70's Dreadnaught, and Jumbo tuners?

Guildedagain

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I do have a fascination with tuners, they're machines after all... also real particular about that part of the guitar, tuners, screws, everything has to be correct, stock if possible.

I've been looking at a lot of Guilds in the last year, dreads in particular, and I'm wondering what the tuner choices were, beyond the lower end Japanese strip tuners?

Pics of a '72 D35 shows the strip tuners.

My '73 D35 has these;

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-ca...414328?hash=item1cceba8438:g:MQQAAOSwqVBZZtdI

Pretty sure they're original, a close inspection reveals there's never been other tuners on the guitar although I have not had them off.

Are the Grovers at all common on these guitars, I'm not seeing them on other Guilds of the era.

Then there's the sealed ones, as seen in the sales section yesterday, sold to Hans.

And Grovers also?
 

GardMan

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My '73 D35 has these;
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-ca...414328?hash=item1cceba8438:g:MQQAAOSwqVBZZtdI
Pretty sure they're original, a close inspection reveals there's never been other tuners on the guitar although I have not had them off.

Hi Guilded again...
You would have to check with Hans to be sure, but I doubt that the Grover StaTites as shown in the link you provided would be original. It was my understanding from conversations with Hans (re: tuners on a '78 D-35 that I had), the only factory tuner choices for a '70s D-35 would be Japanese 3-on-a-plate open back tuners (standard), or a closed back Japanese tuner like this, available as an upgrade:

169012056.jpg
 
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GardMan

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I'm going to hedge that response... looking at Hans' book (p40-41), Guild apparently did use open-back Grover StaTites on some mid-range models in the 60s and 70s, so they might have been around in the factory, and we all know how Guild liked to stray from the specs. So who knows...
 

hansmoust

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Hello Guildedagain,

It would be too much to go into your question in detail, because a lot of it has to do with the way the Guild company operated on a regular basis and explaining that, without simply saying 'everything was possible', cannot be done in a couple of sentences.

Having said that I can tell you that the D-35 had the 3-on-a-plate tuners, imported from Japan, from the start of production at the end of the '60s. You will find Grover Sta-Tites with the squarish buttons, but also the small Kolb tuners that were introduced in the Guild line around 1968, on D-35s from the 1973-1974 period. Some time during 1974 the individual enclosed tuners that were made by Gotoh were introduced as the standard tuner for the D-35.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl
 
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Guildedagain

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Fantastic thank you I think that answers my questions completely.

As you know, it can be tough to get definitive answers on obscure topics such as these.

May the knowledge live on ;)
 

Guildedagain

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You can see the appeal... Very retro to appeal to young and old fogies alike, and lighter for those aging backs, it's a win win.

The pre square button Sta-Tites are legendary tuners, extensively used on vintage Martins, so they have that mystique...

It's a primitive tuner, you see everything, fantastic build quality.
 

dreadnut

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The old 3-on-a-strip tuners on my '76 D-25M have served me well over the years. A little mineral oil and a rare adjustment of the of the screw, and it holds tune like a rock. Always tune on the upswing.
 
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