McGuinn's Keywinds

[loverickbass]

I've seen a pic of one of his guitars where the keywinds are turned backwards. What's the reasoning for this?

Cole

[rick12dr]

This was on Rogers' 2nd Rick 12, the '66 370-12.Best guesses put the conversion from original rear facing Kluson tuners to forward facing Grover Slim line gold plated tuners, somewhere from late '69 to early 1970.The first live Byrds show I ever saw was in Feb. 1970, and I caught the forward faced tuners right off and wondered what was up with that.In emailing Roger about it, he doesn't recall that, but said maybe his roadie/tech had done it.I've turned the tuners around like that on a couple of my Rick 12s at different times, and the only thing I can figure out that it affects, is if while you are tuning up, and say, checking octaves while actually fingering a chord with your left hand, is that while fretting with the left hand, you can reach across the guitar and more easily get to those six tuners that face forward.Hope this makes sense to you, but it's all I could ever figure out.Unless, perhaps, the slightly different size of the Grover vs the Kluson heads somehow didn't allow for proper clearance of the tuner buttons if they were to face backwards.

[loverickbass]

Thanks Don!

Cole

[mark_telfer]

I've read that tuners had to be re-instated on the guitar after a gig in Mexico went wrong. Members of the audience rioted apparently, nearly strangling Roger with his guitar and stealing the group's passports into the bargain.