Replacing Existing Tuners

4.	Side-Plate width: Our tuners have a standard side-plate width of 17.4mm. We prefer to keep this at 17.4mm if at all possible. Therefore even if the set of machine heads you are removing is less than this, please check against the actual guitar headstock to see if we can still use the standard plate width. If not, we can reduce the plate down a little. The minimum we can go down to is 16mm.

5.	String rollers: It is quite a good idea to use the string rollers fitted with the extra bearing bushes. All machine heads on the market should have 10mm diameter string rollers. But to make sure that your new set will defiantly run smoothly, I suggest having the extra bearing bushes. These can be seen by clicking here.

6.	Buttons: All the available styles of button can be seen by clicking here.

If you would prefer to e-mail your order through to me rather than using the order form, I would be pleased to hear from you and answer any questions you might have.

2.	Overall plate length: This is not necessarily taken from the set you are removing, although you are usually safe if you do take it from this. You can alternatively actually take this measuring from the headstock of the guitar. The overall length is less important than the distances that the side-plate can project beyond the top and bottom string roller holes, before it overhangs the mounting surface of the headstock. Please click here for an illustration. You need to leave a few millimetres of mounting surface at either end so that the machine head looks nicely proportioned and fitted.

3.	Wood screw hole positions: It is recommended that the original wood screw holes are filled so that new holes can be re-drilled and positioned in places more appropriate to the set being fitted. This is mainly because it will not limit the selection of engraved designs that you can choose from. If the wood screw holes of the set being removed are central between the mechanisms for example, you can only choose engraved designs that will accommodate this hole placement, without having a countersink right through the middle of the pattern. It is also advisable to have new holes made because some very cheap machine heads are inaccurate, and you don’t want your new set misaligned causing unnecessary wear . However, if you feel that you would still like the new set to have the same wood screw holes as the original, for the ease of fitting for example, this again we can do. Just add the necessary dimensions to the order form when making the order.

If you have a guitar with Machine Heads already fitted and would like to change these for a set of Rodgers Machine Heads, please read the following section of the web site.

If the guitar is extremely old and you wish the replacement tuner to be a reproduction of the original set, then please click here to go to the ‘Reproductions’ page.

If your guitar is reasonably new and does not require specialised work to fit a new set of tuners, please read on. There are a few things that need to be addressed when swapping tuners which I have listed below for you to check through.

The ‘Prices &Ordering’ page makes it easy to add all the necessary dimensions when ordering a set of tuners. However firstly, it is worth checking if the standard dimensions, which there are two of for each style of tuner, will fit. This will allow us to use any of the engraved designs for that particular style and is also slightly cheaper than having special dimensions.

If you prefer the set to be made with special dimensions, (perhaps none of the standard lengths are applicable for your guitar), please read through the following check list.

There are a lot of makes of machine heads on the market and although I have a few of their dimensions on record, I do not know most of them. Also I would not be happy assuming that what I have on record is the same as the set you are changing. Therefore, please take the measurements yourself when ordering replacement machine heads, so we can be sure that the new set will fit correctly.