Guitar Reviews 4U - Gretsch 5420T Machine Heads upgrade to Wilkinson WJ45 machine head units

 

Guitar Reviews 4U - Gretsch 5420T Machine Heads upgrade

The Wilkinson WJ45 Machine Heads - I use the Chrome ones in this upgrade

I had been considering doing this upgrade on my 2016 Korean made 5420T for some time to replace the original units for improved tuning stability, its a straightforward job to do. 

I chose these units as they will fit the existing bushings and are 2 screw fixing - although I had to drill new holes. They also are based on the Kluson style units from the 1950's so look the job. 

A shame that Gretsch didn't use the the sealed units from the modern Streamliner 2420 guitars on the Electromatic as they are much better.

I had a set of Wilkinson WJ45 3 + 3 units to go on the guitar in my spare parts stock. They are also 2 screw fixing type and based on a Kluson style design with a better gear ratio than the ones on the guitar at present.

Remember to check any screw sizes before drilling! 

I am re-using the original screws that were on the guitar. 

Later guitars may have different sized screws. 

Always check the size twice before drilling!

The original unit left and the Wilkinson at right

Notice a moulded on collar on the original, more on that later!

Firstly, before removing a machine head unit I placed a small piece of masking tape under the machine head base lower side to ensure I had a straight line to work to after removing the original one. The original small holes for the baseplate do not match the hole spaces on the new WJ45 units so the old ones would have to be filled. 

I used a PZ1 Screwdriver to remove the screws and it fitted the ones on the guitar fine. (Take care here removing the screws and ensure your screwdriver really fits well as the last pack of WJ45's I got for another job didn't have any new screws or bushings in and small screw heads are easy to damage.) If you rip the screw head recess this creates a real headache to get the screw out!

The original unit left - Wilkinson Right -

Wilkinson with Stainless Bush as shown front.

Bush is 8mm OD Stainless tube bored to 6mm and 6mm tall

9mm OD Tube could be used for a tighter outside fit.

The Bushings in the Head stock were the same size as the new Wilkinson ones so I did not remove the old ones as the WJ45 posts fitted them fine, I did lube them carefully where the post touched the collar area.

I used cut down cocktail sticks to make filler plugs for the old holes that had to be filled as they did not line up to the holes on the baseplate of the new units. To do this cut off the sharpest part of a cocktail stick point at 3mm or 1/8" from the tip so there is still some taper on it, then using the original screw depth of 9mm, measure on and cut a c. 9mm filler plug from the stick to that length. This means you likely won't have any excess to trim off.

I used a small amount of PVA resin Wood Glue to glue the plugs in and this worked well - don't overpack the hole with glue as it may stop a tight fitting plug going in fully. I ensured the plugs were to the level of the headstock rear face by using the flat end of my scalpel blade holder to seat them flush.

One of the old screw holes is covered over by the new machine head under the plate on each new unit, but I decided to fill both old holes for each unit to make a good job of it. Once the new WJ45 machines are in place and the glue has had a day to dry out, I can paint match the exposed plugs.

Masking tape strip to help line up the new unit

I've done the E and A string units here.

I greased the new units before installing through the oil hole on the 

back cover. I used a light duty general auto chassis grease from a tube 

Having taken off the A string machine head I found that an order of removal would be needed here. When I test fitted a new WJ45 unit onto the headstock in to the A string position, I found that the WJ45 plate just sat on the E string baseplate of the old unit.

So I would have to also take the low E string unit off to get the clearance for fitting the new A unit, having firstly used a piece of marker tape placed for alignment purposes, before removing the old unit as you can see in the picture above. I found this method gave a clear run to the job and replaced the Low E and A string units together.

The original unit has a moulded collar to the baseplate - 

I will use a lathe to hold the string post and cut these collars off with a parting tool

and at the next string change, then install them with the WJ45 units

to give more support to the base of the post into the headstock

For the new screw holes, I used a 1.5mm drill with a piece of masking tape 9mm from the tip as my drill depth gauge - you don't want to drill through the headstock plate here! I drilled one hole, blew out any wood debris and partly screwed in one screw to the new unit, I lined up the baseplate snug against my tape line, checked that the post wasn't binding in the bush by giving the key a turn or two and then drilled the second hole using the baseplate to the tape as a guide.

All the new WJ45 machine heads fitted

Once the second hole was drilled and any debris removed from the hole, I took the unit out and gave the post shaft at the lower end a light coat of Brass instrument Key oil to help lube it where it contacted the bushing and then lubed the small screws with beeswax.

I retrospectively fitted these Stainless Steel Bushes as shown front

and on the Post of the WJ45 machine head at right

I retrospectively fitted Stainless Steel Bushes to the machine head Posts to prevent any lateral stress on the post - from it being pulled to one side by the string tension. 

The Headstock holes were 9mm width and having already pre-drilled the holes to mount the WJ45 units, I decided to go slightly undersize with 8mm OD Bushes to prevent binding of the Post inside the Bush in use, if the Post wasn't centred in the hole.

The Bushes have improved the sustain and made the keys easier to turn. 

If going from new with Stainless Steel Bushes, then you could use 9mm width Bushings made from Stainless Tube, if 9mm tube diameter isn't available you could get some 10mm thick wall tube as long as it has 6.5mm core space, that should fit the Posts. 

This thicker 10mm Tube can the be turned down on the outside to 9mm using a Lathe and cutting the Bushes to 7.5mm length. Grease the inside of the Bush and the post before fitting to the guitar. This way the unit will be a push fit and you can then drill the screw holes for the WJ45 units anew.

Stainless Steel won't corrode and a light car chassis general purpose Grease will last a long time and make the operation smoother.

In retrospect I recommend having these Bushes to hand before fitting the WJ45 units!

I installed the WJ45 units with the Bushes and screwed them down checking again that there was no binding of the bushing against the post. I was co-ordinating this upgrade with a string change so I didn't waste any strings in the job. 

Start with the the machine heads on the lower wound strings, firstly having detuned the guitar slightly to prevent too much uneven strain on the neck.

The rest of the high E, B and G string units were then replaced in the same fashion and holes filled.

The new WJ45 keys look in place here from the front and suit the headstock size

The button style of these is like the G6118 Anniversary style ones

So, that's the job done, and the guitar has some improved machine heads on. The WJ45 units have grease holes on the rear casing, I greased mine before use and turned them to distribute the grease around the gearing, then topped them off again.

I did consider fitting locking machine heads to this guitar but I think these Wilkinson ones will be adequate. Once I have the colour match on the wooden plugs, it will finish the job off.

With new D'Addario 10-46 strings fitted, the guitar sounded better than before.

The Wilkinson units are around £25 GBP a set and although inexpensive look and feel good in operation. I have fitted Gotoh versions to a Stratocaster without problems and they worked very well too.

Paint colour matched in - MGTF Trophy Blue base

added to clear lacquer to colour tint match with a brush

Guitar reviews for you - Gretsch 5420T Electromatic Fairlane Blue upgrades project

                              The Gretsch Electromatic 5420T 2016 ready to upgrade

The Gretsch Electromatic 5420T 2016 is a great basic guitar but it needs a couple of upgrades to really improve it.

Firstly, the Bigsby B6 does not have enough screws, 2 only are fitted and they are too high up the plate to get the advantage that they should have, so that was going to be changed.

I colour matched this paint from MGTF Trophy Blue and Platinum Silver by eye

Prior to commencing the work, I purchased a Bigsby B6C trem, part no 60138100 from the US, suitable for archtop guitars. I thought it would be different to paint the indented part of the Bigsby casting with Fairlane colour blue, or as close to as I could get to it.

I cleaned the Bigsby to remove any traces of grease with a water and washing up liquid mix and rinsed it, let it thoroughly dry and mixed my paint by eye. I used a plastic mineral water bottle and cut the bottom off, it had convenient dimples in the bottom so I could use this as a palette to mix the paint.

I used MGTF Trophy Blue and mixed in MGF Platinum Silver. These are Acrylics and were in small nail varnish size bottles with a brush in the lid, shake well to mix and then add in paint to colour, I used a sable artist brush carefully to drop in the paint and flowed it out with the brush.

Don't worry about paint overspill when paint filling, it can be removed later. I did about 3 light coats and let it harden for a few hours, too thick and might chip out. I used my fingernails to remove any overpainting after the paint had hardened as the paint won't stick that well to the bare metal, but does to the black base coat already in the casting rebates.

To finish off, I applied a Hycote clear acrylic lacquer from a small touch up bottle again with an artists sable brush. I put on about 3 coats and let it settle for a couple of days to flow out and harden up. It looks like glass now and has sealed the paint in well. The metallic paints need this clear top coat to bring out the shine.

So first off, changing the bridge, which also needed the rosewood base sanding for a better fit to the body shape.

The Tunamatic is ok as a bridge but I prefer a roller type or Space Control bridge, but a Vanson roller bridge fits the tunamatic base fine, lastly a set of Wilkinson Kluson style tuners to replace the cheapo tuners in the future.

Using the curve of an optional saucepan to aid bridge base fit to guitar body

180 grit paper was taped with masking tape to the flat side.

Final sanding can be done on the body, but I did mine by hand and test fitted it until ok.

The first issue to overcome was the bridge base which required sanding to fit the body contour better. There were gaps under it which wasn't helping the tone transfer.

Slave Tunamatic in place, see holes in front of it,

these are where the bridge screws go into them through the bridge base,

they are not plain 'pins' as on the Setzer guitars

Warning Here!!!! The bridge is screwed onto the body, you need a Hex Allen key to undo the posts that the tunamatic locates on!!! These bridges are not 'pinned' as a Setzer guitar one is on plain round bar. So DON'T try and lever off the bridge base, unscrew the threaded stud 'pins' and it will come off ok.

Once the bridge is off I sanded that to profile and reinstalled the base carefully, it now fits a lot better. Then a Vanson Roller Tunamatic was installed onto the base, I did try the Gretsch Electromatic bridge to see if the Vanson saddles would fit into it but they were not compatible so I swapped over the complete unit. The strings line up perfectly so that works for me and the objective of the roller saddles achieved.

Now to the most tricky part, fitting the new B6C V type Bigsby. I did take my time with this as the mounting holes on the base plate would be different to what I had from the old B6.

I did a lot of measuring, checking and re-checking. I found it best to attach the strings to the new B6 and try it in place, using masking tape on the guitar body to which I had pierced the old string holes on the body side through as guides. I marked the place of the old holes to help with locating the new Bigsby which has a different end plate as an aid to where I thought it should go best.

My concern with the new B6C was that the silver Earth tape was going to be very close to the hole for the new strap button screw, so I took the new Bigsby off and drilled a new hole lower down for that strap button screw to go through, rather than risk going into wood with a hole next to it or damaging the Earth tape and causing screening problems.

Once that had been done, I put the strings back on the new Bigsby B6 and tried it in place, using the lines drawn on making tape as a guide, as you will see in the picture below.

I ensured a good 'fan spread' pattern of the strings when placing the new Bigsby in my test measuring so the new Bigsby would work properly in my calculations. I am glad I took the extra trouble, it paid off. I would rather measure it half a dozen times and get the best result than put up with a badly fitted unit!!

Much taping up and marking done, it pays off.

I  lined up the Bigsby so that the mounting pads on the underside of the casting were flat to the body, using my 6120 Hot Rod as a reference point. Essentially, if you do not have a guitar to hand with a B6C V type to hand, there are mounting pads under the casting and I ensured that they were both contacting with the top of the body and then adjusted the base height as I thought best.

I Having established a good angle for the Bigsby, I then drilled the bottom hole on the mounting plate first and screwed the new screw in, having lubricated it with a smear of Vaseline beforehand to ease fitting. I then checked the contact of the pads and then drilled partially the holes for the remaining 2 screws..

Once all looked ok, I removed the Bigsby B6 and removed all the masking tape and cleaned the body up of dust. I remounted the Bigsby B6 and then drilled the holes finally for the top screws on the rear plate and for the strap button and screwed that in.

I found that the standard height spring put the arm of the Bigsby a bit high, so I used the one from the original B6 which is about 5/8" of an inch as opposed to a 1" on the new B6. This brought the arm to the right level for me.

The superb sparkle finish in the Fairlane Blue

I tuned up and test played the guitar and it sounded a lot better, the roller bridge was a good improvement and the look is just so much better than the old style B6.

This just looks so good, like a 6120 Hot Rod! New strings fitted and sounds much better!!

Gretsch 5420T and mid 90's 6120 Brian Setzer Hot Rod

Last but not least, I also purchased a set of Wilkinson WJ45 EZLock tuners and may fit those in due course.

I tried them for size and they fit the bushes in the headstock ok, but the screw holes are in a different place and new ones will need drilling and the old holes filling with cocktail stick and touching in with the auto paint.

I think these will be better and I have greased them with Silicon Auto grease from a syringe

Anyway, that's the work about done on the guitar, the pickups are good sounding so I will keep those in and fit the Wilkinson tuners in time.

The 5420T is a great guitar and this new version for 2016 is well worth buying. My upgrades have improved mine a whole lot and it has better tone and look as a result. Side by side with the 6120 Hot Rod, it looks almost like a Regent Blue 6120.

A pity tht they did not do the upgrades as here to the base unit and fit Filtertrons to it!!