Tuners

 Gibson tuners has used a wide variety of styles over the years. Mostly the company’s Grover and kluson supplied   Gibson with the tuners . Although there are exceptions. As stated in other pages we will comment on Gibson tuners  from around 1940 to the current era as that is what most collectors and players are interested in. Again this is not a complete history just a brief selected history if you need more information please e mail.

The earliest Gibson tuners were open back with the gears exposed. Both individual and three on a strip. In general the higher end guitar featured gold tuners and the  lower models nickel. By the 1940 closed back case tuners were introduced although many models still used the open back tuners. The higher end models were the first to feature these tuners. As far as the tips go Gibson tuners features round metal buttons, round plastic or Ivory tips and plastic tips. The tips themselves again varied in shapes and sizes in accordance with the model guitar they were associated with.

In general all  1940 ‘a and 1950 ’s Gibson tuners has single oval button or singe ring tulip style tip. In 1960 the tulip tip Klusons went to double ring plastic tips. The case back also featured the company name in a single line down the middle of the case back as it did in the 1950 ’s. All Es-345 models and a few others kept the single ring style throughout the 1960’s . By 1965 the case back had changed again to bear the companies name in two lines down the back versus the original single line down the middle. Again there are exception but not man. 

 Grover model tuners in both the 1950 ’s and 1960 ’s did not all bear the company’s name . Sometimes the company had patent applied for or nothing at all. The tuners are know by there style basically. Some Grover tuners also had metal tulip ends which were used on some higher end models.  throughout the 1970’s the Grover tuners were used and stayed basically the same . In the the 1980’s the style was drastically different but we will not go into that at this point.

 By the mid 1970’s the Kluson tuners had changed. At first glance they look the same but the case back are engraved in a different font. Also many now has screw down front bushings and greenish looking tulip tips. these era tuners cannot retrofit in older guitars.

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