When these Shertlers first showed up, I was glad to have that one more top-quality choice, especially for slot-head steel string guitars. Not too long ago, it seemed that the choice for these was mighty slim-- maybe three brand names, with one or two slot-head styles. And the Waverlys were the de facto high-end choice. The Waverlys were acclaimed to be accurate, tight, well made, great finish, AND the Waverly brand stamped in the base plate.
I bought my first two sets of Waverlys in about 2004, first time I made a slotted headstock. They were the most inexpensive Waverlys, the nickle-plated ones.
Both sets had significant slop in at least one tuner. I noted that the slop was evident even before the tuners were installed, so it wasn't because I had done a poor job installing them. I couldn't see any anomalies, but I was disappointed that both sets had bad tuners. A couple years later, I thought I'd try the Waverlys again. The gold plating looked cheesy, especially on the base plate. And a quarter turn of slop on one of them.
I recently had a client insist on a set of engraved baseplate, snakewood button Waverlys, you know, the $212 ones. They were perfect. Beautiful, snug, accurate.
So my impression was, the people who make these tuners spend a lot more time on the expensive ones.
I've never run across a bad Grover Sta-Tite, or the Gotoh version either. But now that we have Schertlers, I hope the quality proves out over time to be reliable and accurate. I love also that they are very modern looking, so us non-traditionalists have a great new choice.
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