Stiff Tuners on vintage guitars

[grains]

I was looking at a vintage Harmony and the seller told me the tuners are stiff because back then they didn't use bushings. Is this true of all guitars from the 60s and prior?

[hubcapsc]

What do they look like? Can you post a picture or
read some printing off of them? One of my 1953 Gibson
tuners (Kluson) is real stiff. I watched a guy on youtube
take ones like mine off the guitar and squirt naptha
in it to dissolve the old dried up lubrication inside of it.
He got it freed up nicely and reinstalled it. You shouldn't
do this just because you read where some guy on the
Internet said he saw some other guy on the Internet
do it but it might be that your tuner (and my tuner)
isn't toast...

-Mike

[ManyMartinMan]

They weren't great tuners 50 years ago. They could be bent or rusted or really dirty. If they were mine, I would remove them and have them cleaned in an ultrasonic cleaner. Then, lubricate as necessary.

[EverettWilliams]

Old tuners are not consistently bad, but some manufacturers consistently used bad tuners. Harmony and its ilk were building budget guitars and, like budget guitars of today, cut some corners. Many I’ve played have been workable, so the suggestion of cleaning and lubrication may solve it. Worst case scenario, you could replace with better tuners which wouldn’t be a huge expense and wouldn’t have a deleterious effect on value. In your position, this wouldn’t be a show stopper for me. But, in defense of old tuners, almost all of my vintage guitars wear their original sets wear their old sets and perform well.

[EZK123]

Originally Posted by ManyMartinMan

They weren't great tuners 50 years ago. They could be bent or rusted or really dirty. If they were mine, I would remove them and have them cleaned in an ultrasonic cleaner. Then, lubricate as necessary.

Agreed. Amazing what ultrasonic cleaning can accomplish. Also, just as a tip - almost any jeweler, watch repair shop or the like will have a cleaner if you can't find one anywhere else, they'd probably do the cleaning for a minor charge. Or, you can buy one for around $100 or so if you think you'll need it for other things in the future.

[Pnewsom]

The alignment between the worm and gear is critical, and with wear this is lost resulting in binding. Not a lube issue as the combination of the steel worm and brass gear creates its own lube. The only permanent solution is to replace the tuners.