Yamaha FG180 tuner replacements?

[johnpb0]

Hi. This is my first post so apologies if this is the wrong place. I have a 1971 red label FG 180 that I bought new on Oct 1st 1971 for £UKP43. It was played for a few years then hung up as an ornament for 20 years or so (during the work/kids period). It has survived (unplayed) 2 divorces, a year on a canal boat and being moved about to wherever I ended up. A couple of years ago I was inspired to start playing again after visiting some open mic sessions. I took the old Yam out of the cheap plastic bag it had been living in, polished it up, restrung it and was astounded at how good it looked and sounded. The action had always been too high from new so I did a set up (with help from Google), fitted a pre-slotted graphtec nut with wider string spacing and filed the bridge down a bit.

The action was now much improved and it continued to sound better each time I played it! 2 problems then arose. First I noticed the string ball end windings were almost sitting on the saddle. Underneath I found some ball damage to the bridge plate which was instantly solved with a "Platemate" (http://www.mitchelsplatemate.com/3.html) This is a great, simple device and there will be no more bridge plate wear on this guitar!

6 months later it developed a weird "sitar" like sound! After much frustration I found that the bridge has risen and angled itself towards the neck due to the lower bout bellying quite badly - there was virtually no break angle at all at the saddle. I thought this was the end so went out and bought a brand new Yamaha LS6, which I'm afraid just doesn't sound as good as the FG180 and isn't as easy to play, even with a perfect textbook setup.

As the bridge appeared to be well stuck on I looked for cost effective ways to keep the old Yamaha playable and discovered the JLD Bridge Doctor (http://www.jldguitar.net/warped_tops/fixtop.html), another simple but very effective device. I ordered one and it was fairly easy to fit. To my amazement and pleasure it worked immediately and over time the top has become almost flat again with the sound, action and playability better still.

That's the history so back to the subject. I have decided to sell the LS6 and invest in an Ibeam pickup and new tuners for the FG 180 (the original Yamaha open back tuners still work fine but look sad and a bit corroded). So does anyone know what the spindle size is for the tuners on this guitar and can I get replacements that will fit with a minimum of modifications? I like the look of the Grover Gold locking rotomatic tuners (even though they won't match the chrome truss rod cover)! Unless something catastrophic happens to it I intend to keep and play this fantastic guitar until it (or I) falls apart

Regards John

[AZMIKE]

John,

I don't know the dimensions you are asking for, but I had the tuners on my Yamaha FG-150 replaced (professionally) with Grover Gold (nonlocking) tuners not long after I bought it in 2000. The old ones were shot, and I actually didn't request the gold, but he had them on hand and put them on for no extra charge. I like the look, and they are a great improvement functionally.

Here are some not-so-great pics:
fg_180_headstock_rear.jpg
fg_180_headstock-front.jpg
fg_180_front.jpg

Hope this helps.

Regards, Mike

[johnpb0]

Thanks for that Mike. Those gold Grovers look really good on your 150. That's enough to convince me just to go for it anyway. If the holes do have to be enlarged then I'm sure I can do that myself.

Next project is to restore the gold "YAMAHA" logo on the front of the headstock. This got damaged by a clip-on tuner. The lettering is obviously just stuck on. Any ideas for this?

Cheers John


http://www.tdpri.com/forum/attachmen...&d=12549149457

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1254915749

[AZMIKE]

You're welcome, John. Yep, the tuners on the pics of your 180 are the type I had replaced. I am generally of the "if they work, leave them alone" school of tuner replacement, but several of mine were bent and creaky, so I went with the Grovers.

Sorry, but no ideas on the logo. I would probably be tempted to leave it as is, as I don't think it looks that bad.

I should mention that I had the same tech who did the tuners lower the action by shaving down the bridge. The action was so high and so "tight" when I bought it that it was nearly unplayable, but I bought it anyway because I had confidence in this tech's work. The result looks almost factory, as there was a lot of "meat" to work with in that bridge.

Sadly, I believe that technician is no longer working on guitars.

Regards, Mike

[edhead]

I did the same thing with my 70's Yamaha. I replaced the original tuners with Grovers. I remember having to ream the holes in the head stock a bit, though that was years ago and I could be mistaken.

[johnpb0]

Thanks for all the replies. I found a thread on here http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-tech...lacements.html showing how to enlarge the holes with a step drill. Never heard of these before but I've ordered a 4-14mm one on Ebay. Looks like a useful tool and could also come in handy for starting pickup end-pin jack holes as well.

Regards John

[johnpb0]

Hi All

Well I've now changed the Yamaha tuners and did have to ream the holes out just a little. The correct hole size for the Grovers is 25/64th inch but the nearest size drills we can get easily here are 10mm (0.069 inch oversize) so they are not a tight fit but seem fine when tightened up. BTW when are you guys in the US going metric?

As you can see from Mike's pictures the old tuners leave a bit of a mess behind when removed that the Grovers don't cover! The darkest wood filler I could find to fill the visible, empty top screw holes was not dark enough (Mike's looks similar). A dab of dark stain might fix this. Still they look great from the front and feel so smooth (I can now say that the old ones were, in fact, knackered - I just got used to them over time). I might experiment with some gold paint on the truss rod cover.

I really like the auto string locking, this will also make string changes so much easier in future.

Thanks for all your help.

Regards John