1960's Gibson J50 tuner gear

[Jerry Ryan]

I'll try to make a long story short. About 2 yrs ago a little lady in her early70;s came to a local jam. She was just learning had a mid 60's Gibson J50 she was trying to play, really bad buzz. I looked at it, the wooden bridge was broken and collapsed. The J50 was her Dad's. Anyway, I fixed it for her, set it up and all was well. Last week she brought me the guitar, said she couldn't tune it. The tuners were binding. The gears were worn out. Had become concave in the middle over the years.

Does anyone know where I can get replacement gears? I'd like to not replace the entire tuner.

[Matt Haugen]

Any local guitar shop should have a drawer full of these types of pieces, however, these are super cheap economy tuners and you can get a new set of these for about 7.00 on ebay, or about 12.00 locally. If you don't want to go to that extreme, I can see if I have on that will fit, and mail it to you.

[Jerry Ryan]

I didn't know if they were original or not. Didn't look like to J50's I'd seen, but there are no other tuner holes on back of headstock to fit the 3 in 1 I'd seen. Will check and see if she just wants new ones or not.

Thanks!   Jerry

[harrison phipps]

The tuning machine in the photo to is not the original Gibson tuner, they must have been replaced at some time with what appears to be an inexpensive tuner.  Given the high value of the guitar, I would recommend that she have original style tuners installed.  You can still get Kluson Delux 3 on a plate tuners, they are now made in Korea but they fit Perfectly & look exactly like the original.  If you are lucky they might cover up the screw holes of the current tuners.  

[Christian Johnson]

It looks like a cheap Ping tuner

[Jerry Ryan]

I'll check with the owner. I still wonder why there are no other screw holes...not even fixed ones. A reason I wondered about these. Need to keep looking to see what style may have been on this J50. These have the offset screw holes. I've seen J50's with 3 in 1 and with vertical screw holes.

Thanks, Jerry

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

I agree with my comrads : it's not the original ones, so, don't bother fix them. Get a new good set.

[Jerry Ryan]

Thanks! Jerry

[William F.Eden]

There is a place on the Internet that you can buy any Gibson parts new. Bill..............

[Jerry Ryan]

You are always available when I need input!

Thanks Bill!

Jerry

[Paul Verticchio]

You don't have to buy genuine Gibson parts.  They sell stock Kluson repro period correct tuners at a MUCH higher price.

Search for Kluson tuners & go with the lowest price.

best of luck

[Paul Verticchio]

BTW folks...

A GREAT business that carries a good supply of name-brand and generic guitar & amp parts is: CE Distribution. http://www.cedist.com 

They specialize in working with service providers & tech shops.  They only sell wholesale so apply for a dealer's account soon.  A State issued re-seller's license is not needed to get an account....or at least it wasn't when I got mine several years ago.  They're good folks!!!!!

BTW: their genuine Kluson replacement tuners are priced somewhere between $29 & $31 wholesale, as not to give away the actual price (;

Hope this was helpful (:

[Jerry Ryan]

I did some research on these tuners, The guitar is a 1967 by the sn. So I searched the net for a 1967 J50. There were two kinds that kept turning up as 'original' the ones this J50 has (see pic_ and the 3 in 1 style. So I kept digging and found some old mandolin open tuners I had and with a small washer as a shim under the gear they fit perfectly and solved my problem.