The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi all,

First, my steel is working fine, it's just the standard "stiff Sperzel key syndrome"I've read about on the forum from time to time. I see that sometimes players will replace their Sperzels with Grovers, which sounds like a cool idea, as I've always liked their guitar tuning machines. Any recommendations? I haven't disassembled the Sprezels or tried to lube them yet, and I only have a single E9 neck guitar, so it would just be 10 keys being replaced. Thanks!

Those Sperzels and Grovers are not a FIT match, if they were this Sperzel thing would be a non issue. Shaft sizes and mount PIN holes are not the same. Klusons, same thing .

Best bet, take them each apart and clean them best you can.

Thanks, I may do that when I change strings the next time.

I just went through what you are going through last week with my Sperzel tuners. I disassembled all the parts of every tuner and soaked all the parts in gasoline for three days. Everything came out looking like new. I sprayed Triflow oil in the tops of the tuners and let it drain in. I repeated it two more times. When I reassembled everything, the keys worked like new.

The guitar was 38 years old, so the tuners were past due for some maintenance.

Some of the keys didn't want to cooperate and lift off with my fingers. I used a 7/16" open ended wrench as a pry bar since it would lift both sides of the button at the same time.

Make sure each tuner has all the parts. The top button mounted screw, the tiny washer in the top recessed screw hole, the nylon washer on top of the dust cover, and the bell shaped dust cover. Everything is important.

The top button screw does not need to be very tight. It has nothing to do with the internal gears of the tuner. It just keeps the button from falling off and adjusts the tension of the button against the nylon washer.

What George said ! Excellent detail !

I’m pretty sure Gotoh tuners are a drop in replacement, I’ve worked on a couple that had them without apparent modification. Gotoh has specs available on all their tuners, measure yours with a pair of calipers to see if they are the same.

Both of my Emmons guitars I have now have Kluson Gotuh tuners. I've had 4 Emmons pp's and they all had these same tuners.They all mounted to the key head with two small bolts on the side of the key head, a completely different mounting system than the Sperzels that are on my Zum.

Maybe Kluson makes a tuner as a direct replacement for the Sperzel, but you had better check with Kluson or at least StewMac before ordering.

The holes in the key head may allow both Sperzel's and Klusons to be used but without the hole in the key head for the Sperzel post to fit into, you would have to rely on the Sperzel tightening nut only to keep it from moving. It could be a staying in tune nightmare, but who knows, maybe it would work.

I have a SKH that was having that same issue. Before you do anything radical, here's what I did that made a huge difference.
I bought one of those electric stringwinders ($20 or so), removed the strings, loosened the set screws completely then used the stringwinder on them a couple minutes back and forth in each direction on each tuning key! Now they work just fine.
I think the heat from them turning fast loosened up the old grease.
Then I strung 'er up and now they work fine with no issues. After tuning I tightened the set screws.
All the best, Pat

Excellent-thanks for the tips! Thus far it's not unusable, I just cleaned and lubed and changed strings so I thought I'd ask the community.

Pat, an excellent idea.

I just received an email from Ron at Spurzel. He said that they do not stock the tuners for the SKH but they make them as needed and it would be $8.00 plus shipping for each tuner. I’m ordering me a set as a stand-by in case I need them down the road. Just thought I would pass this on.

If anyone wants a copy of the email that I received from Ron at Sperzel, send me a private message with you email, and I will forward it to you.

Thanks,
Gary