Timeline: Schaller M6 Tuner Dating/Identification Guide
Had a few questions come up on the topic lately, so let’s do a quick deep dive on Schaller M6 tuners. Or more correctly—as John Hall told us when we originally posted this essay—the M6i.
So for background, Kluson was the go-to tuner supplier to Rickenbacker from the 60’s to the early 80’s, with the nickel button single line or double line (according to period) used on pretty much everything during that period. Yes, early on during that period you saw some Van Ghents here and there and some Grover Sta-Tites on occasion and even some white plastic button Klusons, but by the mid 60’s it was pretty well standardized on the nickel button Klusons.
In the early 70’s the “deluxe” models like the 360 and the 481 got Grover Rotomatics and they’d keep those until the early 80’s, but everything else still had Klusons. But then Kluson went belly up in 1981 and a new solution was needed. For a year or two after the supply of Klusons ran out Grovers got fitted to everything—both Rotomatics and the Slimline or “box” style. But then in mid 1984 the Schaller M6 mini and the “paddle headstock” entered the chat.
Now there have been a couple changes to the M6 along the way—that’s the main topic of this post, after all!—and we’ll cover them as we go. And while the “stock” tuner during the Schaller era was the M6i mini, as John Hall told us there were windows of time throughout the run when the “i” version (not sold through retail) were unavailable or late from the factory and “retail” M6s were used. We’re gonna stick to the “stock” M6i here though, so understand that just because your guitar doesn’t have them doesn’t mean they’re not original!
So as far as I can tell, the first use of the M6 tuner was on 200 series guitars made in mid 1984—the “deluxe” El Dorado 250, to be specific. These guitars used a gold finished M6, with the mounting screw at about a 45 degree (or 135, depending on how you measure it!) angle to the body of the tuner, on the first “paddle headstock”. These first tuners featured the Schaller “snake S” logo and “Made in W. Germany” on the back. Interestingly, “non-deluxe” 230s made at the same time had chrome Grover Rotomatics on the old headstock.
I can find a handful of other guitars from late 1984 with chrome M6s on both paddle and non-paddle headstocks, but you also find Rotomatics on both headstocks during this time so it was clearly a transitional period. By early 1985, however, things settled down to where chrome (or gold as appropriate) M6s with “Made in W. Germany” were standard on all “non-vintage/reissue”, paddle-headstocked guitars. I could do a whole separate post on “vintage/Kluson-style” tuners that DOES include Schaller, but we’ll save that for another day!
The first change came pretty quickly: in December 1985 the mounting screw location moved from the 45 degree angle location to a sideways/90 degree location. At the same time, the back changed from the “S” logo/“Made in W Germany” to a custom “R” surrounded by “MADE IN W. GERMANY”. These would not last long. By the end of 1986 the back reverted to the “S” logo/“Made in W. Germany” and the mounting screw location moved yet again, this time straight down. The next change would be geopolitical in nature!
In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, in in October 1990 West Germany ceased to be thanks to the reunification of East and West. But tooling is expensive, and it took a while for “Made in W. Germany” to disappear from the Schaller tuners. A good long while. It wouldn’t be until mid 1995 that the next version of the M6 first showed up on Rickenbacker guitars. The screw location did not change, but the “S” logo/“Made in W. Germany” was replaced with a simple script “Schaller” logo and no mention of where it was manufactured. This version could be seen alongside the old “Made in W. Germany” version until February 1996 when it took over completely. Again, these would not last long.
Often referred to as the “Made in [space] Germany” tuner, this next version simply deleted the “W.” from the existing “S” logo/“Made in W. Germany” tooling but left the spacing as is—leading to a noticeable “space” where the “W.” had been. These first appeared on Rickenbackers around July of 1996, and completely replaced the script “Schaller” versions by fall.
These lasted longer than you might think. It wouldn’t be until late 2001 that the spacing was cleaned up and the “final” “S” logo/“Made in Germany” would appear. And it would be this version that would last the longest—longer than all the other versions combined.
Around July of 2023 the Schaller M6 was replaced with a copy made by Gotoh with the Rickenbacker tailpiece “R” on the back. And thus ended the Schaller era on Rickenbacker guitars. So to recap:
Mid 1984-December 1985: 45 degree screw, “S” logo/“Made in W. Germany”
December 1985-late 1986: 90 degree screw, “R” logo/“MADE IN W. GERMANY”
Late 1986-February 1996: Straight down screw, “S” logo/“Made in W. Germany”
Mid 1995-fall 1996: Straight down screw, “Schaller”
July 1996-late 2001: Straight down screw, “S” logo/“Made in [space] Germany”
Late 2001-July 2023: Straight down screw, “S” logo/“Made in Germany”
