Dating Grover Tuners

[xcoyle]

This is my first post, so hello to all. My first question is, is this the right forum for me?

I like to buy old guitars, generally Rickenbackers, and get them back to original specs. So I solder, can make pickguards, set truss rods and intonation, clean, etc.. I do not mess around with wood or refinish at this point.

I do want to start refinishing at some point, but I have a four flat in Chicago that takes up alot of my free time, so when I am done with the building, I will try refinishing.

I am into the details of the guitars and can generally date them by their parts. I am also a member of the Rickenbacker Forum, but they don't want to talk about the right part for a certian year, which I respect, it is more of a players forum.

So if I am at the right place: Here's my first inquery

I am working on a 1975 Rickenbacker 360. Rickenbacker used Grover Rotomatic style tuners for a short time in the mid 70's. So I am looking for some Grover Tuners from that time frame.

When did Grover start making this style tuner? Here is a listing on Ebay that says they are selling tuners are from the 50's, I tought these type of tuners were first used in the late 60's or early 70's.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...ssPageName=WDVW

I know the early tuners say "patent pending" and I believe that the "pantent pending" came off in the late 70's (I think 1979). So any information on the history and dates of the Grover Rotomatic style tuner would be most helpful.

[Southpa]

Hmmm, no way to date those tuners aside from small changes in design along the way. And even those changes span over a number of years. The tuners you show in ebay have flat gear covers w/ pat. pend. USA stamped in them. In the 60's they changed the flat gear cover to a convex gear cover w/ pat. pend. USA still stamped in. Here is some interesting info about using Grovers on some 1968 Fender Jazzmasters. They look like custom tuners made specifically for Fender Corp. as they have the "F" (for Fender) logo stamped on the gear plates.

http://www.webrocker.de/jaguar/v2/index.ph...lery&showID=122

Then they did away with the stamp later on, my guess is because they no longer make them in USA? But as far as dating Grover tuners goes, I doubt you will find anything specific aside from those design/dimension changes by era.

Edited January 31, 2005 by Southpa