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Old 11-15-2020, 12:53 AM
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TDavis TDavis is offline
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Default Replacement Waverly tuners on D18GE

I’m looking at a 2002 Martin D18 GE with these tuners on the headstock. What type of Waverly open-gear tuners would be a simple retrofit without leaving holes or marks where these machines were mounted before?
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Old 11-15-2020, 01:59 AM
M Hayden M Hayden is offline
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The mounting plate of Waverly tuners is entirely different from those. Here are Waverly dimensions:

https://www.stewmac.com/parts-and-ha...-pegheads.html

What you have on there now look like Gotohs:

https://www.stewmac.com/parts-and-ha...d3-tuners.html

As you can see, the plate shapes and mounting dimensions are different. You’ll probably need to
- plug the old tuner mounting screw holes
- replace the bushings
- redrill for the new Waverly under mounting holes.


It’s a good upgrade.
Did it to my precious SCGC OM that had originally come with Gotohs ages ago and it worked great.

Last edited by M Hayden; 11-15-2020 at 02:19 PM.
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Old 11-15-2020, 09:59 AM
archerscreek archerscreek is offline
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Are those the original tuners? I’ve only seen Waverly tuners on the D-18GE, including my own. Perhaps some previous owner installed the pictured tuners in place of the original Waverly tuners.
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Old 11-15-2020, 10:18 AM
Kittoon Kittoon is offline
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One or two of the Waverly tuners on my Martin OMC-18 started getting a bit funky so I had my luthier here in Minneapolis replace them with Gotoh 510’s. There are small holes as a result. My luthier said if I really wanted to, the holes could be filled and made made near invisible. I am so very pleased with the smoothness of the Gotohs, the holes only bothered me for a few days.
-Maybe next time I change the Gotohs (I do not know the typical life expectancy) I’ll have him deal with the holes.
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Old 11-15-2020, 02:02 PM
zoopeda zoopeda is offline
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What’s the reason for wanting to replace them? If you just want higher quality drop ins (assuming these are gotoh sd90s, consider upgrading to sd510s with the same footprint. Otherwise, open gear gotoh se770s get better overall reviews than waverly and might be a more similar footprint. Only way to know for sure is measure yours or find spec sheet and compare with gotoh spec sheets on their website.
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Old 11-15-2020, 08:24 PM
Misifus Misifus is offline
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Those look like the Klusons I had on my 1957 D-18.
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Old 11-15-2020, 08:38 PM
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Zissou Intern Zissou Intern is offline
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Waverlies are usually the stock tuners on the GE's...weird that these Gotoh Kluson copies are this GE. The Waverlies are 1" between screw holes, but the Gotohs are .936". So you'd need plug and redrill.

I really like the Gotohs. I have had a few guitars with them, including my old HD28LSV. They work great, the string posts are shorter than the Waverlies, and they're lighter weight.
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Old 11-16-2020, 10:43 PM
John Arnold John Arnold is online now
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Unfortunately, those Kluson Deluxe style tuners (probably made by Gotoh) have rolled edges that bite into the peghead, and the resulting marks are not completely covered by Waverly tuners. The same is true for all similar open back tuners which replicate prewar Grovers. The good news is that the screw holes will not be visible, and the diameter of the posts is the same on Gotoh and Waverly (1/4"), which means you won't have to swap bushings.
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Old 11-18-2020, 12:01 PM
RustyAxe RustyAxe is offline
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Never a saw a D-18GE with those tuners. Did the last owner "upgrade" it?
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