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grovers are imports- silent conspiracy !


jvi

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I have Grovers on my SJ200, J180, Hummingbird, Hummingbird 12 and AJ.

 

I trust these machineheads, I would (and do) pick up these guitars with confidence over 200 nights a year and have zero tuning issues.

 

The only other tuners I feel this confident in are the Stewmac Golden Age units I have on my ‘67 J45 and ‘68 F25.

 

When I fly into a country to play a gig (with my Grover equipped guitars!) I’m an import too, so it’d be a bit hypocritical of me to carp about whatever country my machineheads are made/built/assembled in.

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are you into just buying the grovers off those gits? seriously, asian tuners shouldnt be on nice usa guitars imo, sorry if you dont like or agree with my opinion...

Don't get all pissy and offended. It has nothing to do with agreeing or disagreeing with your opinion. I'm just joking, assuming you can take a joke.............I'd like all of my guitars to be home-grown, but that's pretty much an impossibility in today's world. I'm not one to be upset over tuners, so long as they work well and I have no issues with my Gibson tuners.

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Is it Gibson's fault (or Martin's, or Taylor's or Guild's et al) that Grover long ago made a business decision to move production overseas? I don't think so. Grover, operating in the free market, decided that's what it should do to improve its bottom line. You may not like the decision, but that's how businesses operate. If you want American-made tuners on your guitar, slap on a set of Waverlys.

 

Yeah, it would be nice if Grovers were still made in America, and it would be nice if Gibsons came with American-made tuners. Frankly, with all the questionable product and business decisions Gibson has made over the past couple of decades, I'm just glad it is still around.

 

Grovers may not be made in America, but you can bet American (and union) longshoremen unloaded the crates of Grovers from freighters and American truckers delivered them to where they were headed. From an American employment standpoint, you've traded one job for another.

 

I've been fortunate enough over the past few years to be able to commission two different Minnesota luthiers to build two guitars and a mandolin. I wanted to keep the money local. Still, they couldn't avoid using some foreign-made (or grown) parts in the instruments. That's just the way it is these days. But I felt good knowing I paid two guys to ply their trade in my community. If they can do that but still need to slap Grovers on the instruments, I think the U.S. still comes out ahead. (That said, from an aesthetic point of view, the only guitars Grover Original Rotomatics ever looked "right" on were Martins. On a Gibson slope? No way.)

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lets hope Gibson opens in mexico or asia and then you all can be happy...

 

Aren’t we all happy already? That’s the impression I got from this thread, that nobody was particularly upset about the tuner thing.

 

FWIW, if moving manufacturing to a more economically viable location was a strategy that saved Gibson from the horrible financial death that it recently bodyswerved, I’d say that would be a good thing.

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I don't have a problem with imports HOWEVER.....what I don't like is when a USA company starts charging near USA prices for their imports. Fender has been doing it for years, in fact when they first started making MIM they would make it kind of hard to know where things were made....they've gotten better in that regard over the years. Imported Gibsons are called Epiphones, so, so far they have done a better job at making things clear. USA Labor has always been much higher than China, etc. (could be anywhere these days). My only point is I have no problem with imports, I own USA, MIM, China, Korean guitars myself. I just expect the imports to be considerably less expensive. generally they are these days mostly because the USA prices went way up. BUT smaller things like imported tuners, they generally are similar prices to USA made, so the bottom line is simply that the companies are making more money on them. Same goes for other smaller items and pedals too for that matter. The imports should be generally cheaper is all.

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Crappy knock-off Gibson Klusons on my 2013 LG-2 are made in Japan.

 

Better Kluson-branded knock-offs are made in Korea.

 

What a strange world.

 

Hence the reason I continually scrounge for originals. At the moment, I am pretty much covered for any Gibson built between the mid-1930s and later 1950s albeit one set has had the plastic buttons replaced with Indian Head nickels. While these are well built, they are not the most sensitive tuners out there. You are talking about something like a 12:1 gear ratio on the old Klusons. I was putting one of my Wartime guitars into Open G the other night (I had a sudden urge to play Alvin Youngblood Hart's "Big Mama's Door") and I had to do some traveling to get it there.

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Sarcasm? Wit? Here?

 

To me, complaining about the tuners that come on a guitar is like those reviewers who complain about the strings that came on the guitar they just bought. Maybe I am atypical, but I think whenever I have acquired a new or used guitar, the very first thing I did when I got it home was CHANGE THE STRINGS. I don't care what strings it came with, because I'm going to put my standard strings on it right away.

 

Similarly, changing the tuners is something else I can do if need be. Same goes with things like he nut, saddle and bridge pins.

 

What I CAN'T change is the quality of the wood and the build quality, and those are the qualities I bought the guitar for. I didn't buy it for the tuners, which I can change. If I don't like Grovers, I can use something else.

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Sarcasm? Wit? Here?

 

To me, complaining about the tuners that come on a guitar is like those reviewers who complain about the strings that came on the guitar they just bought. Maybe I am atypical, but I think whenever I have acquired a new or used guitar, the very first thing I did when I got it home was CHANGE THE STRINGS. I don't care what strings it came with, because I'm going to put my standard strings on it right away.

 

Similarly, changing the tuners is something else I can do if need be. Same goes with things like he nut, saddle and bridge pins.

 

What I CAN'T change is the quality of the wood and the build quality, and those are the qualities I bought the guitar for. I didn't buy it for the tuners, which I can change. If I don't like Grovers, I can use something else.

 

I'll second all of this.

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This tuner stuff is just par for the course. Remember the great pickguard placement debate. And who could forget the laminate bridge debacle with Gibson darn near being accused of heresy. It seems at time we forget why exactly we are playing guitar - to make a righteous noise.

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This tuner stuff is just par for the course. Remember the great pickguard placement debate. And who could forget the laminate bridge debacle with Gibson darn near being accused of heresy. It seems at time we forget why exactly we are playing guitar - to make a righteous noise.

Amen, brother!

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clique... edit- apologies for letting **** grow to a **** show, I was originally trying to say Im not thrilled that gibson uses import tuners, Ive had gibson guitars for decades and will all-ways,and other brands too,...ps I havnt swapped the rotos fwiw

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