Per the advice of many, I've been on the hunt for replacement screws for the Gotoh Kluson tuners. Living in the 'hood, I've found no shortage of hardware stores; there are four that I know of within a mile radius of me ... but the quality of their wares is, well, commensurate with their ghetto locale.
None of them even had screws short nor narrow enough to be adequate replacement for the stock Gotoh screws. Now, I'm not a hardware connoisseur, but when I asked for steel screws, I was shown sheet-metal screws. Is that kosher, or are they crap? Not that it mattered, because none of the screws available were of appropriate dimensions.
I needed some washers, too. I went first to the store farthest from me. Since I hoof it (no car ... subway, bus and on-foot are my modes of transport) around my nabe, it made sense to first cast the net wide and then hit the places closer to my apartment.
At the first store -- run by a guy who looks like he keeps a gimp in the basement: he's got a salt-and-pepper Billy Gibbons beard, but he's bald and his dome looks like an inverted butternut squash (or a Twilight Zone "To Serve Man" alien) -- I talked to a none-too-friendly henchman who thought I was nuts for having calipers and asking for small screws. As for washers, he directed me to some zinc coated ones that were $0.99 a pop for a decent quantity. Still, I passed, figuring the other stores would have similar washers, similarly priced.
Closer to home, I find the selfsame washers, but no screws ... yet these packs were $1.29. I wanted to smack myself, but I'll chalk that $0.60 difference (bought two packs) to better, less frightening, service and keeping a local store in business.
But, the moral is: no quality hardware in -- at least my deep recess of -- Brooklyn.
On a positive note: pups arrived!
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