Drop in tuners.

[REHII]

I have used “Der Jung” tuners on many of my guitars. They are very high quality and don’t cost a lot of money.
I don’t see the need to spend over $100 to get great tuners.
The ones I like best are less than $30 shipped from Ali Express. They have embossed body’s and knobs that look like engraving. They come in gold and chrome and a bronze color I have not used. They are direct fit drop in for the open back tuning keys used on Martin and Eastman guitars. You don’t even have to change the press in bushings in the faceplate if you don’t want to. They come with round bushings, but Eastman has hex in the guitars I have changed . On my E40D the bushings came out easily so I used the round metal ones that came with the Der Jung tuners.
On my E6D TC Alpine the press in bushings were very very tight so I did not change them.
All it took to install the new tuners today was to remove two screws, change the tuners, and put two screws back in. On the E40D you couldn’t tell it had ever been changed. But in the E6D today the current tuners had made intentions in the back of the headstock that the new oval tuners did not compleaty cover.
But they are hardly noticeable.
The new tuners are 18:1 ratio, the same as the one that I removed, but much smoother and fancier looking with there embossing that resembles engraving.
If you want a plainer look that would fit the same and cover any indentations made by the old tuners they also make tuners with the same body shape as the originals on Martin and Eastmans but with embossed knobs and 21:1 ratio that I have used on several of my Martin guitars, including a D42 and D41 Soecial They are a little more expensive but still less than $40.
They also make a sealed tuner I have used that are 21:1 that is a direct drop in that look and work very much like the $200 tuners but cost less than $50.
Here are some photos to show the tuners and how they are straight drop in.