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Old 05-12-2017, 11:12 AM
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nacluth nacluth is offline
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Default Replacing Gotoh 510's with Grover-style buttons

This is going to be a simple - and very specific - how to thread. A fellow AGFer wants to put Grover style Ebony buttons on some 510's he has. I decided to make this an instructional thread in case anyone wants to do what we do all the time. LMI sells these buttons for replacement for the Gotoh Grover style tuners. However, if you ask LMI if they are compatible with the 510 tuner, they will say "not without modification." Let's dig a little deeper.

To be clear, while I'm friends and patronize LMI, I have no financial connection to them except that they get my money from time to time. They sell these premade Ebony buttons. If you can find them other places, great.

Let's have the pictures.

Here's the Gotoh 510 with its "Alien head" button. Some people like them, I don't particularly. Here you can see the Grover style replacement button. Notice particularly the small screw hole at the top of the replacement button.




You can - despite LMI's warning - do a straight swap of buttons, and they will function fine. However, the 510's beveled screws ride atop the small screw hole in the new button. So installed, it looks like this. There are many tuners that have weird pips on the end. If that doesn't bother you, then replace and you're done.




However, if you want your tuners to be a little more elegant to the touch and to the eye, simply beveling out the button can solve your problem. I use a 45 degree chamfer drill bit (pictured below). Virtually any decent chamfer bit will work, but really you could use about any tool to get the bevel needed.




Now, holding the button with some needle nose pliers and drilling into the screw hole for about 5 seconds will do quick work of this job. I have this piece of wood with a hole relieved to set the collar of the button into. This helps to keep from rocking.




Here's a shot of a beveled and un-beveled button. To be dead honest, I may have gone a touch deep with the bevel, but it's not a big deal.




Here's a close up of the screw down in the hole. The roughness around the hole can be easily sanded, but if it's not noticeable to the touch, I usually don't bother.




The finished tuner from another angle.




And a comparison of the fix. Screws are in both pictured tuners.




That's about it. If you're trying this for the first time, be aware that there are several washers on the tuner shaft behind the button. You do not want to lose those. Careful removal of the button (requires a Phillips head screwdriver) is important.

I hope this is helpful and not to painfully simplistic. My hope is that anyone can follow the steps to replace their 510's with the wooden Grover style buttons.
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  #2  
Old 05-12-2017, 12:23 PM
murrmac123 murrmac123 is offline
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Default NITPICK ALERT

Good post ... but is that countersink bit (sic) really a 90° bit ?

It may be the pic is distorting the angle but it looks more like a 82° bit to me.
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Old 05-12-2017, 01:13 PM
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nacluth nacluth is offline
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True it's a 82 degree countersink bit from Bridge City Tool Works - though it looks like it's been discontinued. There are plenty out there for not much money.
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Old 05-14-2017, 06:40 AM
jmagill jmagill is offline
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Ryan,

Thanks so much for posting this!

Jim
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