Did a little research and it looks like Ping actually manufactures all of Grover's tuners. Whereas the original Kluson pseudo-reissue tuners with screw in bushings were apparently made by Schaller. Those came out in 1984 and the most recent example I could find were on a '96 Les Paul. So somewhere between 1996 and 2000, they switched to Grover/Ping.
On the upside, untrimmed strings mean you can take them off and restring which in this case looks like a good idea since the guitar in the pics doesn't look as if it's stringed in an optimal way and that could affect the playability indeed. Perhaps even save you the money you'd otherwise spend on new tuners... Here's a pro tip from a pro guy https://www.everythingsg.com/threads/sg-factory-stringing-method.36241/page-2#post-530855
Thanks... I’ll check it out.. don’t think I’ll need new tuners, the pencil lead has massively improved the G string...
