Custom Gotoh wood buttons
 

Hi all

I’d like to know if there is a possibility of ordering somewhere, custom made buttons in woods for the gotoh mini 510. I’m looking for someone to be able to make 6 buttons out of Tasmanian/Australian blackwood.

It would go along really with the theme of my guitar.


I’ve been looking on internet with no success. I guess if there is no other way I'll make them myself somehow, but that would have saved the trouble.

Thanks for your help guys :)

Try Bill Nichols
 

Shoot an e-mail to Bill Nichols. I believe he makes customer tuner buttons as well as incredible TRCs.

Hey awesome thanks for your reply. I've just sent him an email. I hope he can make them for me !

I agree he's making nice inlays for guitars !

I may be interested in this also. Look at below site of Bill.

http://www.nicholsinlay.com/more/tuner-buttons/

I just received a reply from him and he doesn't make buttons for gotoh tuners.

So I'm back to square one looking for a solution.

I've done it before, and wrote my method here if you want to give it a try: http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/v...624583#p624583 (unfortunately I think you have to sign up to see the pictures on that forum)

It can be done with a few simple hand tools if you make them in two pieces, so you can use a chisel to carve out the rectangular hole that grips the post on the tuner.

Here are two other options:

Bill Wise, Charis Guitars.

Petros Guitars.

You might also contact LMI. They are not listing Ozzie Blackwood, but might be able to get them

http://www.lmii.com/products/mostly-...ons-and-screws

Grosskate, I recognize that you're looking for wooden buttons, not plastic, but one option you might want to consider is getting tortoiseshell plastic tuner buttons like these:


I've got those on a couple of guitars, including the walnut Klepper KJ that Howard Klepper built for me. That particular guitar has no ebony on it anywhere, but has a rosewood fingerboard and a rosewood headstock veneer. The tortoise buttons go nicely with it.

Anyway, both Allparts and an online retailer called guitarpartsresource.com carry them.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

Hi guys.

Thanks for tips. This forum is really awesome !!

I contacted petros guitars and lmii. I am Awaiting for a reply :-)

I m not a big fan of tortoise, i d rather have wood, i ll try to get endpins made out of tasmanian blackwood too !

I ll keep you posted as it might interest other people here.

My Gilet custom 000 is Tassie Blackwood w sitka and silver gotoh minis. I put the ebony buttons from Guitar Parts Factory (Resource) and with the rosewood board and dark peghead it looks good. Not sure if they have the 510 series buttons though.

Kris

So, as for the news...

LMI : only have what s in stock and won t have anymore in stock in the future as the supplier who was making them will no longer continue.

Petros : may have some full size tasmanian blackwood but don t make anymore custom buttons.


If you guys have any other lead i m still interested !

Thanks !!

Laurie Williams hand carves buttons for his guitars - they are much finer than normal buttons and are exquisite. He used red morrel burl for the buttons on my Australian blackwood guitar. Nice example of his work on sale at Luthiers' Collection.

Mike Baranik also makes individual wooden buttons for the Gotohs on his guitars. They are more in line with the standard Gotoh buttons.

Good luck!

custom tuner knobs
 

I had some made of bloodwood to match a bloodwood fingerboard and bridge - looks great and have worked well so far. A local fellow did it for me. He is now working for some guitar company out in Washington State and I have no idea what his time availability is or if he would work without having the tuners there as well. If you get stuck, PM me.

But I'll bet there are local folks who can do this for you, Make inquiries at music stores, woodworking shops, schools with industrial arts programs and other such places. If you are a skilled woodworker, it is not that hard and a person does not have to be a luthier to do this. It may be expensive, considering the volume of wood used, but it won't break the bank.

As you have found, finding small buttons for Gotoh 510 minis is a tough deal.
FWIW, here are the Schaller shaped Tortoise buttons that Wade posted. These buttons look really good on certain guitars. Here they are on my Gardiner Concert (on the left) which has Cosmo Black 510 minis and my Gardiner Parlor (on the right) which has Satin Gold 510 minis.

Jimmy

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/k...psyux5chc8.jpg