Great experience with Collings/Stewmac

[tomobedlam]

I just wanted to share a good experience I had. I bought a Collings MF-O on Reverb, very nice one with a gloss top at a decent price. I wanted to change out the strings because though it was "new" it'd been sitting around awhile, but once I got into it I realized the tuners were really bad. They were so stiff that I was seriously afraid that I was going to bust the shaft of the tuner, almost impossible to turn with bare fingers and I had to resort to using a string winding thing to get it in tune.

Well I sent an email to Collings and they replied within an hour and told me they were having Stew Mac send me a new set of Golden Age tuners for it since there were a batch of bad ones around the time mine was made. Stew mac also replied immediately and they are already on the way. Whether they will be worth using or not, I'm not sure, maybe someone else has experience with the newer Golden Age F tuners? Anyhow i was happy with the customer service of both companies and thought I'd share something good.

[mandroid]

I have their Elite A's *, (my F has Schallers')


.. Before you put your new ones on , give them a little lubrication and spln the knob shafts with a crank winder

to wear them in a bit.

* badly installed waverly were replaced by, those, * the more miss spaced post holes tolerant tuners..

stew mac replaced the waverly, after attempting a repair ..

[Michael Neverisky]

I, maybe someone else has experience with the newer Golden Age F tuners? .

Same experience here with my 2012 MTO. Collings and StewMac replaced them free. Twice. First time due to poor (stiff) operation and second due to a loose and noisy button. The second and third sets functioned better than the first... but there's still room for improvement IMO.

[billykatzz]

Yep, same thing for me. I bought a used MT with the Golden Age tuners and I experienced the same problem: they were incredibly stiff and a pain to use. I contacted Collings and got a new set of tuners from Stew-Mac that were a HUGE improvement.

I purchased a set of Gotoh MA-40 tuners to see if I could retrofit them on the MT, but for proper installation the tuner holes in the headstock needs to be routed a bit on the back. Since the new Golden Age tuners are now working quite well, I decided not to futz with it. So... if anyone want a set of new MA-40 tuners let me know.

[Jon Hall]

My Golden age tuners were really stiff but I used a lubricant Nut Sauce on the tuner gears and the string slots in the nut and now they work perfectly.

[Caleb]

Same experience I had with my MT. The replacement Golden Age tuners weren’t much better than the duds. I wish StewMac would go back to the drawing board with these.

[colorado_al]

Same story here on a Collings MT I had. Collings and StewMac were great about replacing them, but the Golden Age tuners that came, were better, but not great. I sold them for $40 and bought some Rubners. Huge upgrade that was well worth it!

[LadysSolo]

After reading in some other threads about the MT tuners, I ordered a set of Rubners to have on hand for when my MT tuners go bad. That may never happen, but it has happened enough to other people that I decided to be prepared!

[Michael Neverisky]

I don't think the Golden Age tuners "go bad" as much as some of them are very stiff due to they inexpensive way they are manufactured.

I know it's been discussed before but are the Rubner tuners a drop fit?

[Ron McMillan]

A custom maker supplied a mandolin to me that was a replacement for one he had the cheek to send me despite it being the wrong colour. He sent it with Golden Age tuners (without asking if it was OK to use them - the previous mandolin had far superior, and more expensive tuners). The Golden Age things were awful. I paid good money to replace them.

[RobP]

I got my warranty replacements from StewMac this week. They are so much smoother than the old ones! I was all set to buy some Rubners but I thought I would give the free route a try first. So far, so good - great customer service from both Collings and StewMac!

Cheers,

Rob

[Ivan Kelsall]

From billykatzz - " I purchased a set of Gotoh MA-40 tuners ...". It's a pity that you didn't fit the Gotoh's,or have them fitted.
Tom Ellis fit's Gotoh MA40's or Waverlies to his mandolins. I have MA40's on my Ellis DeLuxe "A" style & they're as smooth in operation as any tuners you could buy - as are the Schaller tuners on my Weber & Lebeda,although they are a more expensive tuner.

Gotoh MA40's,considering their relatively inexpensive cost,are an excellent tuner if installed correctly,
Ivan

[BrianWilliam]

Nut Sauce

Ha!