The Steel Guitar Forum

When I got the guitar about a month ago I knew it needed some TLC. I like cleaning and maintaining my Musical Gear, it make it feel like I am assuming ownership and bonding with the instrument.

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!

Good work!

Thanks Jack!

I’ve seen from previous posts that you like to work on your guitars also.

Thanks for posting, and nicely done!

Looks fantastic! Nice work.

The black ones look way better. I've got a slightly malfunctioning tuner on my '48 Ric NS. Not a Bakelite, so I don't know how that will go. The steel body may make it more difficult? Nice work, James.

Joe, On a metal body ric if the screw holes do not line up, you will need to elongate the holes in the new tuners rather than plugging and redrilling the body (the holes are tapped for metal threads). Also check that the tuners are long enough, I think the metal bodied ric's have a extra thick headstock. As I recall when I did the tuners in my long gone Silver Hawaiian I had to use slot head tuners for the length and drill an extra hole in the post. But I could be wrong.

I have a 40’s Bakelite Ric and bought those same tuners. I did find that if you Mount them upside down the screw holes line up perfectly. I didn’t have the guts to put new holes in my baby so I mounted the left set on the right side and vice versa. I’m getting used to having to turn them opposite off “normal”.

Thanks for the tips, Jeff! It's not critical now but one of them is a little worn at the gears and slips a little. Good info to have.

Congrats on that change. Please tell me how you changed the white for black buttons. I have a few old steels with "in-line" tuners, where 3 or 4 tuners are mounted on one piece of metal. With age the original buttons start cracking and fall off. I ve tried several ways of putting replacement buttons on but they never hold so I have to replace the tuners, usually with non matching single units.

So please share your button replacement technique!

Paul Seager wrote:Congrats on that change. Please tell me how you changed the white for black buttons. I have a few old steels with "in-line" tuners, where 3 or 4 tuners are mounted on one piece of metal. With age the original buttons start cracking and fall off. I ve tried several ways of putting replacement buttons on but they never hold so I have to replace the tuners, usually with non matching single units.

So please share your button replacement technique!

It involved heating the knob spindle till the old knobs slid off. On old instruments the knobs are usually so brittle, you can break them off with wire cutters. After removing the old material just clean the metal up real good. Then heating the knob spindle again, once hot enough, the new knobs slide right on. Let them cool down. The little flat place on the spindle keeps the knob from turning. Reinstall the tuners. The trick is getting the spindle hot enough to melt the plastic but not ruin the gear in any way. I usually use an old Soldering Gun, but I needed to use a plumbers torch for these Golden Age Tuners.

Here is a link to a Tutorial on Stewart MacDonalds site. StewMac is where I bought the gears and knobs from also.

https://www.stewmac.com/video-and-ideas ... knobs.html

James,
Thanks! I never knew about the "vintage grommet" type of bushing. Gonna get some, to go with the tuners I already replaced on my B6