For luddites like me who love old, over-engineered looking machinery they are irresistable.
For instance, here's some bits of a guitar I started 5 ( ouch ) years ago
When it grows up it's going to be a sort of L00 12 fret, silky oak with a kauri top parlour-guitar ... ( due for completion 2010 ) and at the time my only option for slothead tuners seemed to be waverlys ( $$ ) or grovers ( a bit flimsy feeling, which i bought and still have up on the shelf somewhere ), but i really wanted 'three on a plate' style tuners.
These things suggest all kinds of projects ( due for commencement next decade
)
They are from Stewmac, the latest catalog arrived last night, as I'm sure many of you know ... and are US$40 ish. the only thing that scares me is that they are 'aged' somehow, which might look a bit 'copperart-ish' depending on the finish of the instrument.
Has anyone ( any of our North American friends ? ) tried them ? felt the heft of them ? given them a wiggle to check for gear-slop???
Cheers AP
