| ||
The Ovation Fan Club | ||
| ||
Random quote: “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” -Plato |
Why do people change tuner buttons?
| View previous thread :: View next thread | |
Members Forums -> General Posting | Message format |
dweezil |
| ||
Joined: April 2008 Posts: 2336 Location: Brighty in Blighty | Firstly let me say that I'm not against the idea of changing tuner buttons but wondering why people really feel the need to do it. I appreciate it's just an asthetic thing but I've always found that the buttons the Mothership decided to use on a particular guitar just seemed to be always the right choice. Perhaps I just see the original tuner buttons and think that they look right and if I changed them would then think hmm maybe the originals looked better. I'm not saying that modifying the guitar is wrong, hell I just swapped out the VIP for a PRO STUDIO in my 07 and will use it in the 06 and 1680 when I record / play live. | ||
Slipkid |
| ||
Joined: September 2003 Posts: 9301 Location: south east Michigan | One of mine cracked & broke. Some folks do it because is looks good. Have you seen Temp's koa buttons? | ||
Gallerinski |
| ||
Joined: May 2008 Posts: 4996 Location: Phoenix AZ | I think it's just personal preference. The factory specs out a guitar with what they think would look best, but what looks good to one person doesn't look good to another. The nice thing is that's you can always swap them back. | ||
seesquare |
| ||
Joined: November 2002 Posts: 3603 Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | I had to replace all the tuner buttons on an old Pacemaker, cuz they were dried-out, and cracked. They just crumbled when the strings were brought up to tension. So, my story is one of necessity & function. I managed to find a full set of minis, in chrome. "Button failure" will, obviously, never happen again. | ||
dweezil |
| ||
Joined: April 2008 Posts: 2336 Location: Brighty in Blighty | I think glass (or perspex) buttons would look great. Or even slightly coloured perspex, 6 different shades matching the D'Addario ball ends, now that would be COOOOOOOOOOOOL! | ||
Trader Jim |
| ||
Joined: June 2006 Posts: 7307 Location: South of most, North of few | I've got a set of Koa's on my Koa Tacoma. Jack (Kdog) put them on when he had it. It think they're from Temp. Beautiful! | ||
2ifbyC |
| ||
Joined: December 2006 Posts: 6268 Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Originally posted by Trader Jim: That is one gorgeous guitar!on my Koa Tacoma | ||
Mr. Ovation |
| ||
Joined: December 2001 Posts: 7210 Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | "Why do people change tuner buttons?" - Because they can. :) (sorry someone had to) | ||
cholloway |
| ||
Joined: March 2005 Posts: 2791 Location: Atlanta, GA. | Who wants a guitar (or anything else) that looks "just like" all the rest? Call it Personalized ! | ||
Jonmark Stone |
| ||
Joined: May 2008 Posts: 1553 Location: Indiana | I'm one of those unfortunate souls with funky fingers. I can tarnish metals almost on sight... so I've been in the habit of changing out gold buttons for pearloid for nearly 30 years. Only in the past few years have I been aware of the various wooden options. I put a set of ebony buttons on a Viper project and they looked awesome. I plan on adding some walnut keys to my chocolate Legend before long. For me, it's born out of necessity... but they look cool too. | ||
bvince |
| ||
Joined: September 2005 Posts: 3618 Location: GATLINBURG TENNESSEE :) | I agree with the "personal preference thing" and what Galler-ski said about always being able to change them back (unless you weren't thinking and trashed the old ones). If I have an instrument that has beautiful woods on it, I think bright shiney tuner buttons take away from that, so I like to use ebony or wood. I think Tortise buttons would really look nice with the binding on the Koa Topped collectors, or wood ones on the 1537. One of my pet peaves is the overly-used white binding on many of todays wood topped guitars. I think that big white band really cheapens the look of a good top. If anything, you would think someone would get the idea of using brown or black if they are set on saving money or time with the plastic. | ||
Gallerinski |
| ||
Joined: May 2008 Posts: 4996 Location: Phoenix AZ | Originally posted by bvince: A lot of higher end guitars use GRAINED ivoriod which looks beautiful. Also polished ebony is quote nice. And tortie. I think that big white band really cheapens the look of a good top. If anything, you would think someone would get the idea of using brown or black if they are set on saving money or time with the plastic. On many Takamine guitars they use a cheezy white binding (just like Ovation) and believe it or not it's called CAB. Look it up on their website, CAB. I can not get the product manager to admit that it stands for "Cheap Ass Binding" but I KNOW that's what it's got to be. Toby | ||
moody, p.i. |
| ||
Joined: March 2002 Posts: 15654 Location: SoCal | One of the things I like about the 1537 is the wood binding around the top..... | ||
MWoody |
| ||
Joined: December 2003 Posts: 13984 Location: Upper Left USA | Miles beat me to it, so +1 on the btc! Mother should be using anything BUT White plastic binding. For a few cents more and the same labor you can add some major finesse with bindings. Also, if you change tuner knobs you are not really messing with the "stock" value because you can easily go back. I also find that I dislike seeing my fingerprints on the Gold knobs. | ||
kotadawg |
| ||
Joined: November 2007 Posts: 1486 Location: Cincinnati | Originally posted by Trader Jim: They are from Temp.I've got a set of Koa's on my Koa Tacoma. Jack (Kdog) put them on when he had it. It think they're from Temp. Beautiful! | ||
2ifbyC |
| ||
Joined: December 2006 Posts: 6268 Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Both times I've changed original buttons, they've been placed in a small zip-lok and tossed in the case compartment. | ||
G8r |
| ||
Joined: November 2006 Posts: 3969 | Aesthetics for me. The dark rosewood buttons I put on my 1537 look so darn good I'm having Temp bring along a set of minis for my 1538. Mind you, these are on sunburst finishes, so the peghead's dark. I'd choose a different color and/or material if they were -4's. What's the wood used on the 1537/1538/1547 binding? That would be cool to have buttons from that same wood on -4's. | ||
Charlie Ramon |
| ||
Joined: August 2004 Posts: 709 Location: Germany | The 1537/1538/1547 binding consists of two pieces of walnut, two pieces of maple and one layer of padauk. The outer layer is a walnut piece. You can get walnut buttons from Paul. Karl | ||
G8r |
| ||
Joined: November 2006 Posts: 3969 | Thanks, Karl. Walnut would look good, matching the fretboard/peghead face. Padauk's dark like RW, so it probably wouldn't look much different. Not sure if maple would add anything, but that's just me. Of course, ebony would look great on a -5. | ||
alpep |
| ||
Joined: December 2001 Posts: 10581 Location: NJ | if you have a 12 string pearloid or wood buttons will give the headstock less weight | ||
Paul Templeman |
| ||
Joined: February 2002 Posts: 5750 Location: Scotland | Al makes a good point. Apart from the aesthetic considerations weight reduction by switching to say walnut instead of stock gold on an Adamas 12-string is over 50%. A 6 set of my minis weigh 20 to 35 grams depending on material as opposed to around 50 grams for metal buttons. It's not much, but you can feel the difference. | ||
Beal |
| ||
Joined: January 2002 Posts: 14127 Location: 6 String Ranch | Switching to different ones personalizes the instrument to you and usually you change it to something that costs more than the factory would use, so you're upgrading. When I switch it usually works out that way. Sometimes on the old Nationals you have to do it because the old ones have crumbled off so there's no choice. | ||
bvince |
| ||
Joined: September 2005 Posts: 3618 Location: GATLINBURG TENNESSEE :) | One of the things I like about the 1537 is the wood binding around the top..... A BIG ditto on that! "Once you start cutting corners on quality, someone cuts in on your corner spot" | ||
stephent28 |
| ||
Joined: April 2004 Posts: 13303 Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | I switched them out on my 12s so that the regular strings are all walnut and the octaves are ivory. I think it looks cool and it also makes it easier to always tune the right string. | ||
ozwatto |
| ||
Joined: January 2007 Posts: 672 Location: New South Wales, Australia | I know nothing about tuners so this has been an educational thread for me. Do wooden tuners last as long as their metallic cousins and do they have any influence on the guitar's tone? | ||
Jump to page : 1 2 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] |
Search this forum Printer friendly version E-mail a link to this thread |
This message board and website is not sponsored or affiliated with Ovation® Guitars in any way. | |
(Delete all cookies set by this site) | |