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Relic'd Waverly tuners on J45


passthej45

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.. so anyway , I put some Waverly open backs on my J45. I don't think these were ever on J45s, but I really love them. 60 years from now , folks will be on this forum trying to figure out why a 2009 J45 from somebody's grandma's closet had odd tuners.........ah, they'll just blame it on Gibson's inconsistency !

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very nice! i did the same thing to mine a couple of years ago. mine had the white plastic button closed-back tuners from Gibson. they worked great but i just never really liked the way they looked at all. i was having the guitar setup at my shop and had them swap the tuners. mine aren't relic'd, just nickle, they look great both ways.

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I put a set of open-back nickel Grovers (very much like your Waverleys) on my '48 J-45 back in 1970. They are very nicely naturally relic'ed right now. Got rid of those slippery old three-on-a-plate Klusons. Probably knocked $500 off the value of the guitar, but it stays in tune. And no, I didn't save the Klusons.

 

J45 Nick

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I like the looks man.

I think different owners look at beauty differently

I personally love the gotoh plastic tulip tuners

Paul Weller has those on his 70's(Norlin) J45 and that guitar sounds killer dispite the fact it was made in the 70's

 

but I like the fact that you made the instrument look better to your own eyes .

And i like the look . cool thing you said about someone finding the guitar in 60 years. the guitars we own today are the vintage guitars of tommorrow :). I doubt there will be that many gibsons from the 20's and 30's in 60 years .

 

Lol imagine the thought of a VIntage "true vintage" gibson XD

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Paul Weller has those on his 70's(Norlin) J45 and that guitar sounds killer dispite the fact it was made in the 70's

 

Hey Juan Carlos,

 

I admit I have been buying guitars influenced by my love for some artists. One of the reasons why I wanted a Gibson was that Paul Weller plays some of them: that's really cool. And I think Paul Weller is, well, the guv'nor! It's probably a childish thing to do but, what can I say...?

 

I bought a Gibson Hummingbird Artist and upgraded it quite heavily: new HB pickguard, bone saddle and nut, new LR Baggs M1 pickup (instead of the stock Element piezo which I really didn't like) AND Waverly tuners, albeit not relic'd. They have nice oval ivoroid knobs and I think they look great with the black Gibson headtsock. They are historically not correct but they work fantastic.

 

That's entertainment, mate!

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Hey Juan Carlos,

 

I admit I have been buying guitars influenced by my love for some artists. One of the reasons why I wanted a Gibson was that Paul Weller plays some of them: that's really cool. And I think Paul Weller is, well, the guv'nor! It's probably a childish thing to do but, what can I say...?

 

I bought a Gibson Hummingbird Artist and upgraded it quite heavily: new HB pickguard, bone saddle and nut, new LR Baggs M1 pickup (instead of the stock Element piezo which I really didn't like) AND Waverly tuners, albeit not relic'd. They have nice oval ivoroid knobs and I think they look great with the black Gibson headtsock. They are historically not correct but they work fantastic.

 

That's entertainment, mate!

 

I do that too :) . I like HIM and Rolling stones , My best friend loves Oasis ,

 

Ville from HIM uses a Hummingbird and J 200 .

Liam from Oasis uses a Hummingbird too (Noel uses J200)

Steve Craddock who plays with Paul W uses J200 too

 

so I kinda get you . I just ordered a custom lefty Hummingbird through Fuller's

to look like the one Liam plays in the songbird video .And I had a plaque put on the back of the head stock which reads "The Sacrament" a song by HIM

that guitar combines my love for HIM and her love for Oasis

I guess it's normal to desire the guitars you're idols play :)

 

and yes Paul Weller is kick *** man

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Looks very nice! I've always been a fan of Waverly machines and have a set on my 165.......well.......it's around here somewhere........

 

They are very good tuners and will hold tune as good or better than any out there. Did you age them, or have it done at a shop? Looks like the guitar has some catching up to do!

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  • 3 years later...

Reviving an old thread. I'm ready to hit the purchase button for some Waverly's (relic, also). I have a 2007 J-45 with the Grovers and I don't like the play or deadspace they've developed. Anyway, all research points to

the need to do 2 things for these to work, 1) buying the bushings 2) drilling a 2nd hole. I'm fine with doing both, but just want to confirm. Any other "gotcha's" I need to know about? Yours look excellent on that headstock by the way.

Looking forward to mine.

 

Mike

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Reviving an old thread. I'm ready to hit the purchase button for some Waverly's (relic, also). I have a 2007 J-45 with the Grovers and I don't like the play or deadspace they've developed. Anyway, all research points to

the need to do 2 things for these to work, 1) buying the bushings 2) drilling a 2nd hole. I'm fine with doing both, but just want to confirm. Any other "gotcha's" I need to know about? Yours look excellent on that headstock by the way.

Looking forward to mine.

 

Mike

 

Mike: I put the ivoroid Waverlys on my J-45, and the only issue was seating the bushings properly. A couple didn't fit the pegholes right off and I had to very finely sand them. It's a delicate job...sand too much and the bushing will fall out. I still have a couple that want to creep up when the post is under pressure from the string. A lot of forumites have done this painlessly, but if I had to do it over again I would have a tech do the installation.

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Mike: I put the ivoroid Waverlys on my J-45, and the only issue was seating the bushings properly. A couple didn't fit the pegholes right off and I had to very finely sand them. It's a delicate job...sand too much and the bushing will fall out. I still have a couple that want to creep up when the post is under pressure from the string. A lot of forumites have done this painlessly, but if I had to do it over again I would have a tech do the installation.

 

 

So, the bushings are definitely needed it seems. I'll take precausions when fiddling with my headstock. Thanks for the heads up.

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PasstheJ45….did you have to do much filling, patching drilling, etc to install, the installation looks so clean, like they were always there!! Did you take any pics of the install????

I had them do it at the shop....I'm way too chicken. Consequently no install pics, sorry.

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I've had everything from locking sperzels to open-back vintage style, with all the Schallers and Grovers in between. Every one of them tuned the guitars they were on, so I see the choice of tuners coming down to weight and aesthetics. Those look like the tuners that came on my OJ (mine aren't reliced). I like those for vintage-looking acoustics. I like the Schaller/Grover/Sperzel thing for electrics. Don't like plastic buttons.

 

P

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Reviving an old thread. I'm ready to hit the purchase button for some Waverly's (relic, also). I have a 2007 J-45 with the Grovers and I don't like the play or deadspace they've developed.

 

My main question woudld be why put "reliced" tuners on what is essentially a new guitar. The value of reliced tuners is generally found when you have an old road tested instrument on which new tuners might look out of place.

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I think they look nice, but would agree with the sentiment of putting relic finished tuners on a new guitar. When I replaced them on my 2008 J-50, I went with nickel instead of relic. But that's all a personal thing of course.

 

The photo of the rear is interesting however. When choosing tuners for my J-50, I printed up scale versions of a couple different options from the drawings online (although I was using 3-on-a-strip style). I found that my first choice would actually overlap the serial number, so I went with a different style that leaves a little space for the number. So that would be my only criticism of your job. It looks kind of wrong to have them touching the serial number. But I am probably just being too picky! [biggrin]

 

I guess Gibson started stamping the number lower on the headstock at some point?

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My main question woudld be why put "reliced" tuners on what is essentially a new guitar. The value of reliced tuners is generally found when you have an old road tested instrument on which new tuners might look out of place.

 

My guitar has been road tested and doesn't look new, so new Waverly's would stand out like a sore thumb at this point. Otherwise, I would get the pretty, shiney ones.

Also, I'm not in the collector's camp, by any means. I use my guitars as tools (and of course they're all an extension of me, etc.), so I'm not concerned with what they'll be worth down the line.

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Here's a shot of the tuners installed on my J-45.

Installation was easy-peazy. I bought the Waverly jig for drilling the 2nd hole, but it wasn't totally necessary. A nice safeguard though, and hey, who doesn't like

a cool tool? The installation took much less than an hour, and I'm happy to say they're aligned perfectly. Money well spent.

 

Note: The Stewmac guy on the phone said the waverly's would drop right in, but I was suspicious and bought the larger bushings anyway. It's a good thing I did. They we're needed!

Seriously the best (and best looking) tuners out there. Gibson should take note. Save the roto's for the electrics, they don't belong on the acoustics.

post-57428-081574800 1404111386_thumb.jpg

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Here's a shot of the tuners installed on my J-45.

Installation was easy-peazy. I bought the Waverly jig for drilling the 2nd hole, but it wasn't totally necessary. A nice safeguard though, and hey, who doesn't like

a cool tool? The installation took much less than an hour, and I'm happy to say they're aligned perfectly. Money well spent.

 

Note: The Stewmac guy on the phone said the waverly's would drop right in, but I was suspicious and bought the larger bushings anyway. It's a good thing I did. They we're needed!

Seriously the best (and best looking) tuners out there. Gibson should take note. Save the roto's for the electrics, they don't belong on the acoustics.

Can you show us a picture of the Waverly jig? I like what i see. The Klusons on my TVmay be looking at retirement.

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