Official Luthiers Forum!

If the interest is there, then I'm probably going to do a run of wooden tuner buttons and possibly electric knobs as well. First, though, I'd need to know what the interest level is here and what shapes and tuners people would like supported! I already have Grover and Gotoh tuners reverse-engineered so I can make buttons to fit those shafts, but if people wanted them for Schallers or other tuners then I'd need to get my hands on a set of those as well. I'll be able to make them from sent wood, so you can have an offcut of a fretboard made into buttons!

So, here's what I need to know:

Who's interested
What woods
What button/knob shapes
What brand of tuners

It's possible to inlay and/or engrave (either the pearl or the wood itself) them, as well, if people are interested in that!

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

ME!

Gotoh 510s
Schallars M6

Waverlys Slot and solid styles

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Bob, you're my idol........

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Definitely interested

Gotoh
Koa
schaller style knobs

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--Kyle Burner--

I would be interested in some sets for Gotoh 510 minis, coco and madrose.

Bob, have you considered making inlaid Handel tuner buttons for mandolins? I bet you would get LOTS of requests for them if you posted this over on Mandolin Cafe.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I second that- Mad RW, Macasar Ebony & BRW

bob,

i totally love the idea. but . . . like everything else for us hobby folks working on a shoestring . . . how much would they cost? i know that different woods vary dramatically, but could you give us a ball park, or estimates for eir, koa, ebony and other very common binding woods (i think it would look so slick to match the tuner buttons to the binding scheme!).

phil

Is it possible to get the buttons off of sta-tites or any vintage style open back tuner? I would be down for small ovals for whichever of those can come off cleanly.

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

For knobs besides the Gotoh and Grover ones, I'll need a brave volunteer to mail me a tuner so I can reverse-engineer the mounts.

The wood probably won't factor into the price, there's only like a bridge-blank worth of wood in a set of tuners. The exception will be if there's a very small demand for a certain wood, meaning I'd have to buy more than I need.

I haven't determined the pricing yet, but it will most certainly be far below the pricing of other companies offering similar products.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

I too would be game for it.
Shaller m6 mini or Gotoh 510 , Hipshot,small buttons.oval style on all.
Rosewoods, maple,mahogany, limba,bubinga all sound good to me.
Any possibility of using acrylic,like fancy pen blanks with matching knobs?

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How long is that in luthyears?

Yes, Great idea Bob !! I would be interested in some buttons for
Gotoh 510's and mini's.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Gotoh 510 mini's. Pretty much the major flavors of rosewood would be great.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Hi Bob,

When you say you've got the Gotah's down pat, do you mean the "new" contour/organic shape? Those are very cool buttons.

If I can afford 'em, I'd be in.

Ive thought about making some using burl, but think they may crack in-use. So, my thought was to laminate a 3-piece sandwich, say maybe Amboyna Burl/black dyed veneer/Amboyna Burl. For ideas like that, could you give us the exact thickness dimension that you would want, to get the black veneer centered?

Cool idea!

Dennis
p.s. Does anyone know if you can order Gotah tuners knobless (and hopefully save some money)?

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Me too Bob! Same tuners as Lance...or heck, make the buttons, and I'll match the tuners with 'em!

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

Bob buddy I want a set of BRW buttons for Gotoh 510s to replace the genuine imitation black plastic buttons that came on them....

Cool idea!

Bob,
This sounds like a god-send.
I agree that the button/binding scheme is a great idea.
If we could save you a bit of time (=$) and cut out the sizes of wood needed, would that help?
(I am, of course, speaking of the situation where we supply our own wood.)

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

So....yeah...that's a lot more posts than I expected

I guess I'll need to get this project rolling faster than I was expecting!

Some good ideas were brought up. I will look into acrylized blanks both from Larry Davis as well as some of the knife supply places and Lee Valley. Those have the bonus that they won't need inserts to be strong enough. I haven't tested yet, but I'll figure out which woods will/won't need inserts to hold up to the use.

As well, I will give an exact spec for dimensioning wooden blanks. Most importantly of all, moreso than dimensioning, is that any laminates be made from uniformly thick pieces (ie: if I measure from the bottom of the blank to the start of the center laminate it will be exactly the same all around). That said, it would be a big help to have the blanks come here sized correctly.

I can program all the styles you want, though I'll probably only offer three or four styles this go-round. Once again, it's just a matter of someone sending me one to reverse engineer. They'll be $100 or (possibly a lot...) less a set, that's all I can guarantee until I cut some (which, as I mentioned above, will be sooner rather than later).

Keep the ideas and support coming in, I'm going to try to cut some protos (which'll let me set solid pricing) before next week (hopefully later this week or on the weekend!). Also, Paul Woolson gets a set for free for helping me out months ago with this project

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Bob, I'm interested, if the price is good. I use regular size Schallers.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

one more here!!

Gotohs

Koa, Brazilian,Macassar,Bloodwood....

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

One more vote for the 510s

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Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

Bob,
I'm in! I'd even help you sell them in US if that would be easier for you. I'd like to see the Gotoh 510's in the new shape done in rosewood, flamed koa, flamed maple, and coco and BRW. There is already someone out there selling buttons and charging around $75 a set, so I'd think you should be able to get them down to $50 or $60 a set. I also think making some of wood types for waverly's would be really popular too. You can already get koa and ebony for them, so some of the other woods would be good. If you are interested in doing some mandolin buttons, I have a set Grover F5 tuners I can send you. Good luck!

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

OK, I've got Grover, Gotoh (the ear-looking ones from the 510s), keystone, oval, and Schaller style buttons programmed in CAD.

I have the Grover and Gotoh buttons here, but it would be a great help if someone could mail me a keystone and/or a Schaller button so I can get the dimensions on those right. I'm working from pictures right now. If you're the first to mail me one of those, you get half off one set of buttons

As Tracy alluded, I don't think it'll be too hard to get in the $60-70 range with wood here and the $50-60 range with sent wood properly prepared. I haven't done the toolpaths yet, but that's a realistic baseline. There will, of course, be volume incentives

If there're any other shapes (waverleys?) then I'll need a sample to CAD them up. If there was a good chunk of interest (at least 15-20 sets) then we could also look at making some custom ones in metal (with some fancy engraving, possibly?) and having them gold or chrome plated. The main issue is that I don't think we could get them plated economically until the quantity was reasonably high.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Bob, are you giving the option for JUST BUTTONS as well? Some may prefer to invest int the buttons now and tuners later.

I like the M6 & Goto 510's not sure of the woods yet...

Mini 510's as well?

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Bob, I'm with Burton and would like to get the vintage open back (Waverly oval) style buttons.

Though I will wait until SM comes out with their new 3-on-a-plate tuners (see Todd's post). If they are only offering an ivoroid knob I'd surely be interested in a few. No plastic on my guitars please. Thanks Bob!