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1967 Gibson J-50ADJ tuners


Hamps93

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Hi! I bought a 1967 Gibson J-50ADJ last month. The tuners are not the usual 3-on-a-plate Klusons which would be standard on the J50's (see attached pic).

These tuners are slipping, so I ordered brand new 3-on-a-plate Klusons which would be the period-correct ones with my mind set on changing it back to stock. Although after some research, I've found a few J-50s from this period with the exact same tuners as mine. 

Does anyone have an idea if these chrome-tuners were original on some J-50s back in the 60s? I can't really locate any potential covered up screw holes for the plate-Klusons. And what are they, I'm assuming some sort of Kluson? I wanna keep the guitars as much as original, so I will have to find replacement for these.

Thanks!

rsz_1foto_2020-09-15_10_04_23-min-min-2.jpg

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IMO they're not original.  The open back tuners on those guitars look impossibly clean and shiny for being 50+ years old.  All of those guitars are currently in Japan and are overpriced (at least for the American market) by about 100% anyway.  

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Admittedly I have not spent a lot of time with Gibsons built after 1960 my experience being limited to 12 strings.  And we have have learned that when it comes to Gibsons there always seems to be  an exception to the rule.  Just a while back I learned, based on examples,  there was an entire run of serial numbers for a 1969 guitar which none of the  books or sites had made note of.  Then again, virtually all of the expert info on Gibsons seems to  come from the same original sources so any omissions or gaps are simply perpetuated.

Somebody with better eyes than mine though needs to look at the headstock shot closely.  It does look like there might be  small holes poking out underneath and just to the inside of the screws on the tuners on the upper pair.  But even if  so, Gibson could have originally routed the guitar for the standard three on a plate Klusons but used something else on a couple of batches of guitars.  That so many examples were found with the exact same "replacement" tuners does make you have to wonder.

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These tuners were 100% original equipment on many Gibson and Epiphone acoustics built in 1967, and they are of Japanese origin.

In  particular, I’ve seen them on numerous roundshoulders from that year (including Texans), as well as the B-25 and it’s Epi Cortez clone.

Edit:  Again, these were only utilized by Gibson for a period of time in 1967.  If you’re lucky, the headstock hole spacing might not have been changed, and 3-on-a-plate Klusons might drop in - covering many of the holes.  Hope it ends up being an easy swap!

Edited by bobouz
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On 9/15/2020 at 4:34 AM, Hamps93 said:

Hi! I bought a 1967 Gibson J-50ADJ last month. The tuners are not the usual 3-on-a-plate Klusons which would be standard on the J50's (see attached pic).

These tuners are slipping, so I ordered brand new 3-on-a-plate Klusons which would be the period-correct ones with my mind set on changing it back to stock. Although after some research, I've found a few J-50s from this period with the exact same tuners as mine. 

Does anyone have an idea if these chrome-tuners were original on some J-50s back in the 60s? I can't really locate any potential covered up screw holes for the plate-Klusons. And what are they, I'm assuming some sort of Kluson? I wanna keep the guitars as much as original, so I will have to find replacement for these.

Thanks!

rsz_1foto_2020-09-15_10_04_23-min-min-2.jpg

That headstock side flare seems excessive for a '67 roundshoulder J-50. Got a picture of the whole guitar, from the front?

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