A No-drill Option for Replacing Tuning Machines on a Rickenbacker B6

[Gary Meixner]

There has been some discussion lately about replacement tuners for Rickenbacker guitars. The original tuners were not the best quality and often worked poorly. If broken there was never a drop-in replacement because the the original stringpost are significantly smaller in diameter (.220" vs .249" ) than most replacement tuning machines. The unfortunate fix required that the holes in the headstock be drilled / reamed out to except modern relacement tuning machines.

Last week I recieved an email from Stewart McDonald listing a bunch of products on sale. One item was their Golden Age Restoration tuners. I read the specs and the string post measure .236". I thought I would buy a set and see if I could make them work. They were still too big, but I was able to take them apart and easily seperate the post from the gear. I then mounted the post in my drill press and operating like a lathe I was able to use a flat file to turn the post down to .220" . This required I machine the post in two section, but working carefully and checking often with calipers the job went smoothly. It took about an hour to disassemble, modify, ressemble and mount the new tuners. My original thought was to have my brother, who is a silversmith and has a small lathe do the work for me, but the drillpress worked great. I was able keep tolerances withing a couple thousands of an inch and actually fit each post individually as the holes in the headstock varied a bit, maybe due to wear.

So far no issues and the new machines are a huge improvement; not as silky smooth as sealed gear tuning machines and there may be other open gear machines that would operate better. I was considering using Grover Sta-tite machines but found the mounting holes were off by the smallest amount. Obviously the finish has been removed and if that becomes a concern I have a little setup for nickle plating and can give them a plated finish. Right now they look appropriate.

This guitar sat in its case for several years becuase I broke one of the tuners. This year, I bought a repalcement, original, tuner from a forum member and got the guitar back into playable condition. It is hard for me to imagine a better sounding Hawaiian steel guitar - I just built myself a 5 watt Princeton amp, and the guitar through this am is so amazing - but with poorly operating tunng machines I couldnt consider using the thing on stage.

If anyone wants more details feel free to ask.

Best,

Gary

[Michael Kiese]

Aloha Gary,

That's awesome! Glad you found a viable solution, and thank you for sharing it with us!

My local guitar tech just orders parts (I don't know where he gets them from, but they always work well). So when I needed him to replace the buttons on my old Ricks, he always found ones that worked really well. The tuner buttons on the original tuners are usually the first thing to go. They just crumble off.

My Rickenbacher ACE has original vintage slot-head tuners, which I love. That said, the tuning ratio isn't the greatest, and there is play between the gears before you start tightening or loosening. I hate that.

If I could find a suitable replacement of vintage slot head type tuners, and if they were the sealed gear type with a high ratio, I'd totally swap them out.

I highly encourage anybody reading to replace the tuners if the originals crap out. Replacing tuners doesn't affect the resale value, and even if it did, these instruments are a piece of history and they're made to be played.

The collectors and the resellers always make their money anyways. The worst thing that happens is when someone gets their hands on one of these old Ricks and instead of fixing it up, they disassemble them and sell the parts because they make more money that way. THAT's the biggest shame.

I'd rather make the thing playable instead of destroying it by parting out the components. But that's just me.