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1969 Gibson J-45 repair...


martinclevelandcarie

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I recently purchased a 1969 Gibson J-45 from a friend of mine. It is in very good condition with your basic cracks in the finish and whatnot. It does have a small crack near the top of the body where your arm rests while playing. It does not go through the body though. In addition to it needing a new saddle it also needs new tuners. My friend who is a luthier took the old tuners off, cleaned them, and lubed them up but they are still incedibly stiff and it makes it very difficult to tune the guitar. What tuners would you suggest I replace them with? They are the white button type. I can't find any Grover tuners that seem match them. Any suggestions?

 

By the way I'm new here. I'm Martin from Indiana.

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The crack is easily cleated from the inside, the hardest part is reaching it to put a cleat on (been there). As to the outside of the crack it can be touched up with brushing lacquer and blended later (once it cures). It will likely never give any trouble after that.

 

As to tuners, it likely has Klusons and Stewart MacDonald sells Kluson reissues. Other companies sell them too, and they're all over ebay. It's a direct replacement, no drilling, etc. To me, that's always the best way, and if someone prefers others for performance or aesthetics, that's fine, but I urge them to think it through as most swaps are irreversible. The "new" Klusons are made in Korea but are very well made and all but impossible to tell from the original except they're new and they work.

 

And welcome to the forum.

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JLW: did you get those waverlys installed yet? i'm curious as to how they look and if they needed new holes.

 

I also just put some Waverlys on my jumbo' date=' a J-100. Here's a pic of the guitar:

 

[img']http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/3d114d7aca.jpg[/img]

 

and a close-up of the headstock:

 

227555ef01.jpg.

 

It did require drilling a new hole, which was covered up by the new tuner.

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