Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: Banjo-Flower
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 02:31 PM

my banjo is fitted with Gotoh's best thing i ever did was having them fitted,tune up at the beggining of the night then forget about it.incredible

Gerry

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: alex s
Date: 15 Apr 09 - 03:03 PM

Thanks John, useful stuff.................lol :)>

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: The Barden of England
Date: 15 Apr 09 - 01:58 PM

My Fylde Oberon has Gotoh tuners. Not that I use them much :-)
John Barden

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: alex s
Date: 15 Apr 09 - 10:31 AM

What is the general consensus re the 1:18 Gotoh tuners? I've always like Schallers, but I've been hearing good things about Gotohs. Fitted some Grovers recently but I'm not impressed - sloppy action with occasional "kinks".

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 12 Jun 08 - 02:33 PM

Dang! I just found out from th person who supplied the machine heads I got that he put them in a Gotoh box he had lying about! Big red herring!

He tells me: -

"The machine heads are made by the German company "Kolb"
The buttons are designed by Gilbert Diaz.
They were standard on many of Guild's high end guitars"

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 05:37 PM

Thank You

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: ThreeSheds
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 01:04 PM

In the early seventies Gotoh were sold under the brand name Gotoh Guht

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 12:00 PM

Interesting...

Sims confess to not knowing but think the maker might be Gotoh.

Stew-Mac are positively obstructive and infuriating - they say
"Richard,
Thank you for contacting us. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide contact information for our suppliers, as they typically do not deal directly to the public. I am sorry we could not be more helpful.

If you have any other questions or comments, please contact us.

Best regards,

Christine McMillian
Customer Service"

I am tempted to ask her if she knows what "Customer Service" actually is.

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 09:03 AM

Interesting search Richard........but I think your snowball is melting fast. I think you'll be best off going the Vintage/Collector/Old Luthier route.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 08:05 AM

We are gaining! I am told: - "Gotoh parts are manufactured by Eikosha Musical Instrument Company, in Japan"

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 07:33 AM

More emails sent.

Interestingly, if your info, Zen, means what it says, then if Hosco were the makers of Gotoh, then the machine heads I am looking for, definitely early to mid 60s, are in a box that is not the original box... since Gotoh did not exist then!

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: ThreeSheds
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 07:17 AM

Gotohs are excellant tuners and I understand that they make tuners for many top brands eg Lowden, werent the early Gotoh tuners Schaller copies? why not look at fitting some Schallers

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: Zen
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 06:40 AM

As an ex guitar repairman (still do a bit for friends and locals) I am interested in this too.

As a follow-up to the Hosco link I posted earlier, here's a little bit more information I found about them.

HOSOKAWA & CO., LTD. (HOSCO)--81, Kawamura-cho, Moriyama-ku, Nagoya 463, Japan. Telephone: [phone]. Fax: [phone]. Email: [e-mail]. Website: www.hosco.co.jp. Contacts: Tsutomu (Tom) Hosokawa, Shinji Hosokawa, Yoshi Sawada.

This company, established in 1983, has striven to provide distributors around the world with reasonably priced, high-quality instruments and accessories from Japan and China. The company opened a guitar and hardware factory in China, using Japanese expertise and high technology to further its aims of low prices and high quality. In 1996 it changed the company name to Hosokawa & Co., Ltd. (HOSCO); it was formerly known as Saga Japan.

The company provides the following products with better service and finer quality: steel-string and nylon-string guitars; violins; guitar bags and cases; guitar and other stands; Gotoh machine heads and hardware; electric and...

Zen

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: theleveller
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 04:08 AM

Another thought, Richard; why don't you email the vintage guitar expert, Paul Brett, who writes for Acoustic magazine, and see if he can help?

His website is

www.fret-dancer.com

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: theleveller
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 03:48 AM

Richard, David Dyke Luthier Supplies have some Gotoh machine heads. Don't know if they're what you're after, but they may know where to get them.

They're on

www.luthierssupplies.co.uk

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 03:44 AM

PS - the current Gotoh SG30s are very different!

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 03:39 AM

Well, I've emailed all of those anyway. We shall see.

I am trying to trace the Gotoh SG30-01C (gold) machine head and its german silver counterpart. I know they were in manufacture in 1964!

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 02:54 AM

Sims Custom Shop offers "Factory Ibanez Gotoh" tuners (scroll down to Tuners), and a couple of other places I've seen have mentioned "xxxx Gotoh" as if "Gotoh" is perhaps a patent or a characterisitc design manufactured by one or more "factories" that may or may not have the name Gotoh as part of their identity.

Perhaps (just guessing) there is no Gotoh factory, but Gotoh style tuners are made by several shops, and they're all called "Gotohs." (???????)

Sort of like every $3 fiddle Sears Roebuck ever sold said "Stradivarius" on the inside. ... (?)

John

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 07:55 PM

Six gave you a good joint.Stewart-MacDonald (Stew-Mac)is one helluva' place. I live about 40 miles up the road from Athens and love to go there. Great place! THey may have more info if you contact them by e-mail. I have a Gotoh box sitting right here (albeit about 6 years old) and it doesn't say squat besides Gotoh and Japan.

If Stew-Mac doesn't have it then my guess is it may be unavailable but do look through the entire list, not just Bill's link.....On Bill's linked page, type just the name Gotoh in their SEARCH box and it will pull up 4 pages of products.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 07:24 PM

These these guys aren't the manufacturers but they might be able to provide the contact for the manufacturer.

StewMac is a pretty good supplier for stringed instrument parts (BTW).

StuMac

biLL

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: cptsnapper
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 06:27 PM

If you go to Highly Strung's website http://www.highlystrung.co.uk/acatalog/Machine_heads.html
they may be able to help you as they stock Gotoh machine heads. Actually back in thew days when Nigel Thornbory made & repaired guitars he used them & mine have been going for 27 years. Superb.
Hope that that helps

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 05:40 PM

Thank you Don, but I am looking for the makers as I am hoping to be able to get some very obsolete machines from them!

Thank you Zen, I had been there, and I don't think they can be the makers as so few types of machine head are in their catalogue.

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: Zen
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 02:39 PM

I think it could be the Hosco Company.

Details here.

Zen

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: Mooh
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 01:12 PM

Can't help you with actual place of manufacture, but I love the Gotoh 510 machine heads and have them on one electric, four acoustic guitars, and another on the way. Smooth, good ratio, nicely made, good looks, choice of buttons, and best of all they are easy to retrofit to my guitars.

I'm curious how this thread is answered too.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: Don Firth
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 01:00 PM

Richard, I thought I'd seen them mentioned in an Elderly Instruments catalog, so I did a quicky search and came up with this:

CLICKY.

A couple of the ones they list look like what I have on my steel-string "GO-GW" travel guitar. They're great!

I hope this helps.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 12:46 PM

No, Gotoh. They make machine heads for guitars and mandolins and they make floating bridge assemblies for electric guitars etc etc.

Subject: RE: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 12:40 PM

Are you meaning 'Koto?'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koto_%28musical_instrument%29

Subject: Gotoh Machine heads (tuners)?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Jun 08 - 11:17 AM

Some rumaging on the internet has proved unproductive so far.
Can anyone point me to the name and contact detals of the actual manufacturer (presumably in Japan) of Gotoh machine heads?