I did happen to have a spare "modern" Kluson low E tuner on hand, so I removed the broken original and put the new tuner on and strung it up. Aside from some minor intonation adjustments, the sucker played amazingly well right out of the box (literally!) and sounded as good or better than anything I own... I was (and still am) totally blown away by the sounds this little 1 pickup "student model" makes... but more on that another day.
I think the mismatched tuner upset me more knowing this guitar played and sounded great than if I would have strung it up and discovered it to be a dog... but it wasn't, its an amazing piece...All except for that one goofy looking brand new tuner on the low E....Every time I put it down and looked at it, i grew more and more disgusted with the fact that I destroyed one of the 6 original VERY yellowed tuners. I knew I'd NEVER find a replacement with a tip that would totally match the 45 years of smoke and crud that had modified the look of the other 5... and even replacing all 6 with another set of originals still was gonna change the look of it, not to mention finding a matched set of 6, and paying for them! "So much for the "good deal" I got on this!" I thought...
Then I got a brainstorm of sorts... What if I could "gut" the repro tuner and re-house the gears and shaft using the original double-line "back" and re-use the original aged plastic tip? Several things would have to work out, including bending the tabs up to remove the original doubleline housing from the base, and I'd have to try to remove the plastic tip from its home of 45 years... Neither of which I figured would be too easy, especially after recently reading about how easily these tabs snap off... but the original tuner was junk anyhow, and the repro was pretty much expendable, so I figured what the heck, and had a go of it...
I first took the "lid" off the original Kluson one, carefully, because i knew if i busted the little tangs off it, the whole project was done. I used an eyeglasses screwdriver and the side of a pair of needlenose pliers as a chisel, laying it all on the old piece of floor tile, laid right on my kitchen counter. (yes I'm single!
) I got it off successfully. Then I had to get the plastic tip off the old broken shaft. How i did it was by boiling a coffee cup full of water in the microwave, then held the shaft of the broken peg with the pliers, dipped it in the boiling water and held it there for a few seconds... then with a rag in my other hand i clamped one end of the shaft with the pliers, and pulled like hell with my other hand holding the rag so i didn't burn my hand. It came off!
Next I had to take the "lid" or back off the repro low E tuner. It came off easier than the original one, cheaper metal I guess. Same process. It was at this time I discovered why the repros are "taller" than the originals... the gears inside are bigger, and they have nylon bushings sandwiched on each end of the gear that originals don't have. When I tried to put the old lid on the new base and gear assembly, it didn't fit... I alleviated the problem by using a dremel with a cut off wheel, and cut a slight "relief" right into the face of the mounting plate so the gear would actually "countersink" below flush, allowing the lid to fit properly. I also had to remove the nylon bushings, which allowed the original lid to go on, but made the tuner workings a bit sloppier than it was, but it does work and doesn't slip. This also allowed the shaft to protrude through the bottom of the housing exactly the way the originals do, one of the first things I look to ID original vs. repro Klusons.
Now that it seemed like it was all gonna work, the last thing i had to do was get the metal tip off the repro shaft and replace it with the original aged white plastic tip. Well the boiling water method did nothing to free up the metal tip on the metal shaft, nor did clamping, pulling, prying or twisting...so i decided to just cut the sucker off using the same cut off wheel i made the relief in the baseplate with. That got it off, but the next problem was that because the new repro shaft was slightly thinner than the original, the old plastic tip didn't press on tight... snug yes, but not tight enough that it didn't spin on the shaft when you tried putting any pressure on it actually using it as a tuner. A batch of epoxy globbed in the hole of the plastic tip and a smearing on the new shaft fixed that. I carefully wiped the excess, and it looks like it's been there forever.
The last problem was getting the thicker metal tabs of the old "lid" through the tiny slots on the original baseplate... i changed bits on the Dremel and opened those up, and the tabs went right in. I used the new grease from inside the metal lid i wasn't using, packed the guts of the newly created "vintage" tuner full of it, and was ready to put the old lid on the new tuner for the last time. I was worried the old original tabs may snap off when i tried to hammer them back closed again to hold them on the new baselplate, but they didn't.
Now it was done, but I noticed one last thing... after handling the old "double line" lid so much, the "patina" was actually much less than that of the other 5 untouched tuners still on the guitar... plus the tuner shaft and baseplate were both brand new, so they looked way outta place. solution? I dipped the whole tuner in a pint can of wood stain, then sprinkled dirt right out of myvaccuum cleaner bag onto it...(yuck, i know, but hey... it worked!) and finished it up with a light coat of matte lacquer spray paint to seal it all in, rataing the "old and cruddy" look.
Heres the end result, the lacquer was still a little wet when I took the pics, it actually matches even better now that it's dry. The tuner works, and although its not a "perfect" match to the other 5, it looks pretty damn close, and it now retains "most" of its 6 original Kluson double line tuners, with all 6 matching tips. I'm pretty happy with the results!
Finished!!!
