Is the fender locking tuners http://www.flickr.com/photos/amarando/4255879978/lightbox/ and sperzel same??
I have fender locking tuners on my MIM stratocaster...
I think it's a great item...
But.. Compare to sperzel, which one better?
-TY-

Hi ryant_ir, welcome to the Forum.

Folks here will want to tell you about differences in Fender locking tuners, depending upon whether they happen to be manufactured by Schaller or by Ping. People mostly like the Schallers better, it seems.

I have some Schaller lockers on one guitar and locking Sperzels on another. Functionally I think there is no meaningful difference. The Sperzels are very nice, solid, positive tuners. If there is any difference at all I guess the knurled locking wheel on the Schallers feels a tiny bit nicer under the fingertips - but that is seriously nit-picking!

Either is good - as are Gotoh locking 510s, if you want to make things more complicated...

Cheers - C

Hello ceri... Thank's for answering my question...
By the way, how about the sustain..
When i changed my dryer...
I felt that there's some more sustain because of this dryer, how about sperzel?

ryant_ir - welcome to the forum. I have been thinking about adding locking tuners to my Amer. Std for a while and reading some of the threads to get educated. One thing that is not clear is the fact that some Strats have different peg heights, I think depending on the number of string trees it has. My Amer Std. has two high pegs and four low ones. Also I believe that some of the tuners have a locating peg on the underside. What is the secret to ordering the correct set?

I also noticed when checking out a recent build in progress that Xhefri had a beautiful set that looked like it has a soft grey finish with pegs all the same height and no string trees. Beautiful!

Ceri, I know you are and expert. Can you help with our education? It appears that it is worth the investment.

Hi Cambo: I like Forum user Twelvebar's sig line: "I'm not an expert but I play one on the internet." That goes triple for me!

So what do you want to hear about locking tuners?

The Fender type appear to be made by both Schaller and Ping, the latter nowadays seeming to be the ones used on factory Fenders. Some folks here feel the Ping ones aren't so good, though I wouldn't sweat that too much - it is a fundamentally good design whichever factory they come out of. I believe those you buy from aftermarket sellers will usually be Schallers - you can be sure if it says "made in Germany" on the packing. This type of tuner is available with and without the "F" logo on the knobs, and in shiny chrome and satin finish.

Stewart-MacDonald are one of the few authorised distributors (not "F" branded). Here are the locking Schallers, with a diagram of their fixing method lower on the page:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Guit ... cs#details

Sperzels are also available in satin finish; in fact, you have to hunt to find the shiny ones. They also have a locator pin on the back rather than a screw. It can be a bit fiddly to get the position spot on to drill the hole for that pin, but it's nothing major. As it happens, the very first aftermarket tuners I ever fitted were locking Sperzels, so it can't be that difficult!

Here they are. Again, diagram down the page:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Guit ... cs#details

Sperzels and Schallers both have staggered height string posts, which some of us like, some think unimportant. I don't think any of the other locking tuners have staggered posts, but I stand to be corrected.

Another option are Gotoh locking 510s. These work by a different method and are also noticeably lighter, which might be useful to some of us. You either think this look is sexy or you don't, but the quality is certainly very high. These ones locate with a screw rather than a pin:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Guit ... cs#details

Gotoh also make at least two different versions of 6-on-a-side locking "vintage" style tuners. These are very useful for anyone with vintage sized 11/32" pegholes in their headstock:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Guit ... cs#details

I've used and recommend all of the above.

For some reason I have a prejudice against Grover Rotomatics. I seem to have found them less positive in their action and perhaps to hold pitch less well, but that is just my individual biased view, so you should probably take no notice. A million Gibsons have Rotomatics, so that's something. Here are Grover's locking mini-Rotomatics:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Guit ... cs#details

And here are Grover's Roto-Grip mini locking machines. These are plainly designed to imitate the mechanism of Schallers and Sperzels:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Guit ... cs#details

I've never used Planet Waves' Auto Trim locking tuners. Another with the thumbwheel mechanism, and available in a pretty black finish, if that's your thang:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Guit ... cs#details

For the sake of completeness, here are some more locking tuners at WD Music, mostly other Gotoh models:

http://www.wdmusic.com/locking_tuners.html

What else can I tell you about locking tuners? Don't expect them to make a radical difference to your playing experience. At most they might improve your return-to-pitch stability slightly. And of course they make restringing faster and easier. You might feel they look quite cool; on the other hand they add noticeable weight to your headstock and I don't personally notice the tiniest improvement to sustain from the extra mass, though some say they do.

Lastly, whenever buying machine heads always, always double check the size of your pegholes first. 11/32" fit "vintage" sized tuners (Klusons, etc), while 13/32", more commonly refered to as 10mm, are for "modern" tuners including most but not all of the locking ones listed above.

Long post. Any help at all?

Cheers - C

Ceri, Thanks for the great response.I think the only time someone has to be uncomfortable with being called an expert is when they have given the title to themselves. I have read many of your posts over the last year and know you have considerable experience which rates higher in my book that "being an expert".

Another question please. I have several vintage acoustics and there is always considerable caution taken when removing all of the strings - i.e.. releasing neck tension totally. My guess is that on the modern Strat, if I were to remove all the strings to work on the tuners, no special care needs to be taken. (I would take them off slowly) I have adjusted truss rods before but my current set up is good and just wonder if I would expect a change.

Best regards to - "One With Much Experience" OWME a new title!

Cambo

Hi again Cambo: we'll there really are people here much better qualified to talk about vintage acoustics than me. But till they show up...

If someone wants to be cautious I'd never try to encourage them differently. I know folks who change strings one at a time on their guitar so the tension on the neck is never significantly reduced.

I suspect that is unnecessary, though it certainly won't do any harm. There are times you have to take all the strings off, to work on the frets for instance or just to give the fingerboard a thorough clean. If the guitar neck has a trussrod then there really can be no problem at all. If it hasn't it'll probably still be OK - but there's nothing wrong with caution.

Far as modern electrics are concerned there really is no issue whatsoever. The strings come on and off my guitars all the time with not the slightest problem. Sometimes I restring immediately, after cleaning the fingerboard; other times I have left a guitar unstrung for weeks or months and sometimes not even had to tweak the trussrod when the strings do go back on.

I think changes to temperature and humidity cause far more problems to necks (and other things) than temporary string removal.

Far as Strats are concerned you just don't need to worry about it at all. After all, the likes of Pete Townshend, Kurt Cobain and others have treated Strats a helluvalot worse than merely taking the strings off - and then carried right on playing 'em! They're hard as nails, those guitars!

Now. The important bit. If you have interesting old acoustics, howsabout showing us pics? We love looking at guitars: photos of your acoustics, please!

Cheers - C

Ceri: Thanks for the reply. That takes the pressure off as I have been concerned about taking all of the strings off. It gets cold as hell here in Wisconsin, USA and I keep my "music room" humidity controlled during the winter. I have seen the damage that dryness can do and it ain't pretty.

I should try to figure out how to post a pic on the forum as I love to view other folks works of art. As for the acoustics, I own a mint 12 string Martin D-12-18 (1974) and my dear wife has a 1963 Gibson B25 in wonderful condition. She can play folk tunes well, but has this "can't cut my nails " issue so she no longer plays much. Guess I make enough noise for both of us. She does love guitars though which helps.

Peace