Acoustic Machine Heads

[MattSA]

I need to replace tuners on my acoustic guitar. I am not looking to spend a ton of money (under $100). I like how many classical tuners look - three pegs connected to a plank of ornate metal. Can I use these on an acoustic guitar? I know very little about tuners like the gear ratio, etc. What are some of the more popular brands that I can research? Also, I have replaced these tuners often because of tarnish/erosion. I know Grover tuners are zinc-plated, is there a particular brand that uses better plating materials? What is the best way to prevent tarnish/erosion?

Matt

[Bizman62]

As a rule of thumb use metal tuners for metal strings and plastic tuners for classical strings.

I have a couple of old steel stringed acoustic guitars with the tuners you described. The peghead is slotted as in classical guitars but the pegs are thinner and made out of steel. As this StewMac site shows there's both 3+3 and single tuners available: https://www.stewmac.com/Hardware_and_Parts/Tuning_Machines/Slotted_Peghead_Guitar_Tuning_Machines/

As for tarnishing, some patina doesn't hurt but if your tuners wear out unusable there's something erosive either in the air or your hands. Wiping them with a soft cloth, keeping the gear greasy and using some polishing wax where applicable should do the trick. The ones I have are about 60-70 years old with original hardware, both have seen both better and worse days and are in good playing condition.

[mistermikev]

I don't know if any plating is better than any other... other than gold tends to tarnish easier than anything else. 

afa classical tuners... they generally have a different mechanism ie require slots with holes for the turning shaft... so prob not going to work w/o modification and are generally not as good. 

i'd look at gotoh, wilkinson, hipshot, grover, tone pros, kluson... sperzel actually is a different (dull) finish that fairs very well against time but not quite as attractive imo.