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]Hey Folks

I seem to remember reading somewhere that it was possible to have longer posts (not buttons) on gotoh stealth keys...

Anyone experimented with these at all?

I'm thinking of making a steelstring version of stauffer style guitar (stewmac austro-german plan) and was wondering if i could modify stealths to have longer posts to accommodate the headstock/tuner positioning.

Any ideas or alternate suggestions would be a great help.

G.

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www.leddingtonguitars.com

Just posting to stay with this thread as I am currently thinking of doing the same thing and dang if those replica tuners aren't expensive!

I’m interested to hear what others have to say about the Stealth tuners. Take a look at the thread below for some other ideas.

http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=46313&hilit=Stauffer

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sweat the small stuff.

I've used pegheads on a flamenco guitar I built years ago and I quite like them a lot actually. But will they work for light gauge steel string?

Here are some pictures of the originals:

Stauffer style tuners were inset into the peghead so they had stubby little posts. The length of the button shafts were all moderately long but did shorten up some as they moved up the peghead. The spacing of the tuners is about the same as modern mandolin tuners. They may have been state of the art in their day but with the tiny cotter pins and crudely made plates they are rough by today's standards . But in all fairness - they still work after 150 years!
My views haven't changed much from that linked thread. If I were to "copy" Stauffer style tuners (which I may) I would start with some cheap mandolin tuners, cut the button shafts and solder small brass tubing to them to increase their length as necessary, shorten the string posts and redrill the holes if necessary (some of the cheap Chinese mandolin tuners have two sets of holes), inset them into the peghead and make a fancy coverplate. They would work about as well as the originals and be cheap to make.
I have rearranged tuners for some of the unusual pegheads I have done. I've found that you can often make 3X3 tuners become 6 on a side by flipping the button shafts in the bearing surfaces. And swapping the different length posts on F style mando tuners is easily done also.

P.S. I'm not impressed by the stealth tuners. They look small and delicate -"delicate" being the operative word.

Pegheads or banjo tuners is actually a great option... did'nt think of that... Would be good of course to get that 6-inline look... but a great b option.

G.

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www.leddingtonguitars.com

IIRC you can get the real Stauffer tuners from Rubner

"IIRC you can get the real Stauffer tuners from Rubner"

For a price (a rather high price). They aren't made exactly like the originals - they are probably made a little better.

Yeah I'm trying to avoid the $800 price tag especially since the one I am building is a charity guitar

www.ebay.com/itm/2PCS-4L-4R-8-String-Mi ... itleDesc=0

I ordered a set of these as a candidate for add on stems to cobble together a Stauffer style set. I think if I heat the stems I can pull the buttons. Somewhere I have some nickle silver sheets to make the back plate. Nickle silver cuts relatively easy with a bandsaw and fine tooth blade. I was considering doing this style neck on my most recent guitar and this thread has inspired me to try.