Kluson style 4 on a strip tuners

[Paul DiMaggio]

My Magnatone D8 is in need of new tuners. Does anyone know if you can buy the covered Klusons 4 on a strip? Shaft spread is roughly 22mm-13/16". I've had problems with them from day 1 and today was string change day for my far neck, so I removed the one tuner strip. After much difficulty I got the tabs on the worst one to open and removed the cover. Surprise!! the shaft has no tension screw, appears to be riveted to the strip and the helical drive shaft is held in place by the cover. The treble bank are not original and are the only ones that work well, they are Kluson type but with a split shaft instead of a hole. When you compare the newer one to the older ones the tabs that hold the cover on are a lot thicker on the old ones. It took me over an hour to get those old tabs to open ,I had to grind down a eyeglass screwdriver to get under them enough to get them open and never did get them closed correctly. The drive shaft seems to be binding against the cover, but the shafts don't appear to be bent and the gears were in good condition. I got it to work better than it did but still not great. Will mandolin strips work ?

[Rune Alm]

Hi Paul!
I had the same problem a while ago with a broken tuner for a Rickenbacker DW16. I have searched everywhere that I could think of and couldn't find 4-on-a-plate tuners. The closest thing I found was 6-on-a-plate that are still in production like these:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Genuine-KL ... 1098379640

On my guitar it's a problem that this new production takes up 1-2 mm more space that the original from the wood to the top of the casing and that even though all other measurements should otherwise fit, it is a struggle to get everything in place.

At last I found a couple of old tuners on ebay. But that was pure luck, I think.

My advise to you would be to follow the mandolin-tuner track and find something that fits or to buy the 6-piece tuner and take away 2 of them, etc.

[Ron Simpson]

Stewart-MacDonald carries the Golden Age Restoration mandolin tuners. These have the correct distance between string posts.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Mand ... dolin.html