Gary Willis tri-wing tuners?

20db pad · #1 08-03-2007, 11:06 AM

Anybody know of a source for those tri-wing tuner heads that come on the Ibanez Gary Willis models? You'd think it might be an Ibanez specific thing, but I've seen one of Lincoln Goines' Foderas has them installed, and Wooten's using them too.

From a friend that went to B.I.T. back in the day, I heard that Willis devised these tuner heads so that a bass would stay in tune better while being transported in a gig bag. In an online interview, Willis was talking about selling them himself, but there's nothing on his site about them. Seems like a really cool idea.

Here's a pic:

http://garywillis.com/pages/bass/GWB1005cropped.jpg

saxnbass · #2 08-03-2007, 11:12 AM

Got a better pic?

20db pad · #3 08-03-2007, 12:48 PM

I knew someone had a headstock pic somewhere on TB - scroll down to the last pic:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showth...ez#post3986837

saxnbass · #4 08-03-2007, 12:58 PM

Wow. Interesting. I've never seen that before.

kayakbass · #5 08-03-2007, 01:26 PM

When I was studying with Gary years ago (long before he had a sig model) I seem to remember him saying that he bought the tuner heads at an electronics parts store or something like that. He did say that the tuners were Gotoh and all he did was replace tuner button. He used to install the ramp and the tuners on students basses. I'll see if I can find some more info....