SteveFord Posted June 5, 2020 Share Posted June 5, 2020 (edited) For those of us with Firebirds from the years in between the banjo and the current mini Grover tuners, be VERY careful with the Steinberger tuners. I was changing strings earlier today and both the Low E and Low A string tuners broke. I heard this loud SNAP! noise as I was loosening the strings and one tuner broke right in two, the other one is all wobbly in the bushings and won't hold the string tight. I've had guitars for over 45 years and never had to replace tuners before. I see why they stopped using them. You can't buy them individually from Gibson (Stewart Mac has them back ordered) so it looks like I'll have four back ups which is probably a good thing to have lying around. From reading all the reviews maybe I just got a bad batch? My 2013 Firebird was fine so who knows. Even so, I wish they would have stayed with the banjo tuners, I liked the looks better and I never had them break when I was removing strings. Edited June 5, 2020 by SteveFord Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FemmeParallell Posted June 5, 2020 Share Posted June 5, 2020 omg, first time i read about tuners breaking! that sucks...agree, banjo tuners are better! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveFord Posted June 5, 2020 Author Share Posted June 5, 2020 (edited) I'll post some pictures when I put the replacements in. One came out in two pieces and I had no success in repairing it properly, the other one won't clamp the string properly. The string will get clamped tight, when you tune it the string gets pulled down into the bushing. As soon as the string gets pulled down into the bushing the string goes all loose and sloppy. Just weird. I should mention that I'm at least the third owner of this guitar so who knows what happened to it before I bought it a few years ago. The tuners on this one have always been weird, sometimes they'd work normally and sometimes they'd stick and I'd have to press them down to get them to work right. I think I'll just replace them all in one shot and keep the originals for spares. Edited June 5, 2020 by SteveFord Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larsongs Posted June 5, 2020 Share Posted June 5, 2020 What a drag..... If you bought it new they should be covered by Gibsons' Lifetime Warranty.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveFord Posted June 5, 2020 Author Share Posted June 5, 2020 But I didn't and Gibson had them in stock so next week I'll replace them all and hope for the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larsongs Posted June 6, 2020 Share Posted June 6, 2020 6 hours ago, SteveFord said: But I didn't and Gibson had them in stock so next week I'll replace them all and hope for the best. I was just thinking about changing the Strings on my V with Steinberger's.. Think I'll wait... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grog Posted June 6, 2020 Share Posted June 6, 2020 I have a 2012 V, no problems yet. I thought I bought a used guitar from CME, but it still had the plastic on the pickguards etc... It might have been a similar sale like they did with the ES Les Pauls in later years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bill Posted June 6, 2020 Share Posted June 6, 2020 19 hours ago, FemmeParallell said: omg, first time i read about tuners breaking! that sucks...agree, banjo tuners are better! Where have you been hiding? 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveFord Posted June 6, 2020 Author Share Posted June 6, 2020 Other people have just had these fail like this? I know that those set screws come loose and fall out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larsongs Posted June 8, 2020 Share Posted June 8, 2020 Was there a bad batch of Steinberger's at a certain time? I will say this for the Steinberger's, they are ideal to tune your Guitar on the exact dime.... Smooth.. Although, I have never changed the Strings? I'm lousy about changing Strings.. My least favorite thing about playing Guitar... If they still sound good I don't change them... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveFord Posted June 8, 2020 Author Share Posted June 8, 2020 (edited) The English leaves a little to be desired but that's the problem, that little pin (part number 32). The good news is you can buy replacement tuners on Gibson's site so aren't stuck bidding on used ones on eBay. Edited June 8, 2020 by SteveFord Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveFord Posted June 10, 2020 Author Share Posted June 10, 2020 New tuners showed up today, at least they're easy enough to install. Tuners come with the Allen wrench, my garage supplied the 11mm open end. https://www.stewmac.com/articles-and-video/online-resources/hardware-installation/steinberger-gearless-tuners-installation-instructions.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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