Gotoh supplied screws - is it me ...

[Steve Browning]

... or are they rubbish? High proportion of breakages and the top chews at the slightest amount of torque. That's with pilot holes, before anyone suggests!

Edited May 12 by Steve Browning

[Delberthot]

I've only ever used them once. I put Resolites on one of my '54 Warmoth P basses and snapped one of the screws despite drilling pilot holes large enough.

[Norris]

It's not just Gotoh. I've had the same with quite expensive Kluson tuners too. The screws are made of Chinesium and shear at the slightest resistance, despite pilot holes and wax lubrication. Quite annoying when you're trying to install a set of them in a couple of neat butt-joined lines

[Hellzero]

It happened to me a few times many years ago even with pilot holes and grease, but the Gotoh screws are renowned for that issue.

 

Since then I always sense the heat on the screws after each turn and go very slowly with a screwdriver (no electric device here), sometimes stopping and waiting for the metal to get cold (simply screw another one, no pun intended).

[PinkMohawk]

I find it with a lot of companies, screws and other fixing hardware are an easy place to cheap out and save a few pennies for them. Odds are good you'll have some kind of fixing hardware specialist in your general vicinity, as I do, so in the event that I'm buying some hardware that needs screws, I'll go to them and see what the closest they've got is. A small expense for significantly better screws.