Tuner replacement

[gdeleo]

I have a new 2018 OM-40 with open back tuners. I would like to replace them with Waverly open back tuners. Does anyone know if Waverly' are a drop in replacement.
I tried doing several searches but most of those discussions are years old.  
Nothing is wrong with the current tuners I just prefer Waverly's.

Thanks for your help!


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[George]

The Vintage style Open Back tuners from Waverly, Schaller, Grover, Larrivee and others will all drop right in the paddle shaped non-slotted Larrivee headstock.  For me the tuning ratio is the key.  The Waverly's are 16:1 and all of the others mentioned are generally 18:1.  The best priced deal are the engraved Larrivee open back ones with 18:1 tuning ratio that the 40 series currently ship with.  The smoothest set I have found so far are the Schaller Grand Tune, if you can find any...  The Grover Statite are 18:1 as well and were standard on the original 40 series.  One thing you must be aware of is that the ferrule that goes on top of the headstock will vary in shaft diameter across most of the makers.  They are not all the same, but if you are will to tackle the job of removing the old ones and installing the new ones it is well worth the effort...

[gdeleo]

Thanks for the reply. From reading your post I assume that it's not a drop in replacement.


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[George]

Depends.  For example, if your 40 came with the engraved open back tuners from Larrivee, the Waverly shaft tops are larger so the ferrule bushings have to be changed to install them  The Schaller Grandtune are likely the same as the ones it came with. The Grover Statite shafts are bigger...  There are scale drawings with dimensions for them all to compare to, but changing the ferrule bushings is not difficult...

[Walkerman]

Stewmac sells conversion bushings.

[George]

Stewmac sells conversion bushings.

I have used those as well and they work too...

[Mikeymac]

Stewmac sells conversion bushings.

If you're going from one open back tuner set to another, you probably won't need conversion bushings. I've needed them before on guitars that had closed back tuners (my '92 Larrivee OM-05 which had closed back Schallers on it, and just a couple weeks ago, on my 2015 Gibson J-45, which had the heavy Grovers on it).

It depends on how the tuner holes were drilled. I also replaced the Grover tuners on my Martin D-35 (they were just like the Gibson Grovers except for finish), but because of the way Martin drilled the holes, I didn't need conversion bushings (I put a set of Gotoh SE700 tuners on the D-35).

[gdeleo]

Thanks for all of the help that I received.  I changed out my tuners today with no problem.  The Larrivee bushings hole were not large enough so I pushed them out and installed the Waverly ones, no drilling required.  All of the holes including the screw hole did line up.

Gary