the motto will be: too much. I work in a guitar store, and you'll take special care of any switches and fiddly electronics, as well as, or most even: supporting the neck, headplate and tuners. Gibson cases sadly are not built to actually protect the necks thoroughly.
To age the knobs, mix acetone with water 2:1 and add toner. dunk the knobs in for a couple seconds at a time until you're happy with the color. Been using this for years, no guesswork, no danger, you get the right look. If you mix up a batch of this in a Mason jar with a lid, you can age lots of plastic knobs and saddles with this for years. Practice on junk tuners. YMMV
Amazing work and patience. I think that's one of the things that separates the boys from the men, the patience to do the job right. I think some people know how to do it right but don't have the patience so they choose whatever is the faster approach. Erick and Dan are the best I've seen on RU-vid so far. The sheer care, patience and smart way of doing things is unmatched.
Looks like the same Hollowbody that's in the Remedy videoclip haha. Also amazing work on the details. It's amazing how much focus goes in to make something look authentic. Cannot wait to see my les paul looking aged in many years time.
The wood shavings from the peg holes of rich's iconic guitar could probably fetch a pretty penny. Thank you for sharing your excellence in craftsmanship.
Got similar issue recently. Unfortunately, can't find anyone selling conversion bushing around here, so I stuck with vintage bushing provided by Gotoh. This vintage bushing has around 8,5mm outer diameter (OD) and 6mm inner diameter (ID). So, i need to find something with 10mm OD and 8mm ID to fill in the peg hole. Luckily, I found someone who sell brass tube/pipe with those exact measurements. So, I created six brass bushings from that tube (with cutting and little bit drill press work to fit in the 8,5mm OD), and now the vintage bushings installed. Perhaps this can be your other options/alternatives. 🙏🙏🙏. You can ream the brass bushing instead of ream the wood. 😊
Great job, I just did the same thing to a 1952 Martin 0-15 after the previous owner installed Grovers and enlarged the hole. now it looks and plays great...and by the way, it stays in tune just fine! I love watching your videos, keep up the great work.
Using the conversion inserts leave the old ring marks. Faber offers vintage aged kluson style keys with screw in top inserts that fit perfect with require no alteration and cover the old ring marks..they also look amazing!
Not everybody cares about rings showing and some of us don't like those huge bushing that are half an inch(13mm) wide. That's part of the reason I swapped the grover style things off of my 355-style guitar. They were wayyyy too gawdy and oversized. Vintage tuners have a smaller diameter bushing looking from the top down and smaller tuner shafts, usually, too. They're just a finer tuner. Not made as big as screw-in bushing tuners.
Very cool! Do you happen to have bushings for a 70's Strat to enable a return to the original "F" tuners? The holes were enlarged to accommodate Schaller's. Thanks.
I think you mean so it'll be like most Kluson tuners. They always fail - it's just a matter of when. For the life of me I do not understand why they remain popular.
Enjoyed the video a lot. I was really impressed at the patience and attention to detail required to do such quality work. Man, I just wish RU-vid had been around years ago when I was messing around with some pretty nice instruments. I don’t think I did too much damage, but some nice instructions like this wouldn’t have hurt!
Great to see the ins and outs of the techniques you guys employ to age stuff. I think way back I heard Dan saying once he went out to the road put a few small rocks onto a body and gave them a tap..! We didn't get to see the set up, but I did wonder about that Bigsby: Obviously the wrong unit for the job and seemingly carrying a bit more string tension because of it... Even on my Tele I have considered putting a spacer under the Bigsby, just to make it a little easier under my hand.....
When I was 16. My guitar teacher talked me into swapping out the Grover tuners on my Heritage for a set of Kluson's. I want to return my guitar to original specs. But, if I do? Are there going to be obvious drill holes appearing for the machine tuners?
Nice work, Erick. I noticed at 0:07 and 0:12 that the bridge looks like it has collapsed, a fairly common affliction of older Gibson ABR-1 tune-o-matic bridges.
The little tips they use with the super glue are interesting. Do they sell those? They remind me of a humming bird. They have curved needle like beaks similar to that tip. They also have a tongue that’s like it, that’s twice as long as their beak.
A previous owner had put Grovers on my 70's Les Paul Deluxe. I would have never done that myself but I'm glad someone before me had done it. Much better tuners.
In the past I would have agreed with you, but today's Klusons generally have a larger gear ratio and are excellent tuners. I watched this video because the Grovers on a guitar of mine wore out and I wanted to put the original style back on. Glad I watched it!
I have the same guitar and want to put original tuners back on it. And of course the holes were enlarged to accommodate the new style tuner. I am going to plug my holes with dowel plugs. Should I use hardwood as opposed to mahogany (same neck material) and what would you recommend? Something hard and dense like ebony?
I'd age those shiny tuners. You brush them a bit with a scotch pad to break the surface, then rub them with hydrochloric acid (you can get it from DIY shop, used to clean bricks) and leave for 10-15 minutes, which will darken the surface to make it look old. You can then use peroxide in the end to bring a touch of rust for it to look super authentic. I've reliced many, many guitars that way, works magic.
Nice video. But what I don’t understand is the super glue? Why didn’t you put super glue in the tuner button before you pressed it on? Seems kind of a PITA to try a drip super glue into the collar? Also, on a vintage guitar like this, why not put actual vintage tuners on it? You said in your video you some ‘68’s laying around? Am I missing something? Thanks
I was kinda skeptical purchasing $28 set of tuners but I'll testify they are absolutely fantastic. Had them 6 months on a chinese Les Paul and they hold an excellent tune and feel very solid.
This video came to solve my problem. I have a Gibson Les Paul Custom 1959 reissue with grover tuner milk and I want to put the kluson vintage. I need the adapter bushing. Can you tell me the correct model for Gibson Les Paul Reissue 1959? Item # 3460 or item # 3459? Thank you.
Great job Erick! Perhaps you could have aged the buttons before you installed them. Black coffee works great for aging plastic parts. After that some scuffing and brown shoe polish.
I didn’t like the harsh, modern, electric lights in my house so I switched back to the good old-fashion gas lamps. My house could burst into flames at any moment, but you can’t beat that vintage “feel”!
The stained and shoe polished knobs look more green to me. It looks like a better match to the mat he’s working on than the old tuner. However, once on the guitar they looked fine. I dig that old Bigsby ES. The finish is checking like plastrons on a turtle shell
Luckilly i saw this on time. I was starting to use ebeny from old harmonium black keys to fill my holes on a Harmony Monteray 1954 and redrill them the right size. Merci!
i just replaced my tuner knobs on my les paul so i got some cracked plastic knobs, one of them broke so i replaced all of them cause the rest looked like they were gonna break too, somethin to practice on.
Thanks for your comment! These modern Gotoh tuners function flawlessly, much better than an original Kluson ever would have. Easily of equal quality than a Grover. Check out a set!
This video came to solve my problem. I have a Gibson Les Paul Custom 1959 reissue with grover tuner milk and I want to put the kluson vintage. I need the adapter bushing. Can you tell me the correct model for Gibson Les Paul Reissue 1959? Item # 3460 or item # 3459? Thank you.
Why use a tapered reamer when a straight reamer works much better? That way, the top of the hole isn't larger than the bottom so the bushing is tight all the way through and not loose at the top from oversized reaming.
Good job. But, when he gets his guitar back he's going to notice the guitar will sound thinner. The good thing about Grovers is it added MASS to the headstock, which gives better sustain and a more "solid" kind of sound. I don't think thats why all the heroes put Grovers or Sperzels on their Les Pauls, they did it because the Tulip tuners just weren't very good at staying in tune.
Woah...I remember Erick from when he was touring as the second guitarist for the Queers! Super cool to see what's become of him...he still looks way young!
Good job but grovers are a one way trip owing to the large indentation(s) the washers leave. On a vintage guitar I'd just leave it alone you aren't going to be adding any value by using modern replacement parts anyway. It can be argued that going to klusons from grovers is a tone thing as it definitely does change the tone (less mass, more airy) so that's justification I guess.
Beautiful work, Man I'm so glad Rich and Marc are back together. .IMO the best 2 axe duo in modern history no matter what theyvare playing. ..the Magpie is a very tight band , loved the crows but I'm liking the salute a little better !
@@stewmac your work on Rich's guitar is great.... I replaced the groves someone placed on the 81 SG standard I purchased on Reverb (left handed) and I had mine changed back to the originals. ..Yes I love Grovers but a good set of Kluson deluxe are worth their weight in gold to me. I've never had a problem ! And they just LOOK BETTER
I am amazed that he did all this work... but did nothing about the marks on the headstock. The modern tuners that came out made some scars there. Can't see that being vintage.
I had a reamer for the longest time and didn't know what it was until I saw one of these videos. "Hey, that looks like that thing in my tool kit. Cool!" "Made in Taiwan" StuMac vice $800.00 attachments $50.00 (US Made)
