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Thread: Help With Waverly Tuner

  1. #1
    Registered User Matt's Avatar
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    Default Help With Waverly Tuner

    I could use some input regarding a tuner from a '24 A2Z please. The tuners are Waverlies, rounded ends, not squared or arrowheads. The buttons appear to be pearl with nice little domed screws holding them on to the posts. Are they pearl? Second, one of the posts has lost the screw that runs through the gear which attaches to the post. does any one know where I could find a replacement screw? Currently the mandolin has the Stewart-MacDonald reproductions. If I could reattach the post/gear I think these would look really good mounted back on the mandolin.
    Thank you for feedbacking!



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    Last edited by Matt; Feb-17-2022 at 8:52pm.

  2. #2
    Registered User sunburst's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help With Waverly Tuner

    The buttons are almost certainly pearl, although some I've seen look a lot like the buttons (for clothing) that were made from fresh water mussel shells (makes me wonder).

    For the screw, your best bet might be a repair shop that has been around long enough to have a large tuner 'graveyard'. Finding new fasteners to match can be a real challenge, and there is a chance that someone somewhere has some of those screws. You would probably have to carry the tuners to them for them to find a match, but good pictures, size and thread count might make it possible to find one through communication.

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  4. #3
    Moderator MikeEdgerton's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help With Waverly Tuner

    There's a member of the cafe that has got these, or at least he had them a while back. It's an odd sized screw. If he doesn't jump in I'll see if I can remeber who it was.
    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
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  5. #4
    Registered User Matt's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help With Waverly Tuner

    Thank you John and Mike, I've got a small graveyard that has a Waverly set sporting flat-head screws that are designed to fit flush with the surface of the tuner frame. I've tried these screws on the pearl tuner set, they aren't the same look at all but they seem to hold the post and gear together. I haven't mounted them on a mandolin and tried stringing it up to see if it holds. Thought I'd try here first to find a correct screw.
    Last edited by Matt; Feb-17-2022 at 9:58pm.

  6. #5
    Moderator MikeEdgerton's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help With Waverly Tuner

    I can't find the thread I'm looking for but I did find a thread where Paul Hostetter mentioned the size of the screw holding the cog was 4-36.
    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
    --M. Stillion

    "Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
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    Registered User sunburst's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help With Waverly Tuner

    ...4-36 - domed head - black finish...
    I'll have a look in my graveyard and see what I can find, but that looks a lot like 3 strikes before stepping up to the plate.

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    Default Re: Help With Waverly Tuner

    Hi Mike, that was me.

    I can supply 4-36 slotted flat head screws for your Waverly tuners. I was fortunate to find some new old stock. Most need 3/16” length, some use 1/4” length. I have both sizes. I have never found a source for screws with round or oval heads. Hopefully John can find a matching screw in his graveyard. If not contact me and I can send a set of flathead ones your way that you can try, some cogs will take a flathead screw, others can’t.

    Yours is the second A2-Z I’ve heard of that came with those silver plated pearl handled tuners, there may be others in the Archives. The other one I saw has a 1923 FON but wasn’t finished and shipped until 1925. That would explain the worm-over tuners with the new spacing since that transition happened in 1925 according to Joe Spann. Joe described that some instruments left the wood shop and were stored until they were needed to fill an order. At that point they were finished, the tuner holes were drilled and the other hardware added. Why silver plated tuners would be used on a budget A2-Z model is a bit of a mystery though.

    Mark

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    Registered User William Smith's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help With Waverly Tuner

    I had a set of those bump end silver plated engraved pearl button tuners, I had them converted to F-5 tuners as they had a few busted shafts. I gave them to my Uncle. With Gibson any combo was possible, I had a snakehead plain A-1 with Loar style silver pearl arrowhead tuners.

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  11. #9
    Registered User Matt's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help With Waverly Tuner

    Mark Lynch, I sent a message, let me know if it didn’t go through. Thank you
    Last edited by Matt; Feb-18-2022 at 5:21pm.

  12. #10
    Registered User Matt's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help With Waverly Tuner

    Mark, when measuring the screw length from the top of the screw head to the thread end it's 1/4". When measuring only the threads it's more like 3/16". If you could sell one of each that might be the way to go. Let me know how I can reimburse you including postage.
    Thank you,
    Matt



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  13. #11
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    Default Re: Help With Waverly Tuner

    Quote Originally Posted by MarkELynch View Post
    Hi Mike, that was me.

    I can supply 4-36 slotted flat head screws for your Waverly tuners. I was fortunate to find some new old stock. Most need 3/16” length, some use 1/4” length. I have both sizes. I have never found a source for screws with round or oval heads. Hopefully John can find a matching screw in his graveyard. If not contact me and I can send a set of flathead ones your way that you can try, some cogs will take a flathead screw, others can’t.

    Yours is the second A2-Z I’ve heard of that came with those silver plated pearl handled tuners, there may be others in the Archives. The other one I saw has a 1923 FON but wasn’t finished and shipped until 1925. That would explain the worm-over tuners with the new spacing since that transition happened in 1925 according to Joe Spann. Joe described that some instruments left the wood shop and were stored until they were needed to fill an order. At that point they were finished, the tuner holes were drilled and the other hardware added. Why silver plated tuners would be used on a budget A2-Z model is a bit of a mystery though.

    Mark

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    Yes it was you! I just couldn't remember.
    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
    --M. Stillion

    "Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
    --J. Garber

  14. #12
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    Default Re: Help With Waverly Tuner

    Hi Matt,

    Here is a little diagram to explain how to measure the length of a screw or bolt. Round head screws are measured from the underside of the head, the oval and flat head are measured from the sharp edge on the head. Does your tuner cog have a countersunk area that the underside of the flat head screw can bear against?

    Mark

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    Mark Lynch

  15. #13

    Default Re: Help With Waverly Tuner

    Having some small washers on hand can help substitute for wrong head dimensions, or having to do tricky screw shortening, for which process having matching nuts is important. If anyone does much of this hardware repair, a thing called a screw plate helps with sizing and deburring tiny screws. Taps should be last resort because a broken one can be almost impossible to remove at this scale.

  16. #14
    Registered User Matt's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help With Waverly Tuner

    Mark I responded to your message and asked for 4 screws of each type that you have. PayPal sent.
    I measured from the top of the round headed screw to the bottom of the screw threads and came up with a 1/4”. From the underside of the head the measurement is 3/16”. One of yours ought to work just fine. A screw from an extra tuner set has a flat head but it does screw in properly but seems to be a bit short. I think with what you are supplying I’ll have one that works.

  17. #15
    Registered User Matt's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help With Waverly Tuner

    Thanks for all your help guys! I’m a complete hack when it comes to things that require engineering skills, thats why I was a salesman!

  18. #16
    coprolite mandroid's Avatar
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    Question Re: Help With Waverly Tuner

    NB: Antique Waverly are a whole different story than the precisely machined ones Stew Mac makes and services now.

    It's Oyster shell, 'Mother of Pearl' rather than some cultured irritant placed in the oyster to be coated by the Bivalve in the bay.

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  19. #17
    Registered User sunburst's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help With Waverly Tuner

    Quote Originally Posted by mandroid View Post
    ...It's Oyster shell, 'Mother of Pearl' rather than some cultured irritant placed in the oyster to be coated by the Bivalve in the bay...
    To be specific (or is it generic?), it is Pinctada sp. and not members of the family Ostreidae which includes the oysters we eat. It is nacre, and we commonly call it "pearl".

  20. #18
    Registered User Matt's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help With Waverly Tuner

    Silver and Mother of Pearl, with all that going for them I'm going have to put the tuners back the instrument!

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