The Steel Guitar Forum

Replacing kluson tuner buttons on my Iolana. I have the cream colored replacements from stew Mac and have found two methods of replacement via online search: one using heat (solder iron or heat gun) and one using a drill and glue.

I don’t see how the shaft would grip the tuner without heat, so I’m leaning toward the method from stew Mac website.

Any words of wisdom before I go in?

Also worth noting, I’ve never done this before!

I've done the heat method many times... I think Stew Mac has a video showing a modified soldering iron used to put them on and that's what I do... works great.

I would say it's nice to have a couple extra the first time to get a feel for it, but once you do, it's really quite easy.

I just finished 16 ivory button tuners on my National D8. Watch the Stew Mac video. I used a 400 watt solder gun and Knipex parallel pliers.

Heat, I use a 40w iron--it's plenty