Replacement Machine Heads For Red Label FG-110

I have good news!! I got the Stew Mac tuners today. I checked the fit to the 9 vintage Yamaha's I have that use that style tuner. I have a 1970 FG-110 and they fit perfectly. But, there seems to be some manufacturing variations. They fit a couple of guitars perfectly, the other 7 had some degree of misalignment that would require plugging the holes with toothpicks, glue and redrill.

This chart shows the details I found. 




AND!! I tried to swap parts between the new Stew Mac tuner and the old Yamaha tuner. I've found you can't swap the brass gear from the Stew Mac tuners to the Yamaha because the Stew Mac tuners have an internal hex to connect them to the shaft, the Yamaha tuners use a round hole with 2 flats. BUT!! You can swap the shaft AND brass gear from the Yamaha tuner to the Stew Mac tuner. They are a little bit tighter because the outside diameter of the Yamaha brass gear is .010/.015 larger than the Stew Mac, which is a good thing if your old Yamaha brass gear is a bit worn. Unfortunately you can't put the Stew Mac shaft & brass gear on the old Yamaha tuner, the hole for the shaft is a little too small, unless you'd like to drill it out.

The screw that retains the gear is a larger diameter on the Stew Mac tuner vs. the old Yamaha tuner.

I also found you can't swap the tuner knob/shaft assemblies. The distance between the retaining slots is different.

So your only option is to swap the old Yamaha shaft/brass gear to the new Stew Mac tuner. But I see no reason to do that, the Stew Mac tuner look fine.

For those that might be interested, the old Yamaha tuner is a 16:1 ratio, the new Stew Mac tuner is 14:1.  So technically the gears are different and parts shouldn't be swapped.  Oh well.  It was fun while it lasted.

I don't think there's going to a better fitting replacement tuner because of the variations in the Yamaha tuners.  Stew Mac's "Golden Age Restoration tuners may work, but they are $44 a set.  I'll let someone else try them.  www.stewmac.com/Hardware_and_Parts/Tuning_Machines/Solid_Peghead_Guitar_Tuning_Machines/Golden_Age_Restoration_Tuners_for_Solid_Peghead_Guitar_with_Scallop-end.html

Have you thought about trying to bend the errant peg head? Though I have never tried it on a vintage Yamaha, I did just do it on a Harmony guitar of the same era. The tuners are very similar to the ones on my Yamaha FG-75, other than the Yamaha tuners look like they would be easier to bend since the tuning post appears as though it could be dissassembled & fitted into a clamping jig for easier bending. On my Harmony I had to screw down the strap to another block of wood, at which point I could grip ithe post properly to bend it straight. I wouldn't say it's factory straight now but it's not noticeable to anyone who isn't looking very closely.