One of the things I have done was change out the old Tuners. I has been a process. I first had to decide if I wanted to do it. One tuner was. Issuing a knob and was bent and the others turned VERY hard when string tension was put on them. Because this guitar was not a Museum piece I decided to proceed. Plus, having solid working Tuners is consistent with a “Playing/Gigging†Instrument.
Here are the old tuners:
I read everything I could find on old Rickys and Tuners and Bakelight and understood the hazards going in. OK, I’ll be careful, lol.
I had in my parts bin a set of the Golden Age Restoration sold by Stewart MacDonald. This is the set I used:
In comparing with the originals, they looked to be excellent quality and had an 18:1 Tuning Ratio. I no longer had the Grommets for the set, but it appears Rickenbacker didn’t use grommets anyway. Here is a Couple comparison pics:
They were not a perfect “drop in†replacement and some slight reaming was needed. Some of the screw holes were filled and carefully redrilled. Here they are installed...
After a few days of looking at them and tuning I realized a couple things. I did NOT like the cream color! Also, when tuning there was a lot of “creaking†noise and I could just imagine the brittle bakelight cracking with the metal against bakelight tension. So, even though, maybe not Historically Accurate, I need to find some grommets that would work. I wanted lubricated metal agains metal when turning the knobs.
StewMac to the rescue again. I found some grommets that should work and some black buttons and placed the order.
Following the StewMac Instructional Video, I swapped out the Cream Knobs for Black. Using different grades of sandpaper I took the “shine†and manufacture ridge of the knobs to make them look older. Just a tiny bit more reaming to perfectly instal the taper fit grommets. Lubed everything up and reinstalled the Tuning keys. Restrung with new strings and am happy to report nice smooth tuning with no creaking or cracking noises!
Here is the final result!
