Guitars With Banjo Style Tuners

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 10 Jul 2022 4:06 am

Take a look at the guitars in this video. The Gretsch she is playing and the ones on the rack in the background all have banjo style tuners.

Caroline Jones - The Party's Over:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk_2Nrp1SJw

~Lee

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 10 Jul 2022 5:55 am

I have a certain kind of Grover Rotomacics on my acoustic and I dislike the look of them. I think I will replace them with another kind, but not with banjo tuners.

Jack Hanson · Post by **Jack Hanson** » 10 Jul 2022 6:11 am

I have an old Gibson that sports the same banjo tuners that were on it when I bought it new in the '60s. They still work fine.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 10 Jul 2022 7:05 am

Is that a Gibson Firebird, Jack?

Jack Hanson · Post by **Jack Hanson** » 10 Jul 2022 8:28 am

Joachim Kettner wrote:Is that a Gibson Firebird, Jack?

That's correct, Joachim. It's a '64 Firebird V, #234969.

ajm · Post by **ajm** » 10 Jul 2022 9:56 am

Lee: Was your post meant as an FYI, or did you have a question about the tuners?

To add to the Firebird discussion...........

I have an Epiphone Firebird Studio.
It has the stock Steinberger gearless "locking" tuners, which physically have essentially the same appearance of banjo tuners, but are not the same.
They are the earlier ones that have what I'll call a "button" top on them to lock the string.
The D string has a tendency to slip unless you lock it really tight, the other strings not so much.
Through some internet research this seems to have been a somewhat common problem, and there is no fix for it.

Steinberger has since redesigned them and they now have what I'll call a "T" top design. Among other things, they are adjustable to eliminate the string slippage.
They have been hard to come by in the last couple of years, but I happened to get lucky and found and ordered a set from Gibson. I have not tried them yet.

And for more "TMI".............
The Epiphone IMO is a really nice guitar.
But the stock full size humbuckers were the weak link. They always sounded restrained or blanketed, if you know what I mean.
I replaced them with a set of Dimarzio PAF 36th Anniversary pickups, and it made a noticeable difference, in a good way.

It's almost impossible to pick up that guitar and not rip into some Johnny Winter.
And strangely enough............
A friend of mine is into all kinds of music, and way more into jazz than me.
He was playing it one time and just blurted out, "You know, this is a really good jazz guitar".

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 10 Jul 2022 11:58 am

ajm wrote:Lee: Was your post meant as an FYI, or did you have a question about the tuners?

It was just an FYI. The first time I saw the video, I noticed the tuners on the Gretsch she was playing. I thought that was odd. Then I noticed all the guitars in the background had banjo style tuners.

~Lee