Cheap non-fuctional tuners

[Steven Wilson]

Hello- I am coming to this well of great knowledge for some ideas.
While the market is soft for Hand Made Custom guitars right now, I was approched by a new guitar themed bar in Reno to make menu holders shaped like head stocks. "Sure, I can make that." They want them to look much like real head stocks as possible. I got plenty of scrap wood and shop time so I made a few prototypes. Here's the rub- now they want tuners. Any ideas on making something that looks like tuners but don't need to work?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater

Thanks
Steven

[Adam Savage]

Hi Steven,
Im not sure if it will be of any use to you, but just did a quick search on eBay and found at least one seller with 6 tuning pegs for less than $10. Perhaps it would be easiest for you to just find the cheapest tuners you can and use those? Rather than searching for something non-functional.
Cheers,
Adam

[Steven Wilson]

Thanks Adam
I did the same thing and couldn't find any that I could get 24+ reliably and was hoping to get them less then $6. They are just decoration so I don't know how much extra I can charge.
The other thing I need some advice on is making water-lift labels. Can I take a pdf to a Staples or like and have them print them?
Thanks

[Steve Senseney]

Cute idea!!

WIll the rest part of the guitar be used as the base for the table?

[Steven Wilson]

Cute idea!!

WIll the rest part of the guitar be used as the base for the table?

If I can talk them into it!
My neighbor did make bar stools out of reject bodies from his son's guitar factory. That's pretty cool.

[Mario Proulx]

You can easily find tuners at under $5/set, wholesale. They won't be great, but these don't need to actually be functional......

[Greg Robinson]

If you're an Allparts dealer they have tuners for $6 a set...

[Louie Atienza]

Pretty cool! How about friction pegs, you probably can mock something up with a smaller dowel for the shafts and cut a larger one for knobs. You can call them "fiction" pegs....

[Patrick Kirkham]

Tuner shapes cut from 1/4 inch ply, probably use a pattern and make it 3 a side so you can dupe a bunch.
Glue on, paint silver. Cut some 1/4 inch rod stock for the part poking thru face of headstock, drill, glue, drive em in.

[Steven Wilson]

Thanks for the replies. I'm not a whole seller so ebay is really my only option on cheap tuners. I've never really trusted that and all the ones I've found don't have enough quantity. I like the dowel idea and might try that. In the mean time here is what I've come with. The economy tuners from stew-mac and some fake ones made with old buttons and brass tubing.
Thanks again
Steven

[Randy Roberts]

Those are really cool!

I would think the fake ones would be better, otherwise the posts are going to rub on the menus and possibly wear them out sooner. On the other hand I can picture people sitting there and twisting the buttons while they wait for their food though, so that would argue for the real thing I would think.

I would also lean towards bar top polyurethane vs FP <g>.

[Clay Schaeffer]

You could cut sections of dowels for tuner buttons and drill and epoxy tubing or nails (or bolts if you want a screw head to show) for the shaft if the customer prefers the peghead without the posts. For the one with the posts the cheap Chinese ebay tuners might be the best option.