Grover Locking tuners

[Mastervolume]

Can the Grover locking tuners that came with my Cobra S be replaced easily?

I sure would like a different tuner.


tia :D

[tom]

there is a conspiresy in the tuner world. no two brands or models within a brand use the same mounting screw location. we have used three different tuners over the years, and whenever we switch, we have to very carefully count what we have so we don't get holes drilled in the wrong place. that being said, there is no other tuner with the mounting holes in the same place as the grovers. even the new locking grover has a different location.
sorry, i've said the same thing twice. the gotoh's we use now are about a half a hole off from the grovers, so if they are plugged, they will show a bit.

[Mastervolume]

Fine by me!

I plan on playing the guitar until the neck breaks anyway.

And what's a few plugged holes between friends?

Thanks for the quick reply Tom!

How long for the change and a fret dress?

[tom]

should be able to be done the same week we get it. bruce's first priority is repairs and mods so he jumps right on them when they come in. how old is the guitar? and how bad are the frets?

[Mastervolume]

12-15-97N

I bought it new in 99. Used it for about 8 months. Sold it to a friend who put maybe 20 hours on it since then. He gave it back to me on friday as a way of saying thanks for helping him sell his business.

I am sooooo glad to have it back. I am a worship leader in a church in Huntington Beach called God's House. My playing and ears have grown up quite a bit since I let this guitar out of my hands. I used it this past sunday night and was simply floored by all of the different tones I could get.

The frets aren't too bad but they feel sharp as slide between notes. (edges of the frets that is not the ends) I can shave a pick on the edges.

I also thought about changing the neck out. I believe that the frets on this guitar are not SS. I bought a Suhr classic in sept. with Stainless frets and just love the way the frets feel. I would love to have those on this guitar.

I welcome your $0.02 on the matter...WWTD?

[tom]

you are correct, we started stainless in early 2002. a refret with stainless is 300, 350 for a maple neck, a new neck is 500. if you like the neck there's no reason to change it. bruce does such a perfect refret, you can't even tell they are not the ones it was born with. the refret is faster too.

[mbrown3]

So here's the million dollar question (for me, at least)...would you be willing to have Bruce do a stainless refret on a [GASP!] non-TA guitar? My Baker is itching for SS frets, but I don't really trust anyone but you guys to do them, and with mean gene working at Ernie Ball now, I'm sure he's not able to take on the project. If you'd rather discuss this over the phone, just let me know. I figure it's at least worth a shot! Thanks...

[mbrown3]

Yikes, maybe I'll be shot for this question!

[tom]

that is a question i don't love to hear, but here's the answer.
i am very free with my time talking to other builders, i've never met anybody i couldn't learn something from. everyone benefits with better guitars when we all share information. there are some builders that call often enough that we jokingly talk about putting in a 900 number. when we started using the buzz feiten tuning system i spent days on the phone explaining, or trying to explain it to players and other builders. i tried to explain that either you hear it or you don't, but it still took forever. when we went to the stainless frets, it was the same thing for me. no question this is way better, why wouldn't you change. there is a lot to learning to deal with the much harder wire. i just don't want to teach the world to work with stainless. i have done my best to encourage others to use it, but i just don't have the time to over and over explain how it works.
i vfigured that if we didn't sell the wire, i wouldn't have to do any explaining. so far we've stuck with that.
so for now at least, the stainless wire is for us alone. there is a company in japan selling stainless wire, but it is softer than what we are using.

[mbrown3]

No, I wasn't really meaning to give the wire (and/or expertise on using it) to another company, simply wondering about having you guys (TA) do a re-fret on another guitar just for ME (i.e., has nothing to do with another company, just for my own playing - in fact, Gene isn't making his own guitars anymore). In that case, I would send you the guitar to have Bruce do the re-fret, and pay for the work. But I certainly understand if you're reticent to do that. It's just that I own the Baker because I wanted a LP style (full lower bout and set-neck style) to complement my Hollow Drop Top Classic - between the two I can cover pretty much all sonic ground. It's just the frets I don't like. Anyway, thanks for the response Tom, and hope all is well in Sunny CA!

Matt

[tom]

does the baker have a binging on the neck. bruce has not done a refret with stainless on a bound neck. trimming the tangs on stainless would be no fun at all.

[mbrown3]

Yeah, it does have binding (yikes!). Yeah, I can see how that complicates things a bit. Here's the guitar: http://www.wildwestguitars.com/pages/562.htm. In any case, I wouldn't be ready to do this for a little while yet (only because I'm in the process of moving and it's hectic!), but it was something I've been thinking about because it's a great guitar but just missing those stainless frets - in my opinion that's one of the best features of your guitars, as well as the flawless worksmanship. In fact, I wish you guys had a set neck double cut LP style, then I'd be all TA! Anyway, thanks for your help. Keep up the great work...