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So what are the disadvantages of locking tuners?


grunge782

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LOL! It isn't close to being the same thing my bruva.


Bass players, acoustic players and just about every Gibson player uses regular tuners. Locking tuners do what? They tune a guitar. Non-locking tuners do what? Yep, you guessed it, they too tune a guitar, they only difference is two or three wraps around the tuning peg.


Now, according to your post, locking tuners are pretty much a necessity for a gigging musician and I still say no they aren't, not by a long shot.

 

 

Even on Gibson style guitars they increase tuning stability, eliminate another potential break point and make restringing a much quicker process. I'm a 100+gigs a year professional guitarist, i can only give you my side of the story and i find them pretty much essential, i also tech for some pretty high profile bands over here in the UK and i insist on all live guitars having locking tuners. For me its an evolutionary improvement that has no obvious drawbacks. People survived before tuners, but now every guitarist seems to rock the stage with a pedal tuner of some sort, thats another evolutionary change for the better. I'm sure that in the next 20 years or so, the self tuning guitars and amp modelling will become essential live tools too.

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I'm with Timmy on this. It's a $40-50 purchase that makes life A LOT easier. There is no reason not to use locking tuners other than being a traditionalist. Even if with the tuning stability issue aside (honestly, most tuning stability issues happen because of the nut, not the tuner), the ease to change strings alone is worth the very low price of admission.

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Even on Gibson style guitars they increase tuning stability, eliminate another potential break point and make restringing a much quicker process. I'm a 100+gigs a year professional guitarist, i can only give you my side of the story and i find them pretty much essential, i also tech for some pretty high profile bands over here in the UK and i insist on all live guitars having locking tuners. For me its an evolutionary improvement that has no obvious drawbacks. People survived before tuners, but now every guitarist seems to rock the stage with a pedal tuner of some sort, thats another evolutionary change for the better. I'm sure that in the next 20 years or so, the self tuning guitars and amp modelling will become essential live tools too.

 

 

I can't argue with your personal experience only you know what that is like.

 

However, as far as tuning aids you are comparing a pedal tuner to not having any tuner. You should be comparing a pedal tuner to some other tuner that works just as well but maybe not quite as convenient. That would be an accurate comparison.

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I can't argue with your personal experience only you know what that is like.


However, as far as tuning aids you are comparing a pedal tuner to not having any tuner. You should be comparing a pedal tuner to some other tuner that works just as well but maybe not quite as convenient. That would be an accurate comparison.

 

 

Tuner vs Tuning Fork. There ya go!

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I'm with Timmy on this. It's a $40-50 purchase that makes life A LOT easier. There is no reason not to use locking tuners other than being a traditionalist. Even if with the tuning stability issue aside (honestly, most tuning stability issues happen because of the nut, not the tuner), the ease to change strings alone is worth the very low price of admission.

 

 

easy =/= essential.

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One disadvantage only:


They can strip if they're clamped too tightly, or, like a moron, you try to stretch your strings with them like you do with standard tuners. You'll carve some nice grooves in the clamp, and it'll no longer lock the way it should.




Other than that: no real disadvantages at all. I've installed them on a few hard-tailed guitars before, just to speed up string changes. They work just fine.

 

 

So how do you stretch your strings??

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So how do you stretch your strings??

 

I was wondering about that. I stretch mine, but I just looked at the instructions on Grover's website, and they mention nothing about stretching ... and they also mention leaving enough slack for one rotation of the post. So ..... I'll try not stretching next time? :confused:

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On one of my guitars, I have locking turners, which I tighten down, wrap the string around the "back" of the tuning post for the "string locking method", and then tune it up with 2-4 wraps depending on the string. Maybe it's overkill or I'm doing it wrong, but it works for me. I do the same with the other guitar sans locking tuners, but skip the tightening down process as there is nothing to tighten down.

 

headstocks.jpg

 

Locking tuners > you

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I see that I'm in the minority, but I don't like the damn things, and I certainly haven't found them to offer any more tuning stability than the non-locking variety.

 

I wanted to like them, but it didn't work out. Oh well. I'll live with the dinosaur technology that I'm used to.

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