Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello everybody,
I am from Naples, Italy, and I have recently bought for a very low price a 1940's Di Mauro guitar. It is a French guitar. Di Mauro guitars were often played by Django Reinhardt (this model is in fact a sort of Selmer Maccaferri imitation).

The guitar has just the left tuner, so I wanted to mount new tuners on it. The problem is that the string post spacing is... a little more than 36 millimeters. It should be beetween 34 and 35, so I cannot mount modern standard tuners. I know that I could mount single machine heads, but I wanted to respect the original design. Any idea how to fix this problem? Thank you in advance.

Ps- I am not a luthier, just an amateur ^^

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/ ... b4d563b866

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 59af96c058

I cannot open your links.

There are different tuner spacings available than the ones you mentioned. If you do not get help locating a source in the repair forum, you might try posting your query in the main forum. I got help that way.

There is always the option of using individual tuners. Then you do not have to worry about the spacing.

I suspect your options are going to be individual tuners or plug and redrill for 35mm spacing.
The latter is not Do It Yourself unless you are prepared to buy the appropriate drill jig and make packers to fill the slots during drilling.
If you get the position or angle wrong drilling freehand, the tuners will bind.

ebay sometimes has old tuners for sale for projects like yours. The problem is, you will need to communicate accurately with the seller regarding the spacing.

Also, try taking the guitar to a large, old repair shop. Some repair men accumulate boxes of old parts just for situations like yours.

http://www.allparts.com/TK-0700-001-Vin ... _3629.html

Try ALLPARTS web site. For example, see the ones above. They have a lot of parts that I cannot locates myself. The help I got a few years ago for a special spacing for classical tuners directed me to a page on ALLPARTS that I cannot locate myself. Still, you are likely to find actual vintage keys that are historically correct from an old repair man, and at a lower cost.

Those are 35mm spacing and for solid peghead. I would expect this to be a slothead?

http://www.allparts.com/TK-8878-001-Eco ... _4968.html

For example, here is a slot head. Point is, don't give up.