Jesse_Dylan Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 Ever since Em7 mentioned it, I've been thinking. How come the Gotoh-made, Vintage-style (i.e. "Kluson-style") Keystone (i.e. "Tulip") tuners don't have green tulips anymore? The old TV models had green ones. What color were the actual vintage Klusons? I feel a little cheated. My distressed gold tuners are more like a very old-looking white. Quite attractive, actually, but not green. And you guys will hate me, but they're not as good as the Grover Sta-tites or Rotomatics I'm used to. :) I would foot the bill to get whatever tuners installed on my Bird, but I like these because they're period-correct. It would look goofy with Rotomatics on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparquelito Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 My 1971 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe gold-top had the ivory green tuners. I loved the way they looked and felt!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boyd Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 How "green" is green"? I replaced the original tulips on my 1974 J-50 a few years ago with the Gibson vintage tuners like these: http://store.gibson.com/vintage-machine-heads/ They are not really green, but definitely have a greenish tint. They don't look like antique white. FWIW, WD Music Products owns the Kluson trademark now and produces a pretty big variety of replicas. We discussed this at some length in a thread I started when changing tuners on my 65 J-50. You can download their full catalog here but there aren't a lot of pictures. http://www.wdmusic.com/Catalog_Download/Kluson_Catalog_2015.pdf The pearl tulip in the middle of page 11 looks greenish to me. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse_Dylan Posted August 30, 2015 Author Share Posted August 30, 2015 Yeah, good point! It's hard to tell what is really green, green-tinted, or just cream that for some reason appears a bit green. I can confirm that my Gotoh "Klusons" on my Vintage are probably not able to ever be construed as green or green tint, though. They are definitely cream as cream can be. I agree the page 11 ones definitely look like a greenish tint (and see-thru??). These ones look more minty, but who knows! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Set-of-3-a-side-Wilkinson-Deluxe-Kluson-Type-machine-heads-tuners-FREE-POSTAGE-/141759831376 I should probably just be happy with them the way they are. :) To be honest, as tuners, I do not particularly like them, but they seem adequate if not good, and I do really love the look. If Waverly made something that looked Gibson-like, I might go for that on a different guitar, but it seems like a Hummingbird needs these! Love that headstock on your J-50. The tuners look really nice on it. I have been thinking of trying to make my J-15 look more '60s or '70s with chrome keystone tuner buttons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin 1940D28 Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 The "Kluson style" tulip tuners I'm familiar with all have the "Gibson" pearloid buttons. Maybe your tuners don't quite go back as far. I do love their looks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse_Dylan Posted August 30, 2015 Author Share Posted August 30, 2015 The "Kluson style" tulip tuners I'm familiar with all have the "Gibson" pearloid buttons. Maybe your tuners don't quite go back as far. I do love their looks! Yep, I think the tulips are more the 1960s type style. Before that, it was all about the pearloid or ivoroid buttons! I tried to find some pearloid/ivoroid buttons for Mini Grover Rotomatics to put on my J-15, but I didn't have much luck. Did find some nice chrome keystone buttons, but I wonder if they'll look funny since it's a small headstock instead of the bigger '70s style. I'm happy to see them apparently using that big headstock on the SJ-100 Walnut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boyd Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 The "Kluson style" tulip tuners I'm familiar with all have the "Gibson" pearloid buttons. Maybe your tuners don't quite go back as far. I do love their looks! I believe I got the pearloid tulips in the photo above in 2013, they are the ones in the Gibson link I posted. Got them at Guitar Center. Actually, the original tuners on that 1974 J-50 had the shiny nickel buttons, but I broke one of them 30 years ago and replaced it with something completely different. So when I had that guitar fixed up in 2013, I replaced them with the new pearloid buttons. But that was before I realized there are so many different varieties available from different places. If I was doing it today, I would replace them with replicas of the original nickel buttons since they are readily available. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse_Dylan Posted August 30, 2015 Author Share Posted August 30, 2015 Woops, I missed the Gibson link! Yeah, I think the Gibson ones are the ones I have. Must be. Yeah, these days we can pick whichever era we went! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-minor7 Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 Jesse If you wanna check true Birds - including tuners - before anything got vintage, watch here - 65 or pre-65 Birds in action, 1968 ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXivhZmNKzM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse_Dylan Posted August 31, 2015 Author Share Posted August 31, 2015 I was so busy watching, I forgot to look at the tuners and had to rewind. Yep, those sure do look like my tuners! Cream or antique white really. However, I must say, the Birds were much more yellow and red back then apparently! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.