Hello people!!
I have a number of older MIJ budget guitar from the 60's and 70's.
95% of them use the old open-gear tuning strips with the oval plastic buttons.
Some of them are so worn, they can barely stay in tune for five minutes!?
I can purchase modern tuners that will look ALMOST like the originals.
Many of those though, are no-name tuners of unknown quality.
The Kluson & Gotoh tuners....made for the Fender Mustang (even though not a one-piece strip)....look quite close to the stock tuners.
They would be a considerable upgrade from stock....but then quality costs doesn't it?
Should I replace the working stock tuners too?
I PLAY these old guitars....they are NOT wall-hangers.
But then ANY investment value would go right out the window, wouldn't they?
Funny as it sounds, it seems these old el-cheapo Japanese guitars have been "discovered"?
Although you can still get some of them fairly cheap from a less-than-knowledgeable pawn shop.
BTW: Some of the scratchy pots I could not fix by cleaning....I did replace with modern pots (CTS & CGE) of the same value.

Steve :scratch2:

Rebuild the ones on there with parts from a new set. This is what I did on my Martin Classical.