One Of A Kind 2009 Maritime SWS Folk HG

An update on this guitar. After auditioning the Faith guitars a few days ago, the one thing that I really liked was the flat black ebony tuner buttons. I never really like the orange buttons on this guitar. Yea they kind of go with the burst, but they stand out too much. I like the way the Faith buttons aren't very noticable. So I searched for replacement buttons for a Seagull guitar. I found many people saying the large style Shaller buttons fit fine. But I couldn't find any cheap ones on eBay or Amazon. The only options were $26 and up. So I bit the bullet and bought them from trusty Stew Mac for $26 plus $10 for shipping. $10 for shipping!!!! They only weigh an ounce, maybe!! I wanted to have them on for Saturday morning for when I audition the Seagull Artist Portrait. I always get 2 day delivery from Stew Mac (Ohio) so I knew I'd get them in time.

They came yesterday. I removed one of the old buttons and the first thing I notices are the screws they supplied (gold with a regular screwdriver slot) are 1/8" shorter than the existing screw (nickel with phillips drive). I sent off an email to Stew Mac asking for the right length screws. I installed them anyway with the old screws.

When retuning the D string the tuner suddenly slipped!! I checked the tightness of the screw. It slipped again!! The new ebony button was spinning on the shaft!! I checked the rest and found one more that slipped. I checked some dimensions with my dial calipers. The flats on the shaft measure .135". The internal flats on the orange buttons are .145. The internal flats on the ebony buttons are .150". That extra .005" combined with the wood being more flexible than the plastic orange buttons caused 2 of them to fail!! I fired off a nastygram to Stew Mac. I AM NOT HAPPY!! Of course they're going to ask some questions. I'll have to admit these are Seagull tuners, not Shaller. And not the original tuner buttons, although I can check some other guitars. What will they do??

I'm figuring I can use regular superglue to build up the internal flats on the ebony buttons. Just be REAL CAREFUL to not get any superglue on the outside of the tuner button!!!! But I won't do anything until I hear from Stew Mac.

NOPE! All Stew Mac offered is a refund or an exchange. The last I checked the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. If the screws packaged with the buttons are the wrong length and the buttons are slightly too loose on the tuner shaft, I don't expect another set is going to fix the problem.

I tried dropping some superglue on the inner flats but it isn't hardening and I have no idea if it's in the right place or the right thickness. Should I do it to the other 4? What was the definition of insanity??

That's a good idea. They're a bit more stable than wood. I'm going to see how the 2 ebony buttons turned out after added superglue to the internal flats. If it works I may do the other 4. If it fails the next option may be to paint the orange ones. The only problem could be if they get hit and the paint chips.