Islandtexan
Junior Member
I am the proud new owner of a 1967 D-40. I have been lusting for one of these for the longest and just got one in great condition, case and all from the first owner. However, I have found that a couple of the tuners are very slack. You can turn the tuning knobs about an eighth of a turn before the string winds. I am presuming this is going to make this guitar hard to keep in tune. I am pretty handy and was ready to pull them off and see if I could 'rebuild' them when I thought perhaps I should first ask you experienced owners for advice. The tuners on the guitar are the closed type. I have not yet pulled one off, so I do not know how accessible the gears are. Perhaps the system is all closed and I'm going to screw up things by risking loosening the 'bite' of those two little Phillips wood screws on the back of each tuner. On the other hand, maybe pulling these tuners off will afford me a chance to blow gunk out and lubricate or tighten things up. To be clear, I want this guitar to stay totally original, so if messing with those tuners is going to jeopardize the value, I'm not about to pull them off. On the other hand, I have every intention of playing it, so I am wanting its performance to be as good as possible.
When I got this guitar, it had been in a closet for forty years. The strings had spontaneously broken. So my first step was to put a set of strings on just to see how the thing was set up. Well, it is wonderful. Perfect intonation and string height just right for me. The neck is true. The frets could maybe use a little dressing, but not much. The D'Addaario strings I put on to check things out were some I had laying around. They are way too light, so off they come -- just as soon as somebody tells me whether to also pull off those tuners before I put on a set of Elixir Polywebs.
The finish looks like it could be nitrocellulose, but I'm not certain. I welcome insight from any of you who are as lucky as I and have one of these fine old instruments. Thanks in advance!
When I got this guitar, it had been in a closet for forty years. The strings had spontaneously broken. So my first step was to put a set of strings on just to see how the thing was set up. Well, it is wonderful. Perfect intonation and string height just right for me. The neck is true. The frets could maybe use a little dressing, but not much. The D'Addaario strings I put on to check things out were some I had laying around. They are way too light, so off they come -- just as soon as somebody tells me whether to also pull off those tuners before I put on a set of Elixir Polywebs.
The finish looks like it could be nitrocellulose, but I'm not certain. I welcome insight from any of you who are as lucky as I and have one of these fine old instruments. Thanks in advance!