Kluson-style tuners--Honest opinions on function?

[bayoubengal1954]

All I can say is that I've never had any trouble with my Gotohs that I used to replace the keystone tuners on my Southern Jumbo TV (I also replaced the white buttons that came with the Gotohs with cream colored ones to matched the aged look of the TV).

[qblue]

Hi.

 

I've had only one guitar with the Kluson replicas on it, a 2012 Gibson Les Paul 60's Tribute. My guitar tech took a look at them because while I playing a song either the D or G string will go flat. I suspected a problem. He thought it was the way I mounted the the string on the peghead post. The tech restrung the D& G strings and it played well for a couple weeks. Recently it has been detuning again, often the G string during a song after I meticulously tuned the string. I considered the Nut as a possible problem , but the tech didn't think so. I has suggested these Klusons weren't the best for staying in tune, but he again thought it was my stringing technique. But because it is happening again, with the Tech's technique, I think the only constants are the Klusons being the culprit.

 

My ES-347 and L6-S have tulip shaped button Grovers (in gold on the ES-347, in the avatar) and those things are beasts for staying in tune. The LP goes out of tune while chording, and while I do like doing Don Felder 1.5 step bends, it detunes with chords.

 

I have had Schallers on both my strats and they stay in tune with floating tremolos. I have locking tuners on my Strat ultra and Schaller M6 minituners on the 1970 Strat. You won't have a problem with these. The Ping vintage tuners on my Telecaster are the best tuner I've had.

 

So Dylan I agree with you. Something is fishy with these Kluson tuners. In 2012, who was the manufacturer?

[OldCowboy]

Gibson used Klusons historically because they were economical to install stock. No big mystery there if you had much contact with the company back in the day. When import stuff began to show up around 1970, many of us thought the tuners looked upscale and began converting our Gibsons to Grover tuners whether needed or not. Most didn't really need replaced, but we wanted the look. The interesting thing is that, except for button deterioration, the 1950s/1960s Klusons that escaped the wave of change generally still work pretty well. You'll find the occasional abberation, but that's the exception. In the late 1980s another replacement wave swept through due to deteriorating buttons on originals and the fact that 1970s stock Gibson tuners, with the exception of high-end models tended to be cheap crap, and some from the 1980s were even worse. I've replaced formerly changed originals on some of my vintage guitars with era-proper originals (usually with new buttons) and have replaced buttons on some that still carried the originals. IMHO, that's the best route if you can manage it. Otherwise, reissue Klusons (usually from Elderly) have worked fine with no issues. The retro-fit bushings are wonderful, saving all that plugging and redrilling. I still maintain that getting the vintage look back or not is mostly a matter of personal taste.