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E-minor7

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Looks like a Kluson tuner tip (double ring?)showing the effects of age. Not sure it's possible to pin down the year. Probably late '50s-early '60s?

Five-minute Google search shows that this one is actually a '59 single ring tip. Scary what you can find online in a couple of minutes. So I was off by a couple of years, and it didn't really look like a single-ring bottom.

 

Celluloid does funny things over time, but shrinkage like this is pretty common in that period. Fortunately, repalcement tips are readily available--but save those crumbled ones if you can.

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Cake, candy, toffee, sweet tooth. The old '59 Kluson is right. Found it on this site http://www.doctorvin...0s_klusons.html and sat up the game as an excuse to show the poignant pictures.

Here some of the text from the page -

 

The Incredible Shrinking Buttons

 

One of the interesting things about the tuning buttons is that certain years appear to have had batches which had a slightly different chemical formula for the plastic the buttons were cast from. Thesestart appearing on 1959 guitars. Something funny in the plastic hasthese buttons age less 'gracefully' than the buttons before or after.As the chemical mixture deteriorated, the buttons became a dark, reddish-brown, shrank, and got very crystalline and flaky. The deterioration can get so bad that the button reaches a point where it will literally crumble in your fingers as you attempt to tune the guitar.

59Klusontuner.jpg

 

59Klusontuner2.jpg

 

59Klusontuner3-1.jpg

 

59Klusontuner4.jpg

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Wow, I got two negative points for that. Doesn't everyone like baclava?

What a harsh assessment. ksd seems to like the thought of baclava. I actually would be curious to taste this to me unknown piece of cake-work.

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Wow, I got two negative points for that. Doesn't everyone like baclava?

 

Very interesting detail - Your 2 red lanterns disappeared. Did 2 people regret, , , or was it the same person who gave you the 2 in the first place. What happened in the mind of this/these persons - will he/she/they explain - how do one remove a lantern - and was it all a mistake ??????

 

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Seen a 'fix' for these type pf buttons recently which involved the owner dipping them in a super-glue solution, setting, then re-dipping in a thinner glue solution and leaving to dry, solid, function and fully sealed afterwards. It was a nice bit of handy work..

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Peoples ingenuity is incredible.

 

 

Seen a 'fix' for these type pf buttons recently which involved the owner dipping them in a super-glue solution, setting, then re-dipping in a thinner glue solution and leaving to dry, solid, function and fully sealed afterwards. It was a nice bit of handy work..

 

I would call it candy work -

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Very interesting detail - Your 2 red lanterns disappeared. Did 2 people regret, , , or was it the same person who gave you the 2 in the first place. What happened in the mind of this/these persons - will he/she/they explain - how do one remove a lantern - and was it all a mistake ??????

 

I gave her a plus one because I thought she had a bad rap.

 

1)She can eat baklava if she wants. If she likes it she should.

 

2)The tuner button looks just like baklava

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Seen a 'fix' for these type pf buttons recently which involved the owner dipping them in a super-glue solution, setting, then re-dipping in a thinner glue solution and leaving to dry, solid, function and fully sealed afterwards. It was a nice bit of handy work..

 

Time will tell. If the structure of the plastic continues to change inside the cyanoacrylate "shell," this fix may not be permanent.

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Time will tell. If the structure of the plastic continues to change inside the cyanoacrylate "shell," this fix may not be permanent.

I had a bit of a go-around on this topic with Charlie Gelber (es-335.org). He has dipped in or painted these with super glue. The question becomes whether you should destroy the original buttons (remove them) if they are useless and put on repro buttons, dip the originals, or put on repro tuners and remove and save the original tuners with the buttons in their deteriorated state to keep the guitar "original" for the future.

 

Not a straightforward answer on that one. It depends on how much of an "original" vs. "functional" fanatic you are. I think once the buttons crumble and become non-functional, you might as well remove them and put on repro buttons. Maybe store the old pieces in a baggie (where they will continue to deteriorate in any case), like I did with the crumbled bits of the 1948 plastic endpin on my J 45.

 

I haven't seen this happen as much on the Kluson three-on-a-plates with oval buttons, so the plastic used on those is clearly different from the semi-transparent celluloid (?) used on the individual keystone-style single-ring and double-ring Klusons.

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Not a straightforward answer on that one. It depends on how much of an "original" vs. "functional" fanatic you are.

 

Thefirstownersteeth.jpg

As I see it there is a point where you should stop freaking about original tuners.

Take them off, replace them, put them aside in a little tincan and forget the tincan a while. I know new plast parts could probably go on these ones, but in my eyes the limit is long crossed.

Did someone say dentist. . .

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As I see it there is a point where you should stop freaking about original tuners. [/size][/font]

Take them off, replace them, put them aside in a little tincan and forget the tincan a while. I know new plast parts could probably go on these ones, but in my eyes the limit is long crossed.

Did someone say dentist. . .

 

That was the same conclusion I came to. Pull off the originals and store them, and hope you don't forget where you put them when it comes time to sell a vintage guitar for top dollar. In my book, that's sort of a general rule for original parts that are damaged beyond repair, particularly if you can find or make identical repro replacements. Examples might be tuners, a split bridge, or an impossibly-warped pickguard.

 

My 1948 J-45 is getting a re-makeover of its 1968-1970 Gibson/Nicholson makeover right now. I stripped the cherry-burst top Gibson put on in 1968 back to natural about 1970, and replaced the thick 60s-style pickguard with a hybrid Martin/Gibson teardrop pickguard at the same time. Did a bunch of other stuff back then, too, but that's a story for another time.

 

Ross Teigen is now undoing this and replicating the original 1948 bridge, 'burst, and pickguard, all of which were thrown away by Gibson in their 1968 "repair/restoration" of this instrument. Fortunately, I had pictures of the guitar before the 1968-1970 massacre. This poor beast will have had more cosmetic surgery than Joan Rivers by the time she comes home this time.

 

Ya gotta love a guitar to do that!

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I used to get some really good Baklava from a Greek pizza joint 'many moons ago'... and yes...I have had 'shrinking tuner button syndrome' as well!

All in all, I,d rather eat the Baklava and hope my teeth don,t rot.

I had a pickguard go to the same 'meltdown' mode on a '68 Byrdland electric. It started to crystallize and I had to put it in 'isolation'. Put off gasses that would tarnish the gold hardware and screw the the finish also! Nasty stuff when it starts to decompose....Rod

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I gave her a plus one because I thought she had a bad rap.

 

1)She can eat baklava if she wants. If she likes it she should.

 

2)The tuner button looks just like baklava

 

Thank you Stein! [smile]

 

Em7, if you've never had baclava you need to get yourself into a Turkish deli and buy some baclava. You will not be disappointed. And yes, the tuner button DOES look like baclava [biggrin] Thank you for bailing me out of the red lanterns!

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Em7, if you've never had baclava you need to get yourself into a Turkish deli and buy some baclava. You will not be disappointed. And yes, the tuner button DOES look like baclava [biggrin] Thank you for bailing me out of the red lanterns!

Hehe, it shouldn't cost you or anybody red light to participate in an E-minor7-QUIZ. As the host for this game I hold a certain responsibility.

 

Looked up baclava some days ago and remembered it from here and there. The local Kurdish grocer introduced a glass aquarium with delicacies a year ago, but unfortunately had to close it down. Isn't the Turkish bakery hyper sweet. Have an idea it would make several teeth turn into vintage Klusons if the taste caught on.

 

 

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