Sorry I sound hostile and pissed off but I have HAD IT with those piece of crap "vintage" style tuners. I bought the guitar at a clearance sale and it's great in every respect except the tuners and the cheap trem bar that snapped (and I'm not a heavy trem user).

The guitar is a 57 RI. Yeah, I've heard that the tuners work well, but they do NOT work for me when I'm trying to change strings while under the gun in low lighting. I've been playing guitar for a long time so, please, if you're going to reply, do so with suggestions for what I'm looking for rather than postulating about how they work for you and why you think they don't suck (you won't convince me and I'm sure there is a reason why Fender changed the design in the long run - the old style ones SUCK).

In a nutshell, I want a replacement set of tuners that do NOT have the slotted tops, just either regular old tuners with a hole to wrap around the string or locking tuners - anything but those slots. The one aspect that is important to me (other than they keep the guitar in tune) is that I don't have to drill any new holes in the guitar to install the replacements

Again, sorry for the anger, but I just reached the end of my rope with those tuners. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Ok, Calm down.


I had a '57 reissue that I installed locking tuners on and they worked wonderfully, but I also had the LSR roller nut put on as well...I kept the original bridge there.

I used Gotoh Vintage Retrofit Locking Tuners for that guitar. and The Ezy-Glider String Trees.

If you don't want the original tuners, send them to me, I know how to make them work.

-Harley

By the way, these are drop-in replacements, you can install them yourself with a small phillips screwdriver, and 6" cresent wrench.

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I only have two brain cells left, and I'm saving them....for this weekend!

Thanks, Harley. I looked those up and they seem like they'd be an excellent replacement. I swear, the stock tuners have made me crazy; I don't know how many new sets I have without high E strings from the damned things snapping while trying to restring that guitar.

The problem is that I use lighter strings (9's) and the things won't grip when using the holes like they're intended. I *sometimes* get around that by trying to use the slots as if they're regular modern tuners with a hole in them but that ends up being a huge pain in the $@! because the string always flexes out of the slot resulting in my trying to reweave it back in the way it was which, in turn, ends up with an extra kink or two in the string... which THEN results in the string breaking while bringing it up to pitch.

If I had more time to deal with this and take greater care when replacing strings, it might not be as much of a problem but the reality is that I don't always have that luxury so they've gotta go. I might pull a printer move a la "Office Space" on the orignals.

I know what you mean about the way you've been wrapping the strings on that way. We all did it that way in the 70's because we never really learned how it was meant to be restrung.
However, it sounds like there is a burr or something in that tuner that might be causing your problems. I use 0.10's on all my single coil guitars, and I really don't have a problem with it. I only have one Strat with those tuners now, and it stays in tune like a champ, and I DO Jam my Wham'.

The guitar I put those tuners on was a beaten and abused 1983 '57 RI, that I bought off a guy who thought Fenders were garbage. He sold it to me for $100. I had the body repainted in Gloss Black, bought a new W/B/W pickguard and installed a set of vintage '67 Strat pickups, that I had been keeping. With the new hardware, it took a few months to settle in, but once it did, I could dive my wham like a Floyd Rose and yank it's crank, and it would still be in tune. It turned out to be my favorite playing Stratocaster. It was stolen from my house in 1998, Obviously, someone liked it better than me.

-Harley

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I only have two brain cells left, and I'm saving them....for this weekend!

I agree, unless its a true 1957, I could care less about keeping it trtue to spec, and I believe they made different tuners later on for a reason, they work better! Any way I have a limited run 5760 strat, which is a reissue 57 body, and 1960 neck. First thing I did was change the tuners to Sprezel locking and it stays in tune perfect. If you don't use the tremolo for more than palming or slight bends, you won't need a roller not or graphite (which wears out guicker) but you will need to open up the holes on the headstco, no way around it of you put on Sprezel, or Schaller locking, or anything that isn't vintage. You must have got a set up done when you bought it right? Just buy the tuners, and spent the $10 or $20 to have them installed, you may need adjustments made after anyway. If you didn't get it setup, you'll need to get that done anyway, or you're going to go out of tune regardless of what tunewrs you put on.

Just bought a bunch of parts to upgrade that Strat - including the tuners.

Gotoh Vintage Locking Guitar Tuners 6-in-Line with Hardware (Adjustable Height Posts)

Those should not only keep me from throwing the guitar through the wall when I change strings, but also allow me to get rid of the string trees for better tuning stability when I use the bar.

John Suhr BPSSC System

To keep those single coils QUIET.

Callaham Vintage Repro enhanced trem block and "64"length Virtual Pop-in trem arm

The stock arm snapped inside the block and I can't get the leftover bit out of it and this block is supposed to transfer energy better and give a bit more low end response.

These are all upgrades I've been planning to do for a long time. The restringing bit through me other the edge and I figured I'd just get it all over with in one shot.

Windwalker: I'm going to take a crack at installing the tuners and trem block myself before paying someone to do it. Whether it works out or not, I'm having the tech who does all the work I won't do myself install the Suhr system as I suck with a soldering iron. Additionally, I'll have him put a new 5-way switch in it as current one has been randomly cutting out lately, even after spraying some contact cleaner into it.

When all is said and done, it should be pretty rockin'!

Thank you to both of you for your advice and patience while I was all steamed up last night. =)

Windwalker9649,

The Gotoh don't need to be drilled out, they are drop-in replacement locking tuners. Just make the switch, string'em up, and go.

-Harley

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I only have two brain cells left, and I'm saving them....for this weekend!

That's no problem RichCI,

Sometimes we all get frustrated to the breaking point. I don't know about the Suhr system, I've never looked into that.

I had the same problem with the intertia block in my 1980 Strat when I got that one. I removed the block and put it in a bench vise and tapped out the broken off remains of the original trem arm. So I still have the original one in there. Another member of the forum here was just telling me about the Callaham though, he swears by it.

It does sound like you'll end up with a sweet axe when it's done. How about posting some pics of it when it's finished? Everyone here loves pics.

Keep Rockin'
-Harley

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I only have two brain cells left, and I'm saving them....for this weekend!

Well, it won't look much different than it does now, so here is a current pic (and a few other guitars):

The suhr dummycoil is very good, possibly the best dummycoil out there. Its located in the backplate so theres no routing and its coil is as far from the pickup as possible. It does alter your tone slightly as any hum cancelling mod will, just a lot less than any other dummycoil. Very expensive at that price, i'd look to kinneman myself.

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No no and no

I thought about noiseless Kinmans, but I really like the pups that are in the guitar now and would rather deal with the noise than go chasing down another set. What I have in there is a custom set of Don Mare pickups which sound very good although I'm thinking about putting the stock neck pickup back in as it's a little brighter than the Don Mare and I like a pretty bright neck pickup in a Strat.

Sounds like the suhr is the way to go then. It did seem to affect the pickups tone a lot less than any other dummycoil system.

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No no and no

Sweet axes RichCI,

Nice little blackface Champ too, I have a pair of the Silverface ones.

That single pickup Gibson you have there is like the one I used to have when I was in highschool, except mine was'nt as nice looking. It was a '61, the finish looked more like oil-rubbed wood stain, and they called it a Les Paul Jr.

The strat looks like what mine must have looked like when it was new. When I got it though, it was a wreck. The guy I bought it from had no respect for anything Fender. Pity.

Nice family of guitars though.


-Harley

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I only have two brain cells left, and I'm saving them....for this weekend!

Thanks, Harley. Somewhat interesting background on that single pup Gibson...

I *think* Gibson calls it an SG Junior but, yeah, back when they first came out that model and the SG were called Les Pauls until Les Paul himself raised a stink about it so they changed it to SG.

I bought that guitar brand new around 91 or 92 at a clearance sale for $250. It came with this crummy vintage style bridge that has a wire that runs across the saddle screw and rattled like mad when I played. I tried a few fixes like bending the wire to tighten it up but nothing worked so I hardly picked up the guitar at all for over 10 years. I considered putting a modern bridge on it but the mounting posts are a different diameter so that was out as I didn't want to drill the holes larger.

Finally, I contacted Gibson and the rep told me that they didn't have a solution but gave me a contact for a guy in Texas. So, I got ahold of that guy and he said he had a fix for it where he inserts some brass grommets inside of the bridge post holes to reduce the size down to fit the posts on my guitar. So, he sent that to me, I took it all to my favorite guitar tech who cut the saddles and... voila! The guitar works great!

However, since it has just one pickup, it's kind of a one trick pony so I don't play it as often as my other guitars; it's a lot of fun and sounds great, but not very versatile. So, that's why it's still in *excellent* shape for a guitar that is over 16 years old.

I have Gotoh Vintage Locking Magnums on my Tele and they work great.

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"