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The previous owner of my 80s Stelling installed a set of 4 gold tuners, including 2 Keith D-tuners, on my banjo.
Since I don’t use the D-tuners, and there are no other gold parts on the banjo, I’ve been thinking about swapping out the 4 for a different set.
Among the various tuners available now, what would be most appropriate for this banjo? I’m ok with buying the priciest, if that’s the most sensible choice.
Thanks for any opinions. Maybe it’s not all that important. I only want to do it once.
I own a 1979 or maybe a 1980 Bellflower (I think - within a year anyway!) My banjo came with the five star tuners. I know that some years later Stelling switched and began using Schaller tuners, that were branded "stelling." These were, if not mistaken, the very same tuner that Gibson used all thru the 70's into the early 80's that were marked "Gibson." They are VERY good tuners, but so are the five star tuners, which are owned by Stewmac, the same company that also owns Waverly tuners. So - either of those were or could have been original equipment on your banjo. The Stelling website may have more information about which tuners were used on which years.
Unfortunately, Schaller doesn't make banjo tuners any more. Used sets turn up from time to time.
Do you think the fifth string tuner is original? What kind of button does it have? What shape shaft? That could give you a hint as to what you might be after.
If Waverly tuners are still available from Stew-Mac, I think they'd be a fine choice. No one seems to offer the same glassy pearloid buttons that Schaller did.
Edited to add: Stew-Mac is selling Waverlys on eBay for less than than on their own site
Gotoh may be the best value. Especially from Smakula Fretted Insteuments.
Edited by - Old Hickory on 05/08/2026 18:22:21
The 5th string peg isn’t original.
The banjo is left-hand, and when I had it refretted and set up at Geoff’s shop I provided him with a 5th peg which I had converted to left-hand configuration following Richie Dotson’s tutorial. Geoff removed the original 5th peg and installed my lefty peg.
I don’t remember what the original peg was. I probably still have it put away. Thanks for that idea.
Thanks to everyone who weighed in with an opinion here. I recognize any decent set of tuners would work fine. I was trying to get the peghead back to its original status.
Well, here's the Schaller B4 banjo tuning peg on the Schaller website. And while I can find a link on the page to button styles, I don't see any way to actually order these.
If you're interested in something that looks like Stelling tuners, you could write to Schaller through the website to ask if these are available to order.
Schaller used to make an "eccentric" (off-center) tuner, which I think is what Stelling used. It's definitely what Gibson used in 70s and into the 80s. But I haven't seen those for years.
Good luck.
Thanks Ken, for spending time thinking about this. I appreciate it.
I’m not a fanatic about originalism, so I’ll probably go back through these suggestions and pick something commercially available.
That was such a no-brainer idea to check the 5th peg. Duh!
That will be my first stop, looking for that peg.
Thanks again.
Glad to have helped.
My suggestion to check the fifth string tuner was to see if its shaft was square (Schaller) or oblong with rounded ends (almost everything else) or noticeably smaller (recent Gotoh).
Here's a complete set of old Schallers on eBay. I don't think they're the same model as the ones that were stamped "Stelling." Pretty sure those were the off-center ones. Someone one eBay has two of those in gold to sell. Doesn't do you much good.
quote:
Originally posted by ban-joeI’m not a fanatic about originalism, so I’ll probably go back through these suggestions and pick something commercially available.
There's a set of unused old stock Schaller tuners in the Hangout classifieds. $175 for full set of five. Straight-through planets, not eccentric.
Maybe you can negotiate a bit. Plus, I'd expect you could recoup some of your cost by selling the fifth string tuner for at least $35. That's pricier than a new Gotoh fifth, but Schallers were costing more than Gotohs when they went out of production.
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