Favorite Tuner Machines?

[Cantplay]

I finally got around to installing the tuners.

Sperzel locking in black. You can see the difference in heights.

John

[Structo]

Nice, but you should have the shortest peg on the high E string and gradually higher to the low E.

This increases the break angle on the nut, eliminating the need for string trees on the high E and B strings.

[Cantplay]

I has it backwards? Haha, fixing now.

John

[Structo]

No worry, I have done it too, just don't tell anybody.

[beasleybodyshop]

As far as losing the little set pin inside the tuner if it falls out, I have taken small finishing nails of the same diameter and cut and rounded out the point and used them as replacements. Sperzel customer service was really nice about shipping me some new ones, but the nail trick worked just as well so I never got around to swapping in the replacements.

[Leo_Gnardo]

No worry, I have done it too, just don't tell anybody.

What, had those Sperzel pins fall out? Guilty as charged - me too. Lucky I found 'em all. Sperzel made an improvement - put a stop on the CCW wind of the locking thumbscrew so now you can't do that. Thank you Sperzel!

Credit John Suhr for turning me on to Sperzel & Gotoh back in the late 80's. Thanks Husky! Good stuff.

I'm thinking of finally swapping out the 3+3 set on my venerable Guild Polara. Still has its original bottom-line Grovers with gears open to the world. They're OK but this guitar deserves better. Will be tuner shopping soon one of these days. Would be nice to find a set with a diameter such that I won't have to expand the mounting holes.

[beasleybodyshop]

No worry, I have done it too, just don't tell anybody.

What, had those Sperzel pins fall out? Guilty as charged - me too. Lucky I found 'em all. Sperzel made an improvement - put a stop on the CCW wind of the locking thumbscrew so now you can't do that. Thank you Sperzel!

Credit John Suhr for turning me on to Sperzel & Gotoh back in the late 80's. Thanks Husky! Good stuff.

I'm thinking of finally swapping out the 3+3 set on my venerable Guild Polara. Still has its original bottom-line Grovers with gears open to the world. They're OK but this guitar deserves better. Will be tuner shopping soon one of these days. Would be nice to find a set with a diameter such that I won't have to expand the mounting holes.

Are yours the vintage style? I think gotoh makes a locking tuner for vintage size tuner holes:
http://www.stewmac.com/shopby/item/1954 ... 7AodpRsArQ

[Leo_Gnardo]

Are yours the vintage style? I think gotoh makes a locking tuner for vintage size tuner holes

Thanks bbs, for the Guild I need (Gibson style headstock) 3+3 but I'll have to consider these if they make a lefty version. I also have a reverse headstock custom "stratlike" guitar and one of my customers has offered me a fortune for its perfectly worn gold plate Kluson left handed tuner kit. I guess he has a lefty Mary Kay Strat with dodgy tuners. (Guitar collector.) I'd only sell 'em if I could install something that worked better.

[brewdude]

I has it backwards? Haha, fixing now.

John

I have had some Sperzals on a strat for many years and I was not satisfied with the angle of break at the nut with out keeping the string trees. I do believe that decreasing the angle incurred at the string tree must be helpful. Also, it seems to me that the angle of break at the nut for the A is too shallow.

I have mine with set up tall (E), short (A), short (D), medium (G), medium (B), tall (E). With the different tuner nights in this arrangement, I feel like the break at the nut is better for the A and the 4 strings that contact the string trees suffer less sharp angle.

[Cantplay]

Can there be too much break angle?

There must be a reason they don't give you 6 short ones.

John

[cbass]

Can there be too much break angle?



John

Yes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-h-jQlT ... C9EE773C24

[beasleybodyshop]

Too much break angle and the strings may bind in the nut slots, causing tuning problems; not to mention create excessive wear on the nut, especially if you are using a tremolo.

[Bob S]

Looks good John - my favorite setup for a strat.
Sperzel locking tuners & a roller nut - LSR.
I did some dinking with the nut height I recall.
You can beat that guitar with a stick & it stays in tune.
Melikes.

[iknowjohnny]

I prefer light tuners, so no sperzels and such for me. On gibson style guitars i dunno because i really don't use them. But on fender and lighter small body acoustics i find full size sealed tuners change the dynamics in a way i don't like. More sustain, but at the cost of the range of the dynamics. Some guitars like my 000-18 style that came with sealed full size tuners improved a lot when i put open face vintage style grovers on it. On some guitars it's more subtle but i still notice it and don't like it. On fenders i won't use anything but the stock vintage fender style or gotoh's locking version of those.

As to the tuning quality, that to me isn't as good as it should ne in most tuners including what i use. My biggest complaint is most seem to use too small a ration. I like a very high ratio which makes tuning much easier by making the range of movement less touchy. Smoothness isn't often great either. I don't generally use them unless a guitar like a gibson or gibson style guitar comes with them, but i usually seem to find grovers are really smooth and work better than most for me. And like i said i seldom use/own gibson style. I do have one right now tho and it has grovers and they work wonderfully. The ratio i'm not sure of, but they feel higher. Might just be because the are so smooth. In any case i like them, but i'd never use them on a fender or small body acoustic.

[Structo]

I like the Sperzel's too.

The only problem is that they are on the heavy side, so on a neck that is borderline heavy it can cause neck diving.

If the break angle over the nut is not enough you can wrap more string around the peg which forces the string to go lower on the peg, increasing the break angle over the nut.
But I usually just go around the peg once, which provides less stretching of the string which increases tuning stability.

On a guitar with a tremolo, having the nut slots perfect is a must or the string will bind in the slot causing tuning instability.
I use Big Bends Nut Sauce on all my nuts.

On my last Tele build I used some Gotoh's that have staggered tuning posts.
They have the split top post like the vintage Fender's.
These really look and work great!

The split peg allows you to insert the end of the string and then wrap around the peg functioning like a locking tuner.
Plus they look like Klusons on the back.

When stringing other types of tuners like Grover's, I take the string and pull it taught and cut it one and a half to two pegs past the one I am stringing.
This seems to provide good stability.
I also use the over under string wrap on the first wind to lock the string to the tuner.