Official Luthiers Forum!

When I was young (many years ago) if you had a nice guitar that sounded good you took the old open back tuners off and put on a set of Grover Rotomatics. Today all the nice guitars have open back tuners and I even had a customer put open back tuners on his Martin that came with sealed tuners. Is it the weight or is it looks? Or is it something else I am missing?

Today's open back tuners can be much, much better than yesterday's. They are lighter and some of us like the looks too.

David, I'm old enough to remember those days too. Open back = cheap. Waverly open backed tuners are some of the highest quality tuners on the market and are definitely not cheap. In general, most all tuners today are miles above the quality from decades ago, IMO.

Open back does seem to be gaining traction these days. I have been thinking about using them on a upcoming build.

I have Waverley's on a martin and I must say I am underwhelmed with then. How about Schertler? Anyone try them?

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

I blame the steampunk fad.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Although I like the look of open backs that was not the reason I changed.............to me the change in weight is very noticeable..!!
Most likely it has an effect on sound but not sure the result in that area. I would think that wear on the open backs would be faster also and would depend very strongly on the conditions to which they are exposed.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

I remember those days too. The Grover Rotomatics were new and they tuned nicely and there was the cool factor. Kind of like adding chrome wheels to your ride. I had no clue back then that weight made a difference.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I thought added weight gave more sustain. Of course nobody likes a neck heavy guitar. I still like the sealed tuners myself.

I like to use them light bodied guitars. I didn't care much for the couple sets of Grovers I used. I think the Gotohs are great and the new Cosmo Black is very sexy. My favourite for function are Gotoh 510's 21-1. They are heavy though.

I build lightweight guitars -- even my instruments with dense hardwoods (Cocobolo, Ebony, Zizicote, etc.) are still quite light. With sealed tuners the act of balancing the guitar on the leg will result in the headstock wanting to drop down. Open gear tuners provide a better balance and the guitar rests without either the tail or headstock causing the guitar to dip.

Open Gear Tuners

Wavery Tuners feature better worm/gear mechanism (less slop) than the Schertler tuners. You can move the string post because the gear interaction isn't as tight as the Waverlys -- but they are still very nice tuners are perform admirably. The Waverlys tend to be tough to turn. The Gotoh open gears look sort of cheap but they are nice tuners.

The next step are the Alessi tuners. I find the Alessi tuners offer a nice improvement over the Waverlys. They have the same excellent gear mechanism but are incredibly smooth and effortless. They are also as significant material and cosmetic upgrade.

The next step up are the Rodgers and Graf tuners (plus a few other handmade classical brands). They offer an even more refined product in terms of function and aesthetics.

Toonces, good info!!! I checked out the Alessi tuners. They look great. Do know where I might check out a set of the Oval engraved?

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Hi Joe,
Alessi Tuners is a solo shop run by Nicolo Alessi -- and so it is a direct order type of thing. Without buying them, your best shot would be to find them on a high-end guitar. I doubt you will see tuners of that quality on anything less expensive than a luthier built instrument.

Sounds good. I'll send him an email.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

I've been looking at these this morning. They do look nice for the price. Anyone have experience with them?
https://www.lmii.com/products/schaller- ... g-machines

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust