Repair note: Repairing a slipping tuning key

[GnLguy]

One of my favorite guitars – I couldn’t keep the 3rd string in tune for love nor money. I had to stop every couple of minutes and retune. During previous string changes, I had tightened the 2 screws on the tuner and the 10mm nut that holds it to the headstock – which usually corrects this problem – but no cigar

Long story short, I was planning to buy a new set of tuners but the tuners being Cosmos Black are no longer available thru Ibanez or anywhere else
While on an Ibanez forum trying to source a dealer with these tuners, I found a repair process to disassemble tuning keys so I only went as far as removing the cover off of the back of the tuning key and by tightening the internal screw that holds the gears together, seems to have cured my problem. I had some Teflon based grease that I packed onto the gear teeth. Replaced the cover and played for about an hour and the guitar stayed in tune. Woo Hoo!!!

To remove the cover on the back, the article on the forum instructed to use Super Glue and glue a small socket to the cover. They used a truss rod wrench that had a socket on it but I used a socket, probably a 6 or 7 mm, allowed the Super Glue to set and put a short extension in the socket. The cover popped off very easily and I used the same socket and a small hammer to tap the cover back into place.
Any Super Glue still on the cover can be removed by small amounts of acetone – be careful because acetone can ruin your finish.

Much cheaper than a set of tuners – wished I’d known of the repair procedure many years ago

[JoeD1]

Why is it that pesky 3rd string is usually the one that has tuning problems? I never would have thought of trying to repair the tuner. I would have found a set that matched close enough. Good for you fixing it on your own.

I almost exclusively play electric guitars and usually replace stock tuners (if there are tuning issues) with locking tuners. I also bought a set of nut files and have had the need to lightly file a nut slot to remove a bur and angle it properly.

I’ll have to try repairing a tuner the next time.

Joe

The sight of a touch, or the scent of a sound,
Or the strength of an Oak with roots deep in the ground.
--Graeme Edge

[GnLguy]

Joe

I would stress that repairing the tuning key is the last step… First step is to make certain that the 2 screws and 10mm nut at the headstock are tight

99% of the time, problems with the third string being out of tune is due to the action at the nut being too high and the slot needs to be filed a little deeper. When that slot is too high, every time that you fret a note on the first fret, you are pressing that string out of tune and its like putting a slight bend on that string.
See the link below for more info…..

The truss rod being out of adjustment can cause tuning issues as well

http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Musician/GenSetup/NutAction/nutaction.html

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