With locking tuners, there's an acquired finesse to them. See, if you tighten the tuner's locking disk too much, it can cut through the thinner, plain strings. With the wound strings, over tightening the disk can cut the string's winding to where the winding breaks apart and the string begins to unravel. With either scenario, obviously, the string is history. Conversely, if the locking disk isn't tightened enough, any string can slip due to increasing pull tension. So, a happy medium must be found which essentially is arrived at by hands-on repetition being the best teacher.

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Well, thank you.
I'll see with my first string change which will be very soon.
Thanx for the input!

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

Any time!

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Martian, thanks!

Is there a reason why you call it a disk instead of a ball?

It happened to me that I was sure to have gripped the string firmly but still it slipped. When I took it out to have a look, the string was still OK (Ernie Ball Super Slinky, 46 high E). My theory is that sometimes the ball doesn't really grab the string, but only touches it off-center. You can almost feel it in the tips of your fingers when tightening the locking mechanism.

What do you think about my theory?

Cheers

David


//PS: Dee, glad you brought up the topic

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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."

I think Tone Pro makes the Kluson tuners.

Yes. It the action of tightening the disk which forces the ball into the string.



I agree with your theory which reinforces my point about acquiring a hands-on finesse with locking tuners. When I feel the ball, pin or whatever you want to call it is not centered, sometimes, just by jiggling the string while it is through the eyelet is enough to recenter it. In extreme cases when this doesn't work, I radically loosen the disk and start over; this inevitably centers it. In either case, this is unless of course, someone got to the tuner before me and damaged it.

A very common problem with these types of tuners too is that the ball, pin, etc. will not fully recede once the disk is loosened. I simply insert and jiggle a thicker, wound string through the eyelet and then the ball/pin/whatever frees itself and drop down.

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Some interesting info on locking tuners here, at least for me being a newbie to locking tuners.
This really makes me curious about my first string change ....

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

The ubiquitous Kluson variety of reissues are made by Gotoh in Japan, Ping in China and Grover in Korea. The ones outright labeled, "Kluson" are made by Ping for WD Music as they own the Kluson name now. Fender uses Gotoh "Klusons".

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"Slow and steady wins the race."

Another tip when restringing with locking tuners: Have the eyelet of each string's tuner aimed directly at its corresponding string slot in the nut. This allows for the shortest traveling distance from nut slot to eyelet.

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Ha!!! I knew this already, ha ha ha.
But thanx anyway!

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

I have nothing of real value to add to the conversation other than to say after decades of playing an acoustic guitar and buying my first elec strat plus..changing the strings on the strat was so quick with the locking tuners it almost bought a tear to my eye! Totally and completely love them! GENIUS!

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Mona
"Music is What Feelings Sound like"

As ridiculous as it may sound: I am happy we discussed the matter.

Have you observed that if the ball is centered correctly, you will see a very tiny twist on the string when closing the locking tuner? This is almost a 100% guarantee that the ball is hitting the string correctly. The only problem I have regularly is the high E tuner. I am not sure if it's a problem that the tuner has or if this is a general difficulty. 1 out of 10, the high E slips through.

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."

I myself perfer the old fashion tuners over the modern Ping tuners... Made a much cleaner string wrap and didn't tear up the case. I wish I could change the shaft on my modern tuners to match those open slotted ones. Locking tuners are also a waste unless you do a lot of dive bombs with the tremolo (for which the Fender Tremolo was not designed for). As long as you tune UP, you should have an issue with tuning, unless you have new strings and/or worn gears on the tuners.

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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Well, gentlemen, no shortage of info in this thread and I enjoyed working my way through all four pages, something I rarely do when I stumble into a long and winding post. I'll admit that I am partial to Martian's postings, always a reasonable approach and a kind voice (I'm getting old and sometimes lean to sarcasm...) and always something interesting added to the conversation.

All of that said, I have never minded Fender's standard tuners. I use the Joe Walsh method of stringing my guitars and it seems the only times I manage to impale myself is when I am stringing a guitar and cut that nasty little high E string to get it out of the way, then stab myself as a result when threading another string though another hole. Amazing how much blood can come out of such a small hole in the end of your finger...

Cleaning your headstock with those little sharp ends sticking out is an annoyance, but as others have stated, I generally just super clean everything when the strings are off and don't let the guitars collect dust between changes. Last Christmas my daughter-in-law gave me a very cool detailing kit with lots of different small brushes, thinking I'd use it on my truck - NOT! I keep that thing with my guitars - it's awesome, even around sharp little wires!

I have a number of Fender guitars with vintage tuners, though most of my guitars have the newer standard tuners. I have a few guitars with locking tuners and I have to admit, it took me a while to get the hang of those darn things. I even broke one of the locking tuners on my Fender Showmaster Strat when it refused to release the string and I resorted to a screwdriver! What the heck? It has a screwdriver slot in the top, but it just snapped apart - my bad. I got lucky and found a replacement set on eBay.

Per the OP's original question: Why the heck would ANYBODY want those standard tuners???

I guess I'm just used to them after 48 years of playing and stringing guitars. And I do think they keep my guitars a bit better in tune than the vintage tuners - JMO!

Sorry if I got a bit long winded.

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

Definitely, the ball has to grind the string to a halt somewhere.

As to the high E slipping sporadically on you, this is the tuner (string) which requires the most acquired finesse. What you could do too as a process of elimination effort is to switch the high E tuner with the B string tuner and see what your results are.

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