I figured—why would you go to the effort of changing the tuners on a $600 mandolin, when most of the folks who'd be interested wouldn't know the difference—but said they would do me a favor and look around. Kept telling me they would and never did, which is beside the point except that I need to explain why I started this thread in June and didn't get my screws until August. Water under the bridge now, got eight strings again and I'm gonna be playing 'em nonstop for a while (though if anyone recognizes my tuners, I'd love to know haha)

Anyhow, best of luck if you're reading this, and thanks to everyone who helped me out when I posted back in June. Take care y'all.