Tuners Pull Away From Headstock...

[aguacateojos]

Alright, this problem has bugged me for some time. I have a Warwick which seems to have wretched tuners - when I tighten them they pull up and away from the headstock. I've tried to photograph it:



Every time I loosen the strings and tighten them they immediately pull away again. So, what's the deal? Are they stripped? Do I need a new set? Or is there a way to salvage these?

[gastric]

I'd start with the obvious - the nuts are not tightened enough, thus the tuners are too loose in their holes. You can see where the nuts are gaped against the washers as the posts bend. Otherwise I have no other ideas.

[aguacateojos]

I should have explained it better - when I wrote "Every time I loosen the strings and tighten them" I meant "them" to mean the nuts. So... poop.

[salcott]

Take one out and see if the hole is too big.

[96tbird]

Take the nuts off ( which are ferrules too on those tuners) and put a drop of light strength thread lock on the threads. Done.

[aguacateojos]

You know what, it seems as if the hole is a tiny bit larger than the tuning machine - with the top piece out the bottom wiggles a little bit. Is that normal, or are the stock tuning machines the wrong size?

[96tbird]

IME, normal for those tuners, I have two basses with that type.

[aguacateojos]

Okay... so I should go ahead and try out the thread lock? Will do.

[Philonius]

A slight bit of play between the ferrule and hole seems pretty normal- speaking from my limited experience. Definitely looks in the photo like the nuts which hold the tuners tight to the headstock are loose. A dab of threadlocker wouldn't hurt, but most importantly, get the correct sized wrench and snug them up good. Not super tight, maybe 1/4 to 1/2 turn past finger tight. That should do it.

[96tbird]

Yep, man I hate those tiny barrel tuners!

[Zooberwerx]

Okay, this is really bugging me and here's another possible cause....and I've seen this once in my 53 years.

There's a good chance that the ferrules are actually too long and are "snugging up" to the tuner body on the opposite side before adequately clamping the headstock wood. The easiest way to conform or deny would be to add an extra washer under one of the tuner ferrules, reinstall, and tighten to spec. It's been my observation that a properly sized and tightened ferrule will leave a discernible circular imprint / depression on the forward headstock surface. Note: you can even stack two of the existing washers for the experiment. I once had to grind down the bottom ends of the ferrules when dealing with a paricularly thin headstock....I think somebody had removed the front veneer.

Riis

[aguacateojos]

So far so good - we'll see how they are after a day or two of tension. Thanks for the speedy assistance!