Silly question about machine head lubricant

greggreg66 · July 2022

My 59 LP junior has some fairly stiff tuners and I was watching this Stewmac vid about flushing the tuners with naptha and then following up with some oil. Here's the video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkeS8HDzCH0&ab_channel=StewMac

I was wondering...

How crucial is the naptha stage. I like the idea of it, but is it necessary?
Would you just use 3 in 1 oil or something else... 5w 30

Thanks!

thermionic · July 2022

The naptha is a solvent that dissolves old, dirty oil/grease I think.

What you want to avoild is oil getting sucked in to the screw holes in the wood, making it soft and mushy. If I was doing it I would take them off, degrease them, apply oil or grease and let them dry out a bit before reinstalling.

greggreg66 · July 2022

thermionic said:

The naptha is a solvent that dissolves old, dirty oil/grease I think.

What you want to avoild is oil getting sucked in to the screw holes in the wood, making it soft and mushy. If I was doing it I would take them off, degrease them, apply oil or grease and let them dry out a bit before reinstalling.

Thanks. 3in1 would be okay though right? Or would you use something else?

BillDL · July 2022

It's not a "silly question" at all.

Naptha / Napthalene is a fairly benign petroleum distillate solvent that evaporates quite quickly and tends not to damage older lacquers or metal plating, so even if a small amount leaks out the side of the tuner cover it most likely won't dissolve, soften, or crackle the lacquer on an old guitar (or even the plastic tulip/keystone button of Klusons), whereas many other solvents will. The fluid used to refill Zippo type wick and wadding lighters is naptha based (Zippo, Swan, Ronsonol, Clipper brands) - not the compressed can which is gas, only the liquid stuff in the small rectangular tins with the flip-up fine pointed nozzles.

Incidentally, mothballs of old used to be made mostly from naptha but being flammable they developed safer alternatives. Those waxy firelighter blocks that come with disposable barbecues are mostly naptha.

3-in-1 oil is clean light oil that will stay on the surfaces for a good while without running off or drying into a gum as long as it is applied sparingly. Most light mineral oil will work. "Gun oil" is very light. Never use oil that is plant based because it will usually putrefy, stink, go sticky, and rot the wood, as some people have discovered after using something like Crisp 'n Dry or Flora to "condition" their fretboards !!

My preference is actually to take off the tuner, spray it out with electrical switch cleaning solvent, and then apply a very fine smear of vaseline, chapstick, or similar to the contact points. I suppose Dan Erlewine is probably trying to avoid unnecessarily removing the screws from an old guitar, because doing that too often will eventually require that the screw holes be plugged and re-drilled to hold the screws firmly.

thermionic · July 2022

I don’t have any 3 in 1, but I have several bottles of bicycle lubricants of various compositions and viscosities, so I’d probanly choose one of them!

Flip · July 2022

I inherited a couple of cans of Singer sewing machine oil which is very light and still works well. Singer appears to sell it for about £3.50 for 125ml.

Headphones · July 2022

Slightly adrift of the topic, but I recently went through the exercise of stripping all of my machine heads. I found that few actually had any lubricant whatsoever. Naturally I cleaned and lubricated them all before re-installation. A huge difference, all were smoother and easier to use afterwards.

This covered PRS, Fender, Gibbos, Ibanez, Taylor and Vansons. The latter were the only ones with detectable lubricant on all six worm wheels. The PRS (a CE) had just a few grains of sand...

In sum, a strip, clean and re-grease will likely improve ANY sealed tuner, making it feel much more expensive than it is.

This probably doesn't help the semi open type on some instruments (as with the OP's), but probably will many others.

TheMadMick · July 2022

Good advice to take the tuner off. Means any mistakes aren't reflected onto the instrument. More faff but safer.

Naptha is a petroleum distillate. Most anything that will dissolve grease etc. will do e.g. white spirit. Just clean it off afterwards and leave time for the balance to evaporate.

Most recommendations I've seen advocate light oil and most any of those above should do the job. Just be careful not to put in to much. Simply "dampen" the cogs with a very thin film. It's a bit of guesswork and to little is probably as bad as to much.

Good luck. If you've done it once, it will be easy next time.

ICBM · July 2022

Yes, I really wouldn’t do this with them on the guitar. I know there’s a risk of damaging the screw heads or the threads in the wood by taking them off, but I’d rather that than soak oil or dissolved dirt into the wood, and it’s difficult to avoid that at the same time as cleaning the heads thoroughly.

Personally I would use something slightly heavier than 3-in-1, but that will be OK if it’s what you’ve got.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

Silly question about machine head lubricant

Comments