Just wanted to post a quick review of the Schaller Grand Tune tuners I just got to replace the Taylor originals in my 322 12-fret slothead.
To recap, I went thru about 5 different options before settling on the Schallers. My priorities were not to get ripped off by Stew-Mac (apologies to their fans), zero lag when tuning, and to find something cosmetically similar.
Pic below shows before and after. I'm aware that the thing you just bought is always brilliantly fantastic cause you just spent money on it, but honestly, tuning is so much smoother with zero lag. I will never record slightly out of tune ever again. Using these Schallers are such a pleasure.
I'm aware that some of you 322 guys have no problems with the tuners Taylor put on them and I can only say it's the luck of the draw. Of the 6 I removed, 3 were perfect, but 3 had a significant lag -almost 90 degrees out of 360. If you have one or two laggy tuners you want to replace lemme know.
Installation was a breeze as the two screw holes are in the exact same position as the original tuners. The Schaller tuner plates have countersunk holes for the screws so the screws fit flush and penetrate slightly deeper than the originals. I was initially concerned with the fact that the Schaller string post is about 0.3mm thinner than the Taylor one, and there is no bushing to place in the headstock, but this seems not to be an issue in use.
Below is Schaller's website for the tuners. US sellers for their entire line seem to be rare but Guitar Center carries the gold and nickel ones and Reverb has quite a variety of them. I was lucky to find a French vendor ("fretdreamer") on eBay with the copper finish I wanted.
https://schaller.info/en/machine-heads/274/grandtune-single?number=10510823.44.20&c=53Pros: Half the cost of Waverlys, similar appearance to originals, zero lag, exact drop in replacement
Cons: Not free, 10 day wait from France via eBay.
