I think they're the main outlet for Iron Gear.
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A UK store, so not surprising they aren't that well known in Australia, but yes, all Iron Gear pickups are currently sold through them.
http://www.axetec.co.uk/
I use them quite a lot. Their Schaller-compatible strap lock buttons are particularly useful if you already have enough straps and just need the buttons.
Kit builds: JBA-4M | STA-1M | AIB-1Q | TL-1 (in progress)
Side projects: Artist TC59 | Sheoak Dreaming | Spalted Marri Metal | Randy Vs | Sassafrassin' | St. Vincent
Kit builds: JBA-4M | STA-1M | AIB-1Q | TL-1 (in progress)
Side projects: Artist TC59 | Sheoak Dreaming | Spalted Marri Metal | Randy Vs | Sassafrassin' | St. Vincent
They look identical to the ones I've used from NorthWest Guitars. I've had to sand the tops of the locking pins down on mine, as they had sharp machining edges left on which were cutting into the strings, but were fine and smooth in operation after that. By unscrewing the knurled locking button you have access to the gears for easy greasing, and you can tighter the flat gear up so that it is firmly screwed onto the tuner post, with no play at all (something that's hard to do on standard tuners).
The only downside (and one that should be fixed at the factory) is that the post hole (at 23mm) is a couple of mm too tall for most flat Fender-style 6-in-line headstocks.
Most tuner holes are about 21mm from the flat base of the tuner, and with a standard tuner, the strings wind down the post so leave at a lower height and give a good break angle at the nut (1st and 2nd strings always excepted). With a 23mm high post hole, the low E and A strings run almost horizontally to the nut with insufficient break angle, and you'll definitely need string trees for the D and G strings.
I first used them on my EX-1, which had an angled headstock, and they were fine on that. But then I tried them on my GST-1 build and found that I didn't have sufficient string break angle over the nut, so had to get some Gotoh 510 staggered locking tuners instead for those.
At 21mm for the low E, A and D posts, the Gotoh's hole is only 2mm lower, but it's enough, especially for those tuners positioned closest to the nut. The G, B and E posts are 19mm, not quite low enough to get away without a B and E string tree, but it lowered the friction on the one fitted.
With a thick headstock, or one with a bigger distance between the bottom of the nut slot (don't go by the height of an uncut nut) and the top of the headstock, you might get away with using them, but they are really best used on angled headstocks.
I'm measuring 21mm to the bottom of the hole, 23mm to the top. A quick eyeball from the bottom of the low E slot looks OK to me on an F-style headstock, and so do the others (though I'll have string trees on hand anyway). The very top of the tuner post sits parallel with the fretboard. So looking pretty healthy.
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Kit builds: JBA-4M | STA-1M | AIB-1Q | TL-1 (in progress)
Side projects: Artist TC59 | Sheoak Dreaming | Spalted Marri Metal | Randy Vs | Sassafrassin' | St. Vincent
The locking pin will push the string to the top of the hole, but then it will tend to centre in the groove, so around the 22mm mark.
All that matters is that there's enough break angle for you, which is happily the case here.
However this will vary from neck to neck, and some necks they won't work on. Just bear it in mind if you think of using them on a future build with a Fender-style headstock, and measure the distance from the rear of the headstock distance to the bottom of the nut slot before ordering.
I do wish they'd made them 2mm lower, as they would be pretty much suitable for any guitar then!