The 'Ups And Downs' Of Grover Rotomatic Tuners

[SalFromChatham]

I swapped out Grovers on many slopes I’ve owned, including my current J50. They always worked flawlessly and generally just as good as anything they replaced. Probably better. They are heavy though... and some guitars should just have a certain different look.

I recently took off a new set of Gold Rotos from my J45-mahogany. Replaced with gotohs. I still have them. Hard to sell though!

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by BluesKing777

It is funny how things change - it wasn’t just acoustics, the Grovers went straight on electrics worldwide for a while there....you were looked on as some kind of fool if you kept the original tuners whatever they were! And I vaguely remember something about brass nuts about the same time and the pickups had to be.......humbuckers! Even if you had to drill.

That is exactly what I've referring to. I've got a '74 Les Paul with the original Klusons on it. I can't tell you how many people insisted I needed Grovers and looked at me as if I had antlers growing out of my head when I said I wanted to keep the guitar stock. The trend was so strong that Gibson has put Grovers on their guitars at times.


Bob

[bluesfreek]

Jimmy Page's 1959 Les Paul.

[Murphy Slaw]

I usually just twist mine until the string is in tune, then I don't think about them again until the string doesn't sound right....

[Tele1111]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

It used to be de rigueur to change your tuners to Grovers or no-one thought you were "professional."

Bob

So true! Although I haven’t thought about that for years, I changed almost all of mine, and so did everyone I played with! If you were a Jazz player, it was Grover Imperials.

Nowadays, Gotoh 510’s are “de rigueur”.

Mark

[DanR]

I have had Grover Rotomatic tuners on every Martin guitar (with the exception of my 000-18 which has Grover open gear tuners) I've owned and never had any problems. They have always worked well for me. I had Grover Rotomatics installed on my '67 Gibson ES335 in 1978 and have had no problems.

I did have mini-Grovers installed on my '73 Telecaster in around 1987 and one of the string posts broke after a few years. I replaced that one tuner with an identical used mini-Grover that my local store had laying around and that has worked well.

[tippy5]

My old 1999 Gibson J 45 Rosewood is 5lbs and unlike any J 45 that I have ever played. It has loud/bold capabilities. It sports stock Grovers. I don't exactly like the look. But with a guitar that sounds like this I don't want to change a thing.

I think back then they were 12:1 or 14:1? I don't know.

I do love today's larger ratios. I have 21:1 and 18:1 Gotohs elsewhere.
I also have a Tom Anderson electric with variable ratio gears that are wild. Something about the low E and the G string needing better gearing.

[The Kid!]

I took them off my 2016 J-45. I didn't like them, they felt unnecessarily heavy. I like the Gotohs I have on it much better.

[alien]

My brother has a 1968 Martin D-18, which he bought new. It has Grover rotomatic tuners which have worked flawlessly for 51 years. He says that he will NEVER change them. Can't ask for anything better than that.



Chances are the rotomatics made now aren't as good as the ones made 51 plus years ago.

[Garyinboston]

I've always loved Grovers.

My 1970 D18 still has the original set on them, oddly back then I had an issue with one tuner so I wrote to Martin (back then the guitar was guaranteed to the original owner for life) and they sent me a brand new set with I still have in the box. The one I had trouble with corrected itself so I never used them.

I love the "American" look of them, the rounded edges on the buttons, the size of the buttons (big I know) but they just always felt great.

Recently, I was re building an electric for a friend and he bought a set of the Guitar Fetish Wilkinson copies for $ 24.00 I think and we installed those.

They worked hunky dorey so.............................

Gary

[jspe]

I've always hated Grovers.
This goes back to seeing a friends' beautiful Les Paul fall less than 2 feet on to a hard floor in its case, and the Grover-equipped headstock snapped clean off.
Not much later, another person I knew who had an SG suffered a similar fall with a klusen-churchkey tuner set, and it had no damage.
I saw a friend, and everyone else present, wince as a brand new, newly ordered Guild came out of the shipping box with...you guessed it.
I can site numerous other examples just off-hand from knowing local guitar techs and players.
Any Grovers that come in to my house are summarily removed and replaced with....something much lighter....

[Old Player]

My first real Gibson, a 1968 Hummingbird Custom Acoustic, came to me with Grover Rotomatics installed, and I've preferred them ever since. I've only ever had 1 Grover tuner go south on me, ever! I simply called the factory, and was comped a replacement no questions asked (after I returned the failed tuner to them). Currently I have Grover Locking Rotomatics on my Martin X series, and my DAngelico SS Jazz box, and my Gibson HP Studio Les Paul Plus. I also have a set of Grover Bass Minis on my Precision Bass. Both my Nashville Telly, and my Deluxe Stratocaster have locking Ping tuners (I've been told that Ping is a sub-contractor for Grover). To me, Grover has always offered a professional quality tuner, at a reasonable price, and they have a great track record. But, I did install a nice set of GOTOH tuners on my Alvarez Hybrid Classical guitar, which are considerably better than any of the Grovers I could find, for Nylon String Classical guitars.

[Teherie]

My 47 year old D35 has had the original Rotomatics on it since day one and I ordered gold open geared Grover tuners on my Custom Martin 000 slot head in 2015. Both guitars have been great and played extensively since I owned them. I also hear a lot of criticism about the added weight of Rotomatics to the headstock but since I usually play sitting down and I ate my Wheaties growing up, I’ve never noticed it.

My D35 has been refretted twice over the years (2006 and 2022) and never a complaint from either repair person who each had 35 plus years of experience.

[EZYPIKINS]

There are knockoffs, that look like the real thing.
I have been liking the 18:1 Milk Bottles.
When I choose to replace closed back tuners.
9 out of 10 times these are what I'll use.
I did just replace tuners on my Guild 2512, with Gotoh 510's
Tuners cost me near as much as the guitar.
I'm sure the originals were Ping, Schaller knockoffs.
Regardless of which tuner you choose. Choose quality, Buy from reputable dealer.
If buying a cheaper overseas version of a guitar.
Chances are, hardware is cheaper knockoff as well.

[Rudy4]

My experience with Grovers?

My first, and only, set of full size Grover Rotomatics was purchased to put on my first acoustic guitar build, early 70's. They were heavy, lots of backlash, and generally ugly. I disliked them immensely and switched to open back Sta-tite Deluxes for most everything after that, with the exception of using Gotohs on a bit over 100 custom lap steels I produced.

One of the tuners on that first acoustic locked up after something like ten years and I was quite happy to change them out to Grover Sta-tite Deluxes.