NGD: 1959 Gibson DC Junior

Trotter

As said before superb work, it's stunning. Replacement tuners and then give it another 50 plus years of hard service (or preferably sell it to me!)

SidNewton

Superb Neil. I agree with the others, apart from the tuners leave it as it is and enjoy.

stickyfiddle

This definitely goes on the cool wall

bigfuzz

this is sensational, would love to have a go on it! definitely cool, definitely keep it as is (maybe tuners could be swapped).

usedtobe

I think I'm in love..!

shugz

Sorry Neil, couldn't resist Looks a lovely guitar. I should add that it was never my guitar or i had much to do with it other than playing a very lowly Cilla in the deal. Glad i was able to help but please tell your lad not to come and find me when he's older to complain!

Yes @marantz1300, guilty.

Cheers
Hugh

jd0272

miserneil said:

Thanks chaps, totally agree with you all regarding the Schallers. They are coming off as soon as I can decide what I want to replace them with. I personally hate them, I think they are the ugliest tuners ever made, god only knows why they adorn so many modified  vintage guitars - were they the only retrofit option 'back in the day'?? (and I hate that phrase too!) ;-)

@jd0272 Too bloody right it is! :-)

I had full size non-inline Grover's (nickel) on my Gibson '57 SC CS wot I sold. Didn't feel heavy (never understood that in honesty) and didn't go out of tune. Looked the biz too.

John did the bore thing so inline's could be refitted if required. I love Grover machineheads.

IvisonGuitars

jd0272 said:

miserneil said:

Thanks chaps, totally agree with you all regarding the Schallers. They are coming off as soon as I can decide what I want to replace them with. I personally hate them, I think they are the ugliest tuners ever made, god only knows why they adorn so many modified  vintage guitars - were they the only retrofit option 'back in the day'?? (and I hate that phrase too!) ;-)

@jd0272 Too bloody right it is! :-)

I had full size non-inline Grover's (nickel) on my Gibson '57 SC CS wot I sold. Didn't feel heavy (never understood that in honesty) and didn't go out of tune. Looked the biz too.

John did the bore thing so inline's could be refitted if required. I love Grover machineheads.

@jd0272 Funnily enough, I had the same on an old CS SC a few years ago and that's what's got me thinking I should do the same on this one.

I don't think you'd find a heavier tuner than these Schallers to be honest, they work fine but just look so fuggly....

jd0272

I just found the Grover's made it go Rawk. And I don't subscribe to the 'tuners make sooooo much of a difference' camp.They just worked for me.Our lead gave it, "They're too heavy..." I was like, "Get a fckn grip".

ICBM

Tuners absolutely do affect the tone, and it's not just 'mojo'. It is true that it's more noticeable on acoustics, but I'd bet you can hear it on a highly resonant electric like that. I assume it's just the mass affecting the head vibration.

Those big Schallers are probably the heaviest out there, although the full-size Grovers can't be that far off - and a fair fraction of the weight is in the keys themselves, which is partly why I don't like the big kidney keys. I changed the keys on my Dove to minis, although I didn't want to actually change the tuners themselves... it did seem to make a subtle difference to the sound.

The Schallers are just so ugly on any older-looking guitar too. I don't mind the minis quite as much, eg on modern Rickenbackers.

FretKing

Stunning axe - congrats.

Graeme

blueskunk

Lovely stuff, dont mess with that mojo

jd0272

I don't play acoustic so I can't comment on that, although I'd imagine that may be the case for a direct/unprocessed sound.

On an electric, by the time all has gone through cables, pedals, and eventually into the amp and out of the speaker, for me at least, any difference will be nominal and not worth worrying about. Just my 2 p.

DartmoorHedgehog

Phwoar 

CloudNine

Skipped

Lovely guitar. Don't change anything (except maybe the tuners).
Schallers are ugly. So....... There will be a reason why  previous owners have all  kept the ugly 70s tuners on the guitar and that reason might be important (tone) so be careful before you fill the holes and then drill for klusons.

2 suggestions. Schaller do a replacement button which is Grover (kidney) shaped. They are hard to find. You would need a Schaller agent to order them for you, and to make sure that Schaller send Nickel. (They sent me chrome which was f*cking annoying). Cost: Approx £25. Then heavily age them.
Or....Put a set of aged Grovers on the guitar.

ICBM

Skipped said:

There will be a reason why  previous owners have all  kept the ugly 70s tuners on the guitar and that reason might be important (tone) so be careful before you fill the holes and then drill for klusons.

The main reason is that once the headstock has been bored out and drilled for extra screw holes on the back, there's very little point.

That said - and the reason I know for certain it affects the tone - is that I once owned a '61 J-45 which I bought with Schaller M6s on. I hated the look and the weight - it was a very light guitar and noticeable head-heavy with them on - so I changed them for Schaller Kluson-style tulip key tuners (still with the threaded collars)… and it hugely improved the sound.

Sadly I later had to sell the guitar, and the new owner then had the oversized holes filled and replaced the tuners with the correct Klusons. I played it some time later and it didn't sound anywhere near as good - actually quite dead, and nothing like as good as it had even with the M6s on. It seems that for whatever reason, the medium-weight tuners with the threaded collars just hit the perfect spot for resonance.

OK, that's an acoustic. But if it affects the acoustic resonance of an electric guitar it will affect the amplified tone to some extent too.

hobbio

If you refin it you'll ruin it! She's a beauty, even with those tuners.

Skipped

ICBM said:

The main reason is that once the headstock has been bored out and drilled for extra screw holes on the back, there's very little point.

That is true. But we have all seen guitars where the tuners have been on/off/on/off/on...... etc as they have passed through various owners (using conversion bushes). I would be willing to bet that this guitar has had the tuners on/off a few times because every previous owner will have said: "Hmmmm.....white buttons..... "   If so...you then have to ask yourself: Just how good would those ugly Schallers have to be for me to try them back on the guitar?  And then leave them on.
:-O

If it were me I would borrow a set of old or heavily aged aged Grovers and try them for 20 minutes. If the guitar still sounded awesome - that would be my choice. And miserneil likes Grovers.
I agree with what jd0272 has said about the final sound of an electric guitar. Unfortunately...I tend to judge guitars before they are plugged in and if I took the heavy tuners off this guitar I would then be obsessing about real or imagined tone loss. Which is yet another problem.

Neil

That's a lovely thing, leave it as it is.

(I agree about the tuners though)