Inlaid Tuner Buttons

[slk]

Is it possible to get inlaid tuner buttons like what was on the old Gibson mandolins, or like what is on the 120th anniversary model??? Those look so cool.

Steve

[Tobin]

Tom Ellis makes them now. They're pricey, but gorgeous. One of these days I'll put a set on my Ellis.

[MikeEdgerton]

Replica Handel tuner buttons have been produced by a few different people. I don't know who might be doing them now.

http://www.vintagemandolin.com/setblohmbuttons.html

[MikeEdgerton]

Well, you got an answer while I was typing.

[slk]

I can't find a price on them. I sent a couple of notes to see. I think my F-5G has grover tuners.

Steve

[George R. Lane]

Mike Blohm in Billings, Mt. I believe still makes them.
Here is the link to the builders database;

http://www.mandolincafe.com/cgi-bin/...&submit=Search

[David L]

At the Winfield festival this year, the Ellis booth had some on a mandolin. I mentioned them to Tom Ellis and he pointed to the lady with him and said, "This is Mary Melena, she made them". We had a wonderful conversation.

[slk]

Ellis wants $500.00 for a set. Guess I don't need them that bad..

I did speak with Mike and he asked if my buttons had a square hole in the end. I took a screw out of the end of one of the buttons but the button did not want to budge. I did not want to break anything so I put the screw back. Mike said Gibson tuners are "Gibson Grover's" which he thought were a copy of the waverly. I do not know what they look like so if any of you guys have had a button off of a current Gibson let me know.

Steve

[MikeEdgerton]

They aren't cheap

Post a picture of your tuners.

[slk]

Here are my tuners

[MikeEdgerton]

Those are indeed Gibson Grovers. I just pulled off a button. Two flats.

[slk]

Thanks Mike. So was the button hard to get off? Did you have to tap it any to come off? Mike Blohm said his buttons fit a square hole. I would think as small as the buttons are it might look square with 2 flats.

Steve

[hank]

I put a set of Mike Blohm's buttons on my 2006 Goldrush in 2008. Grovers with a little different finish back then, so they should fit your Grovers as well. An interesting side note is the original Handel's had silver wire inlay for the vines where Mike's uses colored epoxy fill. I haven't seen Tom Ellis's and Mary Melena's buttons so they may be different in their methods. I don't think anyone has uncovered any information on the the methods used to make the original buttons. No one knows if they inlayed the shell and wire or pressed them into soft button material. Even the co. name Handel and any affiliation it may have had with Germany comes into question when fact checks fall short on the buttons manufacture.

[MikeEdgerton]

You can modify the Gibson Grover tuners so they fit square hole buttons but you have to file each post with two more flats. In other words you make the posts square.

[Tobin]

I haven't seen Tom Ellis's and Mary Melena's buttons so they may be different in their methods. I don't think anyone has uncovered any information on the the methods used to make the original buttons. No one knows if they inlayed the shell and wire or pressed them into soft button material.

I actually had a conversation with Tom and Pava about this in their shop when they were still making the first few prototypes of theirs (I don't recall any mention of Mary Melena at that point). According to them, the original Gibson/Handel inlaid buttons were cast with the inlays already in place in the mold. They had studied a lot of them and found cases where the wire went inside the button and came out the other side, suggesting that the wire had been fixed to the surface of the mold and somehow gotten dislodged while pouring in the material. That's how I recall their description, anyway. I'm sure Tom could correct me if I'm mistaken. But they had done a lot of research and testing on it.

[slk]

Mike was very up front with me letting me know that his procedure was more of a scrimshaw type, and then filled. He just wanted to make sure I understood they were not made like the originals. He did say they are a pain to make, because everything is so small.

I am not sure I would want to file down my original tuners. Just because if I ever did decide to sell it, it should be all original. Now that being said I could get a replacement set, and just swap them out. I can't imagine them being too much???

It would be very interesting to know exactly how the originals were done. I wonder how Gibson made them for the 120th anniversary model.

Steve

[MikeEdgerton]

Gibson Grovers come up now and then and usually aren't all that cheap. Consider replacing them with some other square shaft tuner and holding the originals if that is a concern.

As for getting the button off, it's been pressed on by the screw, it's tight but it will slide off with effort. Just a side note, make sure the screw is snug on the one you tried to remove. In the first six months I had mine I lost a screw and it was almost impossible to replace. Now I keep a small screw driver in the case and check the screws on a regular basis.

[slk]

Almost every screw on mine looks like it has been peened a little so you can't get a screwdriver on it. I used a jewelers screwdriver to take that one off.

Steve

[ellisppi]

Our buttons have genuine .010" silver wire inlaid with the abalone. There are 208 inlays in a set of buttons, and we use square hole stewmac buttons. I haven't promoted these because there is just no way I can figure out to make them fast. I am making them for another company for one of their special models, when that is done, they probably will quietly get shelved. Here's a set in ebony

[slk]

Wow Tom those are gorgeous to say the least........I understand you guys have done your homework. They are truly a work or art.

Steve

[hank]

Those are Fantastic Tom. Ebony Ellis original's. I think you've knocked it out of the park.

[Don Grieser]

That's some incredible work, Tom! Wow!