Hi everybody!
I own a 70's stratocaster classic series and I was thinking about changing the original F tuners to a better one with locking system like the ones that came with my Strat Plus. I would like to know if I could do it without modifing the original wood holes.
Anybody could help me?

Here is a pick of my strat:

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http://www.youtube.com/user/MauroPavanelli

Hi there unfortunately to fit schaller or sperzel lockers you would need additional holes.
Take one off your strat plus and youll see what I mean.
Personally I would not do it. Hope this helps

Thanks! I was thinking about trying to do this tonight to see if it will fit but you already solved my doubt.
Do you know if there is any similar Fender F tuners with better quality than the ones that came with this guitar. I don't think they're keeping the guitar well tuned. II really love this instrument, so I need to make it works better since it got some great woods and construction. It got the most confortable neck I ever played.

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http://www.youtube.com/user/MauroPavanelli

Hey nice playing Mauro!

Your tuning issue may lie with the nut rather than the tuners. Have you inspected it to ensure it's correctly slotted? Lubed it? A tremolo that's not set up correctly might also be the cause (or a contributory factor).

Best of luck, HTH

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Hi Mauro, first let me say what a great job of picking you did I enjoyed listening to it. Now let me ask you a question do your tuners have a small hole on the back of them that lubrication could be put in them? My 70's Strat does and I use graphite regularly once every 3 or 4 months to lube the gears. I also swapped out my nut for a stag replacement due to tinkling of my strings when tuning. I also put different string tree/retainers on the 1st 4 strings due to the same reason I opted for the regular Fender roller string retainers. I haven't had any tuning problems on my Strat for over 30 years. One more thing I did was to replace the original bridge saddles with Brass saddles and I put new ones one about once a year. Good luck and keep up the great picking!!

stratguy

First of all I would like to thanks everybody for the kind comments and for the time you all are taking to help me!
I took some picks of my tuners, string tree and nut so any comments about it will be great. I think the nut is ok but I will try to lubrificate it better. I set my tremolo as Carl Verheyen uses. It seems to ok. The most common tuning issue I'm experimenting is a drop tuning G and sometimes B after some bendings.
Here goes some pics of my guitar and the link of Carl Verheyen teaching how to set the bridge. Any comments will be great. Thank you all again for this awesome feedback. God bless you all!




Carl Verheyen video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy-F7iSIopA&list=PLB4CAA586F1B1E16E&index=5

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http://www.youtube.com/user/MauroPavanelli

The roller strings retainer you mentioned is the ones in the american standart strat?

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http://www.youtube.com/user/MauroPavanelli

I am also interested in changing the tuners on my 70s Classic. The tuners tend to stick, and it's definitely not the nut.

What I'm interested in learning is that if the actual holes for the tuners, that is, the ones drilled in the headstock that the tuners fit through, are vintage-sized or modern-sized. If they're vintage-size, I would be interested in dropping a set of Wilkinson Kluson clones in there as they fit the vintage-size holes.

I am not so concerned about authenticity, since I am basically restoring this guitar. I bought it off a hillbilly who was an inveterate tinkerer. After I change the tuners, it looks like I'm going to have to learn to use a soldering iron to straighten things out under the hood as well. (A 500k solid shaft volume pot for single coils?? Really, Jethro, was that necessary?)

I will change the strings trees/retainers to the fender roller I think it will help. I also remembered that recently I changed some strings gauges ( I was using a 0.11/0.49 set and now I'm using 0.10, 0.13, 0.18, 0.26, 0.38, 0.49) and forgot the reset the vibrato springs. I did it yesterday and the tuning become really better but I'm almost sure that these tuners are not so precise. Next time I change the strings I will try to set it with just 2 turns at the tunning post.

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http://www.youtube.com/user/MauroPavanelli

Looking at your tuners I see they are completely different from mine so I can see the graphite lubrication inside of your tuners obviously will not work. Possibly my Strat is a year or 2 older or newer. When I first got mine I didn't like the feel of the small tuner handles/heads and always wished mine had the bigger tuner handles/heads like yours but as years went by I got use to the smaller size and became appreciative of the accuracy of the tuners

With the roller string trees I think you will notice a difference but you most likely hit the nail on the head by adjusting your spring tension to compensate for the string gauge change. Good luck

stratguy

Thanks, the spring adjust really improved the tuning issues, I think the tree will also help. I use to set the 4th and 3th strings with a lot of turns to avoid a hard contact at the string tree.

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