whats your choice AND WHY for locking tuners?
i have a chance to get a set of locking tuners for my
new HW1 pretty cheap. whats your opinion on sperzel
machineheads? any others i should be looking at over the
sperzel's?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

I have a set of Schaller locking tuners on my MIM Strat and they are a drop in replacement, they solved a severe lack of tuning stabilitiy for me. I also have a Strat and a Tele with the Fender/Ping locking tuners and I like them as well. The thing I like most about locking tuners is it speeds up string changes, As far as Sperzels I have no first hand experience with them but I havent heard anything bad about them.

anybody else have anything to add to this?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

It's a pretty common topic. I dont have any guitars with locking tuners any more though personally.

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why not? have you found a better solution to the age old problem?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

why not? have you found a better solution to the age old problem?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

I never did like locking tuners, My strat stays in tune fine with Gotoh tuners and I tune Any Guitar as soon as I pick it up, Irregardless of how it sounds. Locking tuners are a pain in the ***

Nope. I just deal with it.

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ok explain that one. why are they a pain in the azz?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Well they don't do what their intended to do they? No more so than a well wound onto tuner atleast.

The only benefit I see that they provide is they are a fast wind on. That maybe usefull if your a inexperienced player, gigging on a badly set up guitar and breaks strings regularly. It's still not as fast as changing guitar mid song though.
I certainly don't get any added stability with them.

Wind your strings properly and they become redundant. The staggered option is a nonsense too. The stagger simply doesn't provide enough down pressure to allow you to do without a stringtree.

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No no and no

Ha Ha Ha, Man, I just dont like them. Who wants to keep screwing around with all these unnesscesary knobs and junk. I learned on a Acoustic and a Memphis LP. Its easier for me to just tune up when i hear a string go out of tune. Some people like Locking tuners, I do not prefer them. I dont like locking nuts either. or the fine tuners on a floyd. It's just that when I have to tweak the guitar and unlock a bunch of gear just to tune up..... Just give me old Klusons.

ok so you lost me with the down pressure and stringtrees. please explain.
im very aggressive in my bending niki, very aggressive.
ive never had a guitar that stayed in tune that wasnt double locking
no matter who set it up.
ok go ahead im listening.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Basicaly ensure you have a minimal amount of winding on each tuner.
1-1.5 on E-A, maybe up to 2-2.5 on D-E. Ensure all winds stack neatly under each other. Don't basketweave your strings.

That will ensure your strings wind tightly onto the tuner. That the winds cant get caught up on eachother. When they do that and you bend, you pull the string and get the string to become flat sounding. The string literaly jumps along whatever friction points it has created along the basketweave wind.

Dont ever tune down.
All that does is slacken your strings and allow the above problem to occur.
Pull your strings if you need to lower their pitch.

As for the staggered heights of locking tuners its just as I say. It doesn't work. To stop the open strings from sounding squarewave, you still have to use a stringtree set near the face of the headstock. Every strat I've ever played except a handfull of 70's strats display that problem. Even vintage correct and vintage instruments manifest the problem on the open D and G strings. I 100% think it's why CBS added the second string tree. Staggered height tuners don't solve that problem. On either my Deluxe, CS or MIM fitted with Wilkinson staggered tuners.
You simply cannot get enough downpressure along the length of string from the nut to the G tuner. That is why other manufacturers angle their headstocks back and so weaken them.
If you can't get rid of the string tree, the locking tuner becomes redundant. The string will snag against the stringtree. No amount of lube or even the much hyped vasceline in a syringe Nutsauce will solve that for much more than a hour or two. All you can do is file the tree and hope for the best.

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No no and no

Perfectly clear!!

None of my guitars have locking tuners or bridges and I never have any problems with going out of tune mid-song and very rarely have to tune between songs unless I'm after playing something with excessive whammy use like Machine Gun or The Star Spangled Banner.I prefer the old slot post Klusons and if I had my druthers all my guitars would have them.When the strings are wound properly Klusons can really hold the tuning,all it takes is a little more time and patience with every string change and I don't have any problems even with my MIM guitars.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.