Looking For 20 Tooth Gears For Vintage Tuners

[Lumdingo]

I acquired an old 1970's Greco or similar severely road worn precision bass, and it's missing two gears and posts. I managed to find two poets in my parts bin they are close, but now I need two 20 tooth gears. The previous owners had generic MIM gears and posts on it. Just cross-threading the original stems. Ouch! This needs to be fixed. This poor bass needs a second chance.

 

[Lo-E]

I suspect you'll have better luck finding a set of used tuners to use as donors than you will just finding the gears. If you have a local tech who's been in business a long time he or she might have a drawer full of parts with your gears in it.

In my experience, the hardware on those Japanese imports of that era was nowhere near as good as the instruments themselves. In your position I'd be inclined to simply find a set of quality tuners with a similar appearance to the originals as they'd probably be more reliable than the restored originals.

 

[Lumdingo]

I suspect you'll have better luck finding a set of used tuners to use as donors than you will just finding the gears.

Agreed. I just don't have the money to buy a set of relic tuners, like the Gotoh's I find on EBay. My only other option is to use avid to age some cheap generic Fender Mexican tuners, but think that would be a real shame. Considering how cool these are.

Yup, guess I've gotta save up.

 

[Lumdingo]

I suspect you'll have better luck finding a set of used tuners to use as donors...

So get this, I took off the tuners that were on there, only to discover they're the old 60's style Fender tuners and they've chopped them down to fit. I tried putting on Fender Mexi tuners, but those won't fit either.

I only had one set of tuners in my spare parts bin they would fit, so Gotoh GB730's it is (at least for now).

However, since I'm looking for 20:1 gear ratio, I know that Wilkinson and Schaller both make vintage tuners with a 20 tooth gear on them. Maybe someday I'll sorbs a bunch of money and order two of those and try to put the old tuners back on with the new donor posts and new donor gears.

for now though, these GB720's are awesome. But, as you can see, putting the small Gotoh ferrules inside of the original ferrules has decreased the string break angle, thus necessitating the installation of a second string tree… for now.

It ain't pretty, but it works, and this bass now plays and sounds amazing.

It's a real dogs breakfast, but I'm pretty happy with it. Who knows, maybe I'll find some old tuners with 20 tooth gears and vintage flat posts.

 

[Lumdingo]

Agreed...

check these out. 20:1 gear ratio and flat vintage posts. Might be a good parts donor tuner. And at $60 for a set of 4, it won't break the bank.

Wilkinson WJBL-200 Vintage Style Bass Machine Heads Set of 4

 

[96tbird]

You have some measuring to do. I'm going to suggest you look at Hipshot HB1. I have a set and they're very small footprint vintage style.
Also HB10 is smaller.

Go to Hipshot
And print out the dimension sheets and map them onto your headstock and see if they might fit.

The HB1 are the same dimensions as Schaller BM but Hipshot can offer various sizes of bushings to hopefully fit your bores closely.

Then you need to decide
Whether you want to spend $170 on Hipshots. I personally DO think it's worth it to you, because you really dig that old bass.

 

[sissy kathy]

I think this is what you want. The Schaller BMF 20:1 My search for a 70s Greco bass yielded this picture:
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The caption indicates it's a '79 PB450.

Here's a link to what I believe is a match for those machines.

Original F-Series BMF They are available through Schaller ~20 USD each (plus shipping I guess).

 

[Lownote38]

Gotoh FB30 tuners would work as well.

 

[Lumdingo]

check these out. 20:1 gear ratio and flat vintage posts. Might be a good parts donor tuner. And at $60 for a set of 4, it won't break the bank.

Wilkinson WJBL-200 Vintage Style Bass Machine Heads Set of 4

Those do look like a good fit, but unfortunately I also need the posts, and at $116 plus shipping and tax, I just can't justify that big a gamble.

mill just sell those original 1960's tuners to a collector and let them try to restore them. A good metal fabricator would be able to replace the cut off bits, and then the rest would be up to finding another set or a new donor.

Thank you so much for your help. I wish I could afford to go find that path.