All Gotoh'd up

[loocnmad]

The only thing I haven't loved about my three EBMM's is the tuners. The Schallers I used in the past were great but these always felt sticky and kind of jerked a bit while turning. Stability wasn't an issue, it was just frustrating while tuning. I have some Gotoh 510's on other guitars that are my current favorite so I swapped them all out. No sacred cows in this house

Early verdict is in and it's a good one. Super smooth and as stable as ever. The model I used was SGS510Z. The holes matched the spec of the originals and dropped right in without any mods. I went with the magnum lock option because I don't care for thumb wheel locks.

Even picked up some tortoise buttons for the Valentine to match the pickguard and give it that extra touch. And because it's real here are some before and after pics.

 

[TripHazard]

Neat - i like the look.

 

[dgainer]

I like the look also. Where did you find the Gotoh's? I went to their website and couldn't find the 510's for the 5-2 set on my Valentine. I'd love to replace mine with the pearl or tortoise.
Dave

 

[Fro]

Looks great with the tortoise buttons.

 

[loocnmad]

I like the look also. Where did you find the Gotoh's? I went to their website and couldn't find the 510's for the 5-2 set on my Valentine. I'd love to replace mine with the pearl or tortoise.
Dave

The tortoise buttons are from All Parts (TK-7728-043) but I got everything else through G-JAX. They're in Japan and have a ton of options so it takes 3-4 weeks to build and ship them to the US. I've ordered from them a few times with good results. If you like thumb wheels and are ok with the standard buttons Philidelphia Luthier Supply stocks them.

Not sure what the policy on vendor links is here so PM me if you have any trouble finding it and I'll send you the links to the product pages.

Here are the options I went with:
Model: SGS510Z 1:18 (the Z is important because they are higher ratio than the regular SGS510 1:15)
Finish: C (chrome)
Post Style: MG (MG is the top locking option. Thumbwheel style is MG-T)
Knob Button: P7 (small pearl buttons) or A07 (small chrome buttons)
Array: L4+R2

 

[Wahoonc]

Those look great.

Out of curiosity, if the Schallers were stiff, why didn’t you adjust the tension?

 

[loocnmad]

I did that first but It wasn't the tension itself it was that they felt like they were sticking and would jump. I'd wind up going sharp and flat a bunch of times because they would skip. The motion wasn't smooth or consistent.

I could have just gotten a bad set but it was like that on all three. I also don't like thumb wheels. Some swap pickups first, I swapped tuners. Just personal preference.

 

[Wahoonc]

Got it. Makes sense.

The Schallers seem to come from the factory with a lot of tension, which I personally don’t like. Have had adjust every set so far, but once set they have always been very smooth. Haven’t had any skipping or binding, so was curious if it was the tension or something else.

In any event, the Gotohs look nice.