VinceForcier - Posted - 09/23/2012:  08:11:35

OK, thought I would post something useful.

I have seen many posts on 2 tab tuners, keep or replace, and discussion of how bad they are.

This is for those of you who would like to keep your 2 tabs on your vintage banjo. they CAN be refurbished to be as good as new. DO NOT assume you can lubricate them effectively without taking them apart. You will see when you get inside how futile this is.

1. Take all 4 tuners off. If you are missing any bushings, make note to order new ones

(StewMac has the ones with the hex top, look real close to original stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Tuner_...hing.html)

At this point, you may notice 1 or more tuners come off in pieces, this is especially true if you were missing a bushing.

2. Take off knobs Make note of the order and direction of each piece. SAVE ALL PARTS order Keith tuner replacement leather washers (x4, Janet Davis has them, unfortunately StewMac does not). They work great on these. The ones on your 2 tabs are probably gone, worn out, or greasy. Don't try to re-use the old ones.

3. Disassemble all tuners. Open a bench vise JUST wide enough for the tabs to sit completely on top (about 5/8-3/4 inch). Set the tuner in the gap with the string post facing down (knob shaft facing up). Get a small block of hardwood, place it on top of the tuner knob shaft (brass piece that the plastic knob was on). Give it a solid tap. The force will push off the cover plate.

4. You now have 4 pieces (not including the knob pieces removed earlier): a small gear with tuner knob shaft, a large gear with the tuner post that the string wraps around, a back housing, and a front cover. You will now see that it would be quite impossible for oil placed in the front to reach the gears. You will probably also notice that the grease has dried out and there is probably some hard residue. Put all the pieces in solvent (mineral spirits). I include the back spring and nickel ring that came off with the knob.

5. Clean, Clean, Clean, toothbrush, time, a dental pick to get the dried goop out, more time.

6. when all parts are clean and dry, it is time to inspect for damage. every set I have repaired has at least 1 tuner with a bent back housing. This happens if the tuner gets knocked. You want the back of the housing to be flat, so get a 1/4" flat punch, a flat steel surface, and GENTLY tap around the hole where the distortion is. With a few taps, the back of your housing will be flat.

6A. It goes without saying that if any gears are damaged, teeth broken, etc, stop here. I have never seen any this far gone, and I believe these tuners are less prone to damage than worm gear tuners. That said, I would not put a tuner back on that had clear damage to the gears.

7. lubricate the gear ONLY. Use a quality grease (not oil) that will not separate. I use a grease for camera mechanisms. EXTREMELY high quality. I would not trust any auto grease, Vaseline, etc. I put a little dab in the large gear, and run the small gear around in it. You do not want to over grease, as this will cause grease to migrate out the front and foul the wood.  You just want enough to hold to the gears.

8. Re-assemble the gears and housing. Get a smaller (about 3/16) flat punch. Lay the back of the housing on a flat steel surface with a hole in it (I have a small bench anvil), a piece of very hard wood may also work. Drop the small gear through the hole in the rear housing, and into the hole in your work surface, place the larger gear in the housing, place the front cover on the housing and tap it into place, working your way around the cover. There is a shoulder on the back housing, so you cannot tap too far. this is meant to be a press fit. If you have a small press and the tooling to do it, I suppose a press would be better. I just tap around the cover until it is fully seated. It is a good tight fit, I could not take one apart by hand.

9. Use the Keith tuner washer, re-assemble the knob; leather washer, nickel ring, spring, knob, washer, screw. All of these parts are important DO NOT lose or ignore any of them.

10. Just like any tuner, tension is adjusted by tightening the knob screw. This is a 2 to 1 ratio, so the string tension will want to pull you out of tune. It takes a bit more pressure than the 4 to 1 that we are all used to.

11. Re-install the tuner. Don't forget those StewMac grommets, missing grommets are a no-no. It will cause your tuner to break again.

That is it. Your tuners are as good as new. I am sure that new tuners are preferred, but for those of us who prefer to keep instruments as original as possible, this definitely works. I could tell your horror stories of all of the vintage Gibson electrics we put Grovers and Schallers on in the early 80s when that '60 Les Paul Special was just a $500.00 used guitar. I learned then to keep it as original as possible if it could be made to work.

I hope this was helpful to someone. This entire job (4 tuners) probably takes less than 2 hours if you exclude the soaking time.

Fathand - Posted - 09/23/2012:  08:58:01

My Grover 2 tabs (1925)  use round bushings like these. Which ones use the hex Bushings?

VinceForcier - Posted - 09/23/2012:  09:16:21

The ones with smaller offset tabs. not diamond shaped, more round with tabs coming out. Common on mid 30s instruments. I have a Ward, and Recording king tenor both have them.

VinceForcier - Posted - 09/23/2012:  09:25:01

I am fairly sure the design is the same, but I have never worked on the diamond shaped ones.