Boutique guitar tuners misaligned?

[Guitar Chemist]

I’ve been searching on the market for a high-end OM and noticed builders like Collings, Santa Cruz, etc… all have their waverly tuning machines slightly misaligned on the first and sixth string? Or is it the 5th and 2nd….idk it’s throwing me off. I don’t see that on my taylors.

[lowrider]

kind of hard to tell without a picture

[OldFrets]

Are you sure they're not just following the contours of the headstock?

[warfrat73]

Originally Posted by Guitar Chemist

I’ve been searching on the market for a high-end OM and noticed builders like Collings, Santa Cruz, etc… all have their waverly tuning machines slightly misaligned on the first and sixth string? Or is it the 5th and 2nd….idk it’s throwing me off. I don’t see that on my taylors.

There's no way that all the Collings and Santa Cruz have their tuners misaligned... perhaps it's just that your eye isn't used to the headstock shape.

[RoyBoy]

The spacing of the tuning machines relative to the edge of the peghead must be different to allow string clearance. Look at the front of the peghead and you'll see that if the 1st and 6th string tuners were set in the same distance from the edge of the peghead as the rest of the machines, the 2nd and 5th strings would make contact with the the posts of the 1st and 6th strings on their way up to their own respective tuning machines.

[zmf]

Originally Posted by Guitar Chemist

… all have their waverly tuning machines slightly misaligned ....

All of them? Well darn those boutique builders. Maybe if they built more guitars, like Taylor, they'd finally get it right.

[cc132]

I know exactly what you’re talking about. They’re in the correct spot (for reasons mentioned above), but they don’t form a perfectly straight line when you’re looking at the back of the headstock. It’s not my favorite thing, either.