S-90 - which machine heads?

[hades777]

Hi,

Does anyone have any recommendations of which machine heads to go for the Guild S-90 as replacement for the original vintage ones? Any advice would be great...

cheers,
Milko

 

[SFIV1967]

Hi Milko,
what year is your S-90 from? Can you post a picture or a link of the machine heads you have on them now?
Ralf

 

[hades777]

Hi,

Unfortunately, i've got no pic - but my S-90 is a '72 (heads are mounted three to a plate)

 

[SFIV1967]

Here is a picture, scroll down in the link to the one that our member Qvart owned. I guess that is the one on your guitar right now?

http://www.letstalkguild.com/phpBB2/vie ... &hilit=s90

Ralf

 

[Qvart]

Stewart MacDonald is the first place to look for replacements. I'm on my phone now and can't link it but if you don't know the site just Google it and you'll get it. You should find specs there and if you can't figure out which ones will work give them a call and they'll help. When I worked there I used to go out to the warehouse section and get the actual parts so I could be sure it was what the customer wanted. Don't know how they do things now but they're very helpful.

 

[SFIV1967]

The original 3 on a strip tuners were probably the cheaper Japanese made machine heads. Maybe also Grover StaTites were used on the S-90, I don't know. You could contact Hans Moust with a private message here from the User Control Panel and ask him about the exact type. He usually needs the serial number of your guitar and can tell you about it. Hans also sometimes sells old vintage machine heads. He is based in the Netherlands:
http://www.guitarchives.nl/guitarsgalor ... cid=13&p=1
Hans is also the author of the Guild Guitars book, highly recommanded! (You probably also get it at your local Guitar shop, otherwise order it from Amazon for instance):
http://www.amazon.com/Guild-Guitar-Book ... 0634009664

Ralf

 

[hades777]

Yes Ralph, the pegs are the same as in the picture;
http://www.letstalkguild.com/phpBB2/vie ... &hilit=s90

As for asking Hans Moust - i mailed him a month ago but i'm still waiting for a reply (he's probably very busy)

 

[SFIV1967]

Yes, Hans is very busy (you can imagine all the questions he get all the time and he is also a luthier) and also might have had some vacation in summer, but if it was an e-mail you sent he might not have got it. He had issues with some e-mail providers in the past. Try the private message function from this forum. Hans is usually very helpful and fast.
Ralf

 

[NEONMOONY]

Yep, try the private message. He's usually responsive and very willing to help.

 

[kakerlak]

These look like the same baseplate footprint, though the knobs are a bit different.

*linky*

Then again, if it's the shaft gears that are worn out on yours, and not the worm gears, you might be able to swap the old knob+worm gear assemblies onto the new tuners...

The above aside, if you've got the stomach for drilling things out, I think Sperzels are the slickest of the reasonably priced new tuners, though they're (e.g. Gotohs, Grovers, Schallers) all "good enough" to me.

 

[SFIV1967]

But the once at Stewmac are for slotted pegheads, you just could use some parts of them as spare parts for repair of the existing once.
Ralf