I found my old Gretsch Nashville !

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fabandgear
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Re: I found my old Gretsch Nashville !

Post by fabandgear »

Well thank you Jos! Merry Christmas to you as well!
"When I kill, its on direct orders from Her Majesty's government." -007
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Re: I found my old Gretsch Nashville !

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I know this is an old thread, but in the interest of accuracy, I need to correct something I posted. The rounded button open back machines Gretsch used were made by Waverly, not Grover. Gretsch did use Grover Sta-tites in the '30s and '40s, and continues to use them today, but in the '50s they started using Waverly tuning machines. Starting at about '64-'65 Gretsch used Van Ghent machines as well. By the early '70s, they used doghouse-shaped semi-enclosed machines. Höfner used the same doghouse machines and may have manufactured them as well.
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jps
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Re: I found my old Gretsch Nashville !

Post by jps »

fabandgear wrote: Wed Dec 28, 2022 5:19 am I know this is an old thread, but in the interest of accuracy, I need to correct something I posted. The rounded button open back machines Gretsch used were made by Waverly, not Grover.
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Martin_Custom_DC_OM-18-800_1783.jpg
Martin_Custom_DC_OM-18-800_1789.jpg
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fabandgear
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Re: I found my old Gretsch Nashville !

Post by fabandgear »

These are the Waverly tuners Gretsch used from the 1950s through the late '60s/early '70s.
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fabandgear
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Re: I found my old Gretsch Nashville !

Post by fabandgear »

Gretsch used these Van Ghents starting in the early '60s.
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Last edited by fabandgear on Wed Dec 28, 2022 10:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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fabandgear
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Re: I found my old Gretsch Nashville !

Post by fabandgear »

In the early '70s through the Booneville, Arkansas factory closure, Gretsch used these machines. I think they were manufactured by Höfner. I've heard them referred to as "Pyramid" tuners. I always called them "doghouse" tuners.
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jps
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Re: I found my old Gretsch Nashville !

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fabandgear wrote: Wed Dec 28, 2022 8:08 pm These are the Waverly tuners Gretsch used from the 1950s through the late '60s/early '70s.
Any ideas on when Waverly redesigned the mounting plate and upgraded the gear?
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Re: I found my old Gretsch Nashville !

Post by fabandgear »

I think Stewart MacDonald owns the Waverly trade name now. Those machines on the Martin you pictured are Modern Waverly copies of the old Grover Sta-Tite machines. Gretsch uses them on a lot of their reissue guitars now.

I wish StewMac would reissue the plain Gretsch Waverly heads (Harmony and a few other companies used them, too). It's a pain to hunt down original Waverly machines for a Gretsch restoration, not to mention now being quite expensive.
"When I kill, its on direct orders from Her Majesty's government." -007
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