Advice on stringmaster tuners

Shari Kane · Post by **Shari Kane** » 24 Feb 2008 1:11 pm

Anybody have advice on maintaining tuners on an old stringmaster, they're working fine, but I feel like I should be lubing them. How to, with what, and how often would be much appreciated.
thanks

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 25 Feb 2008 8:21 am

Really the only way to lube Stringmaster tuners is to remove the tuner head from the guitar and apply white lithium grease to the gears. A little 3 in 1 oil to the rotation points isn't a bad idea either.

Bill Creller · Post by **Bill Creller** » 25 Feb 2008 12:55 pm

I agree with Erv. Good idea to keep them lubed, since replacing them is a project you may not want to get into.

Shari Kane · Post by **Shari Kane** » 25 Feb 2008 1:01 pm

Thanks Erv, Thanks Bill, now for my stupidity..
How do you remove the tuner head from the guitar, and where do I find white lithium grease. I really appreciate the help,
Shari

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 25 Feb 2008 1:07 pm

Shari,
There are phillips headed screws all around the tuner head. There should be 8 to 10 screws. You need to take those loose and pull out the tuner head.
Of course, you need to take off the strings first.
It would be a good time to change your strings if you haven't done so recently.
The white lithium grease can be bought in a small tube at a hardware or auto supply store.

Mark White · Post by **Mark White** » 25 Feb 2008 3:50 pm

......it helps to loosen the nut a tad too. While you're in there Shari, you can check out the cavity to see if there is a date, (usually on a piece of tape). My double has one, my single doesn't.

John Lang · Post by **John Lang** » 28 Feb 2008 9:30 am

Shari,

Bill is right, you don't ever want to have to have one of these old tuning assemblies go bad. Here is a link to a long thread dealing with this problem:

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... highlight=

The white lithium grease is the way to go, the old ounce of prevention kind of thing. If one ever does go bad on you, Terry Mueller in Carbondale, Ill. is the guy to call. He fixed mine twice for me.

The other way to avoid this is to go a little lighter than you might like on the guages. I did some trial and error with this on my 1953 T8 until I felt comfortable.

You can feel how much stress you are putting on the tuner when you change strings and tune up. If it seems like the tuner is working too hard, back off and go down with the guage before you experience that heartbreaking POP of the tuner going away.

String changes on my Stringmaster have all the appeal of a root canal after having to deal with this. The antique mechanism (I'm talking about 1955 and earlier) is just not an easy thing to fix, as it is an integrated system, with the tuner assemblies actually spot welded to the pan.

I did indeed find the date pencilled in and shellaqued over in all three of my tuning pan cavities. Also was pencilled on a piece of masking tape inside the cavity where the pots live.

Shari, where are you in Michigan?

John Lang

Shari Kane · Post by **Shari Kane** » 28 Feb 2008 9:40 am

John,
thanks so much for all the info... much appreciated and very helpful
I'm in Ann Arbor, how about you?
Shari

John Lang · Post by **John Lang** » 28 Feb 2008 9:55 am

Shari, I sent you email.

Bill Creller · Post by **Bill Creller** » 28 Feb 2008 11:20 am

Hey John, I just checked out your site!! That ShoBud is a knock-out! Beautiful guitar, and I'm not even a pedal guy

BILL