New Tuning Machines Day!

[H2O]

Today I received my Gotoh tuning machines ordered through japarts.ca. These are 21:1 ratio Gotoh 510's in aged gold finish and have replaced the original machines on my primary gigging guitars (Halcyon baritone and Seagull S6). This was my first time swapping tuning machines. The Seagull required drilling pilot holes but the Halcyon dropped right in. Overall not too difficult... The one thing that was a bit of a surprise was that the 6th string on the baritone would not initially fit through the eye of the tuning machine; A buddy suggested drilling it out a bit which thankfully did the trick.

I am very pleased both aesthetically and from a functionality standpoint

[1neeto]

Nice! And thank you for calling them by their correct name. I get anxiety when people call them “tuners”. [emoji23]

[Long Road Home]

Looks good. I chose the same tuning machines for my Halcyon OM (to match the gold EVO frets), and have been very happy with that decision. I also bought them from japarts.ca, and they dropped them off at Ed's to install (very good service).

[Wade Hampton]

Hi, H20. Like you, I'm a fan of Gotoh 510's, and I have those same tuning machines on my baritone guitar, as well.

You're correct in that super heavy gauge double wound strings like the low B on a baritone set don't want to go through the 510's string post hole. I haven't drilled mine out, however - what I do is put a sharp bend in the end of the string, thread it through where it's single wound, then yank hard on it so that the double wound section comes through.

The B strings get wedged in firmly when I do that, and they never, EVER slip!

My McAlister baritone originally came with full-sized Schaller M6 tuners, and they threaded the low B string just fine. But that particular set of gears was made in the late 1990's, when Schaller quality was at its lowest ebb, and they just weren't as accurate as I wanted. So I replaced them with the Gotoh 510's, which is when I discovered the same issue with the low B string as you did.

All's well that ends well, though. The 21 to 1 gear ratio of those 510's really helps me dial in the tuning just perfectly.


Wade Hampton Miller

[H2O]

Originally Posted by pax238

Looks good. I chose the same tuning machines for my Halcyon OM (to match the gold EVO frets), and have been very happy with that decision. I also bought them from japarts.ca, and they dropped them off at Ed's to install (very good service).

I bet that looks real nice alongside those frets.

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Hi, H20. Like you, I'm a fan of Gotoh 510's, and I have those same tuning machines on my baritone guitar, as well.

You're correct in that super heavy gauge double wound strings like the low B on a baritone set don't want to go through the 510's string post hole. I haven't drilled mine out, however - what I do is put a sharp bend in the end of the string, thread it through where it's single wound, then yank hard on it so that the double wound section comes through.

The B strings get wedged in firmly when I do that, and they never, EVER slip!

My McAlister baritone originally came with full-sized Schaller M6 tuners, and they threaded the low B string just fine. But that particular set of gears was made in the late 1990's, when Schaller quality was at its lowest ebb, and they just weren't as accurate as I wanted. So I replaced them with the Gotoh 510's, which is when I discovered the same issue with the low B string as you did.

All's well that ends well, though. The 21 to 1 gear ratio of those 510's really helps me dial in the tuning just perfectly.


Wade Hampton Miller

I’ve been playing a bit on both guitars this afternoon and am very satisfied by the improvement the Gotoh tuning machines make on both of these instruments. Especially in regards to the lower register of the baritone (my low string is tuned to g).

[BT55]

I installed Gotoh 510’s on my Voyage-Air. I couldn’t be happier with them. They prove that there is a real difference between good and great tuners.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by 1neeto

Nice! And thank you for calling them by their correct name. I get anxiety when people call them “tuners”.

Be thankful you're not dealing with Rickenbacker then. They, quaintly, insist on referring to the aforementioned articles as 'keywinds'.

http://boutique.rickenbacker.com/Keywinds_c_10.html

Is 'machine head' acceptable to you, or does that cause palpitations also?

[1neeto]

Originally Posted by eatswodo

Be thankful you're not dealing with Rickenbacker then. They, quaintly, insist on referring to the aforementioned articles as 'keywinds'.



http://boutique.rickenbacker.com/Keywinds_c_10.html



Is 'machine head' acceptable to you, or does that cause palpitations also?

Lol I think it’s because there’s already something that’s named “tuner”. Tuning machines, tuning pegs, tuning keys, even keywinds are all fine by me.

[Kittoon]

I recently had Waverly's removed from a Martin OM and my luthier installed the 510's. I like them better. Not miles better, but better.

[Beakybird]

They're beautiful tuning machines. If I ever upgrade, I'm going with the same.

[catfish]

These tuning machines look nice, congratulations!
I wonder what kind of open gear tuning machines Seagull uses on its Natural Elements line?

[jpmist]

Originally Posted by BT55

I installed Gotoh 510’s on my Voyage-Air. I couldn’t be happier with them. They prove that there is a real difference between good and great tuners.

Big ditto here.

Gotoh 510's came on a guitar I recently purchased and I am very impressed with how smooth and accurate they are. Zero lag in either direction and a joy to use with my strobe tuner.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by 1neeto

Nice! And thank you for calling them by their correct name. I get anxiety when people call them “tuners”. [emoji23]

Just to give you some historical perspective, players were calling geared tuning machines "tuners" for decades before there was such a thing as electronic tuners. So to me it seems perfectly reasonable that the use of the word "tuner" to mean tuning gears is grandfathered in.


whm