The Fender ping F tuners (099-0818-100_38090) are utterly amazing.

1. They interact dramatically better with the Highway 1 bridge than the stock tuners do.

2. The staggered tuners allowed taking off the #1 string tree off, which enhanced tuning stability and sustain dramatically and fully opened up the chimminess revealing a full-blown strat.

3. The metal used to make the ping tuners balanced out the the harshness of the stock pickups.

4. They stay in tune.

5. There's a hint of perceived sloppiness. But, it's not slop. The tuners responds best to tuning down to pitch instead of up. So, you dial in the setup, stretch out the strings, let the thing settle in sharp, tune it down. Tuning down takes out the kinks I guess. Of course, it takes a bit to dial in the tuners...heavy bending, heavy whammy, letting the thing heat up, cool down until perfect center is found, precisely.

I used Nut Sauce on all moving parts and a standard Fender setup!

WoW -- the Hwy 1 is now one of the best guitars I have *ever* played!

The stock tuners were okay if 9 gauge or above strings are used. However, I tried GHS 8.5-40's and the stock tuners were unstable with lighter strings, the 18:1 vs. 16.1? gear ratio being the issue, the Ping tuners fully resolving the tuning issue revealing, again, a full-blown strat.

...put those tuners on a Hwy 1 strat, string it up with GHS 8.5-40's, set it up stock with Nut Sauce, use George Lynch cables for the guitar input and pedal board patch cables, run the guitar into an Electro Harmonix Hum Debugger, then to a Zoom G9.2tt, put a gold tipped Planet waves Y stereo cable from the output to the Zoom into the line-in (not the guitar input, not the effects loop) of a Blackstar HT5-R head and you will have achieved nirvana -- you will be blown away, shocked, reduced to tears, not be able to put the guitar down...compose song after song after song. holly feckin' mother of all guitars.

The only setup I haven't tried is using the #1 string tree with just the G string under the roller leaving the D string over the roller. If something in the setup distracts me, I'll try that first. But, it looks like the setup is done, maybe I'll try the Schaller tuners for grins, we'll see.

I've read that tuners can be a powerful upgrade on certain guitars, to the extent of negating nut jobs, pickup replacements, bridge replacements etc. I just discovered this is true of the Hwy 1 strat when upgrading from stock tuners to Fender brand F ping tuners, the tuners fixing every subtle nuance that was off. I am so glad I didn't hit the pickups first, I was seriously contemplating doing that thinking the high output pickups might be pulling the lighter strings a little too hard. But now, with the resolution from the tuners, it would be totally insane to touch anything else on the guitar.

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"The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a Conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst." J. Edgar Hoover

I must be thinking of a guitar that was modded because I know I've seen a couple of strats with wilkinson trems around and it's rare that anybody around here (meaning my town, not the forum) swaps the bridge on their guitars.

The older custom shop strat pro with the big headstock also has locking sperzel tuners

Update:

...I got curious. So, I put the #1 string tree on and put the D string over the tree and the G string under tree and put the e string over the #2 tree leaving one string under each tree, the B and G strings -- purrrrfect, even more sustain and clarity, no loss of tuning stability.

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"The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a Conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst." J. Edgar Hoover

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Fender Stratocaster Blacktop Sonic Blue MIM
Fender American Elite Stratocaster HSS
Fender Stratocaster VC BTP MIJ
Yamaha THR10
Vox AC15 Limited Edition
"Sing to Him a new song;play skillfully on the strings,with loud shouts"

@valvestate: and if you ever happen to not like one car, you'll never buy a car again, right?

Schaller locking tuners are really great.

Cheers

David

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"Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars etc...and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish and play around. Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons."

hmmm my American deluxe strat came with the locking tuners that have the big F on them

The Jeff Beck signature Strat comes with locking tuners as does all of the old Strat Plus models.

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2012 Fender American Standard Stratocaster
2013 Fender Pure Vintage 65 Stratocaster
2003 Gibson ES-355
2015 Gibson Les Paul Traditional
2002 Gretsch Duo Jet
1980 Rickenbacker 360/12 Fireglo
2014 Martin 000X1AE
2014 Fender Blues Junior III

A Cntrl-F on the specs sheets of Strats currently in production returned the following:

Deluxe Staggered Cast/Sealed Locking Tuning Machines

• American Deluxe Series
• Fender Select Stratocaster
• Fender Select Stratocaster HSS
• Jeff Beck Stratocaster

Vintage Style Locking Tuning Machines

• Classic Player '50s Stratocaster

I've never played a Classic Player '50s Strat but going on some pics from a Google search, the tuning machines don't "appear" to be locking. Did they make locking tuners back then? Perhaps the term "locking" refers to something other in the case of the '50s Strat?

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This is the Blues. Are you listening?

The tuners on the Classic Player '50s Strat are Gotoh self-locking Kluson-style tuners; they work like their Magnum tuners in that there is kind of a "post within a post" - the outer post has the hole for the string, and when you turn the tuning key it actually turns the inner post (which is cam shaped) until the inner post grabs the string and "locks" it to the outer post. I had these tuners on a Don Grosh S-type and found them to be kind of a pain - you have to with one hand pull the string tight like you do with the Schaller/Sperzel type tuner and with your other hand use a string winder to crank the key until the string is solidly caught in the tuner. I found it easier to use regular split-post vintage tuners than these things.

Fender Pays $70.00 to equip a guitar with locking tuners!?

China! Say it's not so! I searched and searched for some good American made tuners to put on my build and there nearly imposible to find. :O(

I did find these though and they are gorgous!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/320934008042?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Those are Schaller tuners, German. I doubt if Fender pays retail. You can get the same tuners for less from GC, no shipping cost for one. I have the Fender Schaller on my Blacktop and they work very well.

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.