The Steel Guitar Forum

Howdy folks. I’m a newby here and finally have a question that will allow me to stick my toe in the water. I’ve been dabbling with a 6 string Supro Comet for a few years, and got the bug strong enough to go 8 string/double neck. I think that Biller and Wakefield cd did it to me.

Anyway, the question; my recently purchased 50s Gibson C530 turned out to be stripped on the lowest two tuners of one neck. The chrome tuners attach to the head in strips of two tuners each, so I took the offending strip off to inspect it. The cog gears look to be ok. The worm-gear tuners don’t appear to be too badly worn and there is a little play in the tuner/worm-gear. The solder joints for the bracket are solid. I guess my question is, can it be repaired? I would imagine that a replacement set of two on a strip might be a tall order. Is there anyone around who re-machines these things? Otherwise, would I make things worse by trying to run a strip of felt or something between the worm and cog to fill the space? It is on the two lowest strings and those fat strings put the most tension on the tuners. Swap the pair w/two from a lighter pair of strings? Thanks for any ideas.

without seeing yours it's hard to say, but sometimes you can trade parts like the shaft from other tuners. go to your local music store or repair guy and see if you can look through their junk box.

Thanks. I'll try that. Here's a picture of a similar one. I hope its good enough to get the general idea of the tuner arrangement. I'll shoot a pic of mine tonight.

Here's another angle for the tuner arrangement.

Have you checked to make sure the knob is not spinning when you put a tight load on it? I have had that experience where the gears worked until you almost got the string up to tune. I found that the knob would slip under load. The remedy was to super glue the knob to the shaft. If the gears are messed up check out StewMac.com.

Yes, it can be repaired. Take it here:

http://www.guitarworksinc.net/

Thanks for the input guys. Paul, the key and worm are nickel and seem to be a single piece. I will check out the Guitarworks site. Can't wait to get that neck up and going so I can add E13.