Gibson Ventura machine heads

[Tiny_Daddy]

I have this old Gibson Ventura that could use some new machine heads. But I don't know where to get them or what will fit?

[Geezer]

Hmmm, didn't know Gibson made a "Ventura" model......sure it's not a Gibson copy made by a company called Ventura? I've seen some of those.

Have any pics?

Gibson made several incarnations of the "Futura">>>

[tubesornothing]

beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

[Shrapnel]

That first pic looks an awful lot like an explorer. which came first?

They were certainly ahead of their time with some of their models: the V, the Explorer, and the Futura.

Wish I knew how to help with those tuners.

[G._Hoffman]

I have this old Gibson Ventura that could use some new machine heads. But I don't know where to get them or what will fit?

Well, the first question is, why do you think you need new gears?  If you are experiencing tuning problems, the gears are unlikely to be your problem, unless you've got a striped worm gear.  There are a lot of things more likely to be causing tuning problems, though, and I would check with a good repair shop to see if there was something else going on first.

At any rate, any authorized Gibson Warranty shop will have some Gibson gears laying around.  If not, they can get them, though Gibson is very limited in the parts they sell, so if your gears are much different from a Les Paul, you won't be able to get an OEM part, and will have to look at other gears.  Still, a good shop should be able to help you find what you need.  Bring the guitar in with you!  You can't imagine how frustrating it is when someone comes in and asks, "do you have the gears for a {brand X} {model Y}.  We really have got to see it to know.


Gabriel

[Tiny_Daddy]

Oops yeah, no Gibson involved here, it's a Ventura. The customer wants new heads because the finish is gone and a few mounting screws are missing they don't look so good. I was able to find the other hardware, sold as Gibson parts so I assumed.... But maybe I can talk him out of replacing the heads.

[G._Hoffman]

Well, if it's just mounting screws, they can be replaced pretty easily.  All Parts has two sizes, and one of them will work for any set of gears I can think of.


Gabriel

[Geezer]

That first pic looks an awful lot like an explorer. which came first?

That (1st) Futura was the prototype for the Explorer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson_Futura

[Shrapnel]

Thx for the link Geezer.

I'm definitely going to take a good look at it.

[jjasilli]

Yes, please state the nature of the problem.  Many cheap machine heads are horrible to use, and an upgrade is real improvement.  Usual problems are jerkiness, anb bad turning ratio.  This makes it hard and frustrating to dial-in the correct pitch.  For a nice smooth tuner coupled with an authentic Gibson look, I am very happy with both the:  Tone-Pro's-Kluson re-issue tuners, carried by rsguitarworks among others; and the Gotoh gibson copies.  They both look great and are a genuine pleasure to use. 

If you order the right size, they are a drop-in replacement.  A deciding factor copuld be insert size, and avoidiong the need to ream-out the peghead holes.