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I will never build enough guitars to be able to make meaningful comparisons of similar instruments, so I have decided to make a range of instruments. I have a friend who recently bought a 1954 fancy ranch house with redwood on the living room walls. She did not like it and carefully took it down and sold it. There were no seams and the longest piece was 19 feet. She let me go through the pile and find a piece for a top - found a 3/4" 1 X 8 with absolutely vertical grain at 30-50 grain lines per inch. I recently saw the Frank Ford cycloidal banjo tuners that he has been using for replacements on early OM's that had them and thought they would be fun to try out. So for my #9 I decided to make a Martin 00 body in maple with a Stauffer neck and this redwood top.

So the tuners showed up today and I am getting ready for a fall project

Ed

It's fun to build with materials that have a story.

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George :-)

I have a piece of 100 year old cedar barn wood joined for a small Baroque Stradivarius guitar. I could only get those 2 out of a few boards I was given. Most was off quarter. I scaled down the Rawlings, and made a 5 string 1/2 scale for the grandsons. I found the piece that is leftover the other day and thought I'd make a "real" one that is light and has sound. I can use cello ribs that I have for the sides and back, and a light Spanish cedar neck. Everything is there. It would be fast and easy. Sure it would.

I just need to get the Archtop done first.

Is it just me, or do many amateurs like to do a whole bunch of different things, while makers settle in on a couple of favorites? It probably makes more sense to do more than one of the same at a time.

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Why be normal?

Make sure you meticulously plan out the headstock in regards tuner placement... i recently made a steelstring stauffer and made the mistake of placeing the tuners too close together, you couldn't turn the keys anymore... i tried smaller keys but there was sill no room to turn them... tbh i suspect that there is not enough headstock real-estate on a stauffer to use banjo tuners with the standard size buttons... in the end i resorted to a brass clock key solution, which i am quite proud of and find rather charming on the whole... check out my instagram to see what i mean... happy to answer any questions you might have.

https://www.instagram.com/g.leddington.guitars/?hl=en

Gary.

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www.leddingtonguitars.com

I am really looking forward to seeing this one come together

Thanks Gary - I was hoping my mention would get some comments.

I am aware of the potential problem after looking at the other side of the head I showed above. See the picture below where it looks like they might have 1/8" between them.

I believe that I can make them work with a dimension of 5-1/8" between the center of the posts on the 2 ends and maybe a 1/4" less - second shot. I will drill some holes in scrap to refine it. Scaling various heads that I came across it looks like with the offset, long shaft tuners it was about 4-1/2" center-to-center. What's your dimension? Which banjo tuners did you use?

I like your solution except that I would lose that key in about 20 minutes, maybe 30.

Ed