#46
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I’ve not had issues with Waverly tuners over the twentysomething years I’ve used them. That’s not to say they can’t or won’t have issues, just that I haven’t experienced them.
On instruments converted from a sealed tuner to an open back, I've used the Gotoh SXN510V, which uses a screw-in bushing design while maintaining an open-back appearance. Other than being a bit more tarnish-prone than other tuners, they work great. Now I’m curious about some of the others mentioned here...GrandTunes and so forth. I’ve looked their dimensions up and they all vary a little - you’d think that there’d be a standard for mounting hole spacing and shaft-center to mounting hole dimensions. |
#47
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Most of my guitars have Waverly tuners and while I haven’t had any serious problems, there have been inconsistencies with tightness on some guitars. I recently purchased a guitar that came with Schaller Grandtune tuners. This has been my first exposure to these tuners and they are fantastic. They look nice imo, operate smoothly and are consistent from post to post. If they work like this over the long haul — I’m sold.
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#48
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Doerr Trinity 12 Fret 00 (Lutz/Maple) Edwinson Zephyr 13 Fret 00 (Adi/Coco) Froggy Bottom H-12 (Adi/EIR) Kostal 12 Fret OMC (German Spruce/Koa) Rainsong APSE 12 Fret (Carbon Fiber) Taylor 812ce-N 12 fret (Sitka/EIR Nylon) |
#49
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Follow up here. Received my new Froggy Bottom H-12 with the flat black Schertler tuners and I am totally happy with my decision to use them. The guys at Froggy Bottom were also impressed by the results. The flat back and gold of the tuners look fantastic with the guitar and they operate like “buttah”. It’s a joy to tune with them, they never feel tight or binding and they seem very accurate and repeatable.
I have two guitars with these tuners and will have four with Gotoh 510’s when I receive my Kostal OMC later this coming summer. My Doerr Trinity, Emerald X-20, and Rainsong APSLE have the Gotoh’s also.
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Doerr Trinity 12 Fret 00 (Lutz/Maple) Edwinson Zephyr 13 Fret 00 (Adi/Coco) Froggy Bottom H-12 (Adi/EIR) Kostal 12 Fret OMC (German Spruce/Koa) Rainsong APSE 12 Fret (Carbon Fiber) Taylor 812ce-N 12 fret (Sitka/EIR Nylon) Last edited by SprintBob; 05-19-2021 at 11:16 AM. |
#50
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Glad you like them Bob! I asked the guys at Froggy Bottom to put the new high ratio Waverlies on mine. I will let you know how I like them when the guitar arrives.
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#51
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I may look into the Schertler tuners to replace the Waverly. Can I simply drop-in replace? Please advise. Thanks. Last edited by B....; 06-02-2022 at 01:09 AM. |
#52
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The Schertlers require a 10mm hole right through, and while I have never thought to compare, I seriously doubt the screw holes are compatible with anything else. They are currently my favorite affordable tuner, but they are not comparable with the vintage vibe.
The Schaller GrandTune, on the other hand, will directly replace the Waverly, though you will have to change the ferrules as the shafts are different diameters. I have started using Waverly tuners again. Understanding their idiosyncrasies makes their installation much more reliable. |
#53
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#54
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I bought a set of Schertlers from Stewmac a while ago for a guitar I’ve just finished. I drilled perfect, clean 10mm holes using a brand new 10mm drill. I pressed the ferrules in on a drill press with no problems, but none of the bosses on the tuners would fit into the other end of the holes.
I measured carefully and the holes are dead-on 10mm. The bosses on the tuners vary from 10.1 to 10.3mm. Stewmac says you need a 10mm (13/32”) drill. If you use a 13/32” drill you should be fine because 13/32” isn’t 10mm. It’s 10.3mm! I’m in France, so finding a 13/32” drill here is like looking for unicorn manure. I solved my problem by making the drill run off-centre enough to enlarge the holes so the tuners would fit, but I don’t want to do that again, so perhaps I won’t be using Schertlers again. Have any of you real luthiers had this problem (I’m just a hobby builder)? I suppose, as you’re mostly in the US, you don’t use 10mm drills. |
#55
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I use a 10mm drill, relieve the ends of the holes with a countersink, and press in the ferrules and then the tuners. They are tight, but they go. The relief is because if I have to pull them out they can damage the head plates (both sides on my work, usually).
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#56
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I put a set of 16:1 Waverly's on my 00-17 about 8 years ago and that set seems to live up to the Waveriy reputation, or at least the reputation implied by some of their more famous endorsees. I have two sets of the new Waverly 21:1 tuners, one on a Gibson and the other on the 000-18. When I installed the first set they were like someone above described - y'know - a quarter turn before anything happened. Called Stew-Mac and they went on and on about how hyper sensitive their tuners were because of the extraordinary precision with which they were made and that I needed to fill the existing holes and use their little install drilling tool.
I bought that tool, filled the screw holes with tiny little mahogany hand made toothpicks and reinstalled the tuners. Ok. Much better without the ton of backlash but still not really that great. There was still backlash on a few of the strings and as Mr. Sexauer mentioned, there's definitely excessive play between the shaft and the bushing. It may be, because there's still a little wiggle room between the mounting plate and the screws, that loosening the screws and cheating the plate toward the nut will fix it. I still think the Waverly's are leagues ahead of Grover Sta-Tites but they're not nearly what they are advertised to be. I also have the Gotoh Mini 510's on both my Goodall and my weird Tele copy. Those are like having power steering with zero backlash and amazing precision and some of the most beautiful tuners I've ever seen. At this point I would not buy Waverly's again but I would like to try the open back Gotoh's.
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'47 000-18 '49 00-17 '91ish Deering Tele prototype '02 Goodall GC '20 Gibson Southern Jumbo Deering Maple Blossom '62 Danectro Longhorn Bass UAD Apollo x8p, Apollo Twin Genelec 8351B's Studio Monitors Genelec 7370A Sub Lauten Audio LT-386 |
#57
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I like Waverlys just fine but it's a bummer that they don't seem to be as consistently great as Gotoh 510's which seem to be the gold standard performance wise. I've got a set of Schertlers on a new build arriving next week. Looking forward to seeing how they stack up.
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Seth G. ------------------- |
#58
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'47 000-18 '49 00-17 '91ish Deering Tele prototype '02 Goodall GC '20 Gibson Southern Jumbo Deering Maple Blossom '62 Danectro Longhorn Bass UAD Apollo x8p, Apollo Twin Genelec 8351B's Studio Monitors Genelec 7370A Sub Lauten Audio LT-386 |
#59
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I have a set of the 21:1 ratio Waverlys ordered to replace the 16:1 set on my Preston Thompson Dreadnought. I'm confident the mounting screw holes are located accurately on that guitar to minimize potential gear binding so I'll post an assessment after I test their functioning. The issue I have with the lower ratio is that it's very difficult to smoothly approach a stationary strobe tuning without going past it & having to repeat a number of attempts. With a long scale guitar the desired pitch requires higher string tension & therefore stiffer tuning action than on a short scale guitar. THIS is the problem for me. With higher gear ratio I'm hoping the approach to a desired tuning note will be smoother due to a longer turn to achieve the same (& slower) gain in frequency. This of course providing that there is no binding of the gearing to deal with.
Last edited by B....; 06-03-2022 at 09:04 PM. |
#60
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I just recently bought a few sets of machine heads from Kris Barnett in Berlin, just like his guitars he’s gone completely overboard designing and engineering them (6 bearings per string). They’re smoother and more accurate than the alessi, rodgers, and scheller I’ve used and installed, significantly cheaper, and offer quite a bit of customization. They’re not yet officially on the market but Kris mentioned he’s thinking of offering steel string versions at some point. I think the reasonable cost and ultra high quality would be a game changer for the steel string machine head market
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https://www.itzkinguitars.com |