Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hello!

I have a 1971 4001, and one of its tuners has gone bad.

What's on there currently are these wavy grovers that have flat "ends" (what do you call the part of the tuner that you turn?).

I have a replacement set of wavy grovers that for some reason have wavy "ends". I had never noticed the difference between the two sets until now.

So, my question is: is there a time frame associated with grovers that have wavy ends vs. those with flat ends?

Is one type older than the other?

Etc.

Any of this obscure knowledge is appreciated. Meanwhile here is a blurry photo of the two types of tuner ends. The one with the wavy ends is on the right.

thanks much - -

Richard

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I have a replacement set of wavy grovers that for some reason have wavy "ends".

Well, that does make sense, doesn't it?

Only one of those sets can be called "wavy", but both can be called Grover Slimline tuners. The flat keys are the older variety of Slimline tuners.

What does "gone bad" mean? It may be possible to fix it...

cjj wrote:What does "gone bad" mean?

If it were the Old West what would it mean?

cjj wrote:What does "gone bad" mean? It may be possible to fix it...

Unfortunately the tuner has separated. The housing has popped off, and the part that is affixed via the 4 screws is still attached to the headstock.

Since the gear mechanism depends on the housing to keep the turning shaft in place, it won't work. There is nothing to keep the turning shaft in place.

The housing appears to have these 4 little pegs that go into 4 little holes on the affixed part. They aren't screws. My guess is during the manufacturing process the housing + affixed part are "stamped" together with the aid of pressure and heat, thus joining them.

I thought of using Crazy Glue to see if that would do it. Something tells me, though, that at precisely the wrong moment (bass solo at Madison Square Garden......dream...) the housing would pop off. But who knows.

Any repair ideas??

thanks much -

Richard

Ah yes. The classic failure mode for Grover Slimlines. The covers are "swaged" on by smashing the little pins on the cover.

These can actually be fixed though. I'm not an expert on it though, I've just read a few posts on doing it, some right here on this forum. Seems to me that sometimes they can be re-swaged with a small punch, or even fixed with small screws (requires drilling and tapping the holes with care). Try searching for "Grover repair"...

you can fix those. Someone will chime in. I think it involves a punch and a hammer to reset those 4 posts.

Check out Paul W's response here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=381733&hilit=stake+grover&start=15

The flat Grovers were used before the wavy Grovers, but I believe that they are repaired the same way. I also believe that the flat Grovers are quite a bit more rare than their wavy siblings, so a repair would be well worth it.

Maybe also search exploding Grovers. Common problem.

Hmmm I should try repairing my 330's tuner this way. I put a set of slimlines on it to bring it back to it's original tuners, but one failed/separated quickly. I managed to replace it with a single tuner, but it's chrome and the other 5 are nickel. I have been looking for a backup set ever since, just to have an extra 6 in the case.

i re-punched the wavys on my MD-1252 so many times, i put schaller m4 tuners on it. i could not take it anymore. a tuner failure during a night after night gig is unacceptable. those tuners were made for playing around the house or occasional gig. the kluson style was a more meat and potato tuner. never seen one of those fail, unless you dropped a gear screw, but that was cause someone did not use loktite or perform basic preventative maintenance !

"Flat" Grovers were used from early 1969 to around mid-1972 and then were replaced by the "Wavy's". Your '71 should have "flats" to be original.

There is a single bass side flat grover on the 'Bay right now

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0543483164

teeder wrote:"Flat" Grovers were used from early 1969 to around mid-1972 and then were replaced by the "Wavy's". Your '71 should have "flats" to be original.

Thanks!

chrisdski wrote:There is a single bass side flat grover on the 'Bay right now

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0543483164

Grovers can be disassembled (like Schallers) and reversed to fit either side.