Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

Need Advice on Locking Tuners

norton

By norton
in Gibson USA

Recommended Posts

norton

norton

Posted
Posted

Hi everyone,

 

Hoping you can help me with this.

 

I have a 2011 Gibson Les Paul Studio. It has chrome tuners on the headboard, I assume they are stock.

 

I would like to put on some high quality locking tuners with a more fine tuning ability.

 

I have read people talk about Grovers but I know little else.

 

And I would be the one doing the install, do I have to drill holes and will there be unsightly holes left over from my stock tuners?

 

Is Grover THE best locking tuners or can you suggest something else?

 

Obviously I am looking to replace my stock tuners with quality locking chrome tuners with a better tuning ratio.

 

Appreciate any direction

 

Thanks

the dog

the dog

Posted
Posted

I don't know anything about other locking tuners. I only have user knowledge of the Grovers that came on my Signature T.

 

I love them... I can't believe how good they work.....Great tuners... [thumbup]

 

I use .010s

capmaster

capmaster

Posted
Posted

Sorry for having to say this, but three of my Gibsons and one of my Fenders came with locking tuners. Those on the Les Paul and SG guitars are contemporary Grovers and somehow misdesigned. The pegs are too short for Gibson headstocks and also make for an insufficient clearance when unlocking. Catching a .046" string is hard, and a .050" possible only with luck. The thread will bear just for a fraction of a turn. I even had to swap machine heads on the bass side for making this anyhow possible. The tuning ratio is the same as with the non-locking Grovers which came stock on another four recent Gibson guitars of mine.

 

In the near future I will replace all of the locking Grovers with non-locking Schallers of same shape and size. Since the non-locking ones eat E1st strings due to burrs, I will replace them one day, too.

 

The best Grovers in my arsenal are the stock machine heads on two 1970's Gibsons of mine. Other than all the rest of their hardware they are nickel-plated and rather tarnished, but they work nicely.

norton

norton

Posted
  • Author
Posted

cap,

 

sounds like you have not had good experiences with locking tuners

 

maybe your's were in the early days of locking ones, how old are your guitars that came with the tuners and I assume they were quality aftermarket but stock items?

 

It seems there are a number of high quality locking tuners available and I did watch a Utube video of a guy installing Grovers on his Les Paul, looked easy enough.

 

Appreciate all comments and direction, I am new at this stuff having had my Studio for only about 7 months now, so thanks everyone.

Kaiser Bill

Kaiser Bill

Posted
Posted

I have locking Grover tuners on my Midtown Kalamazoo. No biggie. They are simple to use. They work well except for the high "E' string. I play .010s and it won't clamp down enough to hold the string. It kept slipping. So I just strung it he conventional way for that one string. Again... no biggie. <_<

pwrmac7600

pwrmac7600

Posted
Posted

I have the locking grovers on 2 of my guitars and they work perfect. I use 10's and have no problems whatsoever. I have used in the past, sperzel and shaller lockers, and i like the shallers for my fender, the sperzels I wasn't crazy about, not because they didn't work good, but because they made the wheel you turn to lock/unlock them so thin, that it actually hurt my fingers trying to turn it to tighten and loosen, they also got stuck a lot, When I would restring I had to tap the tops with the handle of a screwdriver to release the cam. But assuming you want to keep the gibson vibe, I would go with the grovers, they are great tuners, and have a great 18:1 ratio, they are very stable tuners, and very accurate, you can actually tune in both directions with out slippage.

Pesh

Pesh

Posted
Posted

Slight sidebar on this topic; has anyone used Kluson KB3L's? It's a model I'm considering for my Studio.

pwrmac7600

pwrmac7600

Posted
Posted

Slight sidebar on this topic; has anyone used Kluson KB3L's? It's a model I'm considering for my Studio.

 

 

Are those the tonepros/kluson tuners? I just purchased a non locking set for a standard because I am still unsure if I want to ream out for grovers, and the non lockers are definetly better than the gibson deluxe tuners that came stock. But in my opinion still not as stable as the grovers. With that said, if you are looking to keep the vintage looks and weight those would probably be your best bet. They are very well built, I think I just prefer grovers over all so I am probably biased. lol

Judging buy the model number though you seem to have the tuners with the hex nut bushings which means you can swap to grovers without reaming, so unless you are doing it for the sake of weight and vintage look I would go with the grovers, but like i said if you want to keep the weight down, and look of the vintage style tuners, then I would go with those.

pwrmac7600

pwrmac7600

Posted
Posted

Doesn't say anything about them being TonePros on any site I've looked at so far; this is the set I'm referring to:

 

http://www.amazon.co...s/dp/B0018SRHHC

 

I like the look of them as they're in-keeping with the vintage style; and they wouldn't require any wood work for fitting (new holes drilled, etc).

 

look down in the product details at the model number, they are actually tonepros/klusons. they are really wel built tuners. here is the link directly to tonepros kluson site.

http://www.toneproskluson.com/portfolio-items/tpkb3l-series-locking-tuners/?portfolioID=95

 

Pesh

Pesh

Posted
Posted

Finding them in the UK seems to be difficult; so many showing "out of stock", meaning I'm probably going to have to import them [thumbdn]

pwrmac7600

pwrmac7600

Posted
Posted

ahhh yes, I always forget the world wide part of the web, lol I don't know why I always assume everyone is here in the states, sorry about that. BUT with that being said, you still may be able to get a better deal off of ebay.

Pesh

Pesh

Posted
Posted

Very reasonable; even with potential import and the shipping, etc.

 

I'm pretty sure (without looking at it) that my Studio has Chrome hardware on the most part, but the stock machine heads are a nickel finish; I don't think they're as reflective or shiny as the ones shown on that eBay page...

pwrmac7600

pwrmac7600

Posted
Posted

Very reasonable; even with potential import and the shipping, etc.

 

I'm pretty sure (without looking at it) that my Studio has Chrome hardware on the most part, but the stock machine heads are a nickel finish; I don't think they're as reflective or shiny as the ones shown on that eBay page...

 

He has a chrome, nickel, and I think aged nickel. They all look shiny at first, the nickel dulls with age. If your stock tuners are nickel than I would go with those, they will dull within a year or so.

capmaster

capmaster

Posted
Posted

cap,

 

sounds like you have not had good experiences with locking tuners

 

maybe your's were in the early days of locking ones, how old are your guitars that came with the tuners and I assume they were quality aftermarket but stock items?

 

It seems there are a number of high quality locking tuners available and I did watch a Utube video of a guy installing Grovers on his Les Paul, looked easy enough.

 

Appreciate all comments and direction, I am new at this stuff having had my Studio for only about 7 months now, so thanks everyone.

Both locking and non-locking Grovers came stock on guitars made in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Before I bought my first guitar featuring them, the locking tuner of the E6th on a Les Paul Standard 2012 went bad during final setup by the sales guy. He's one of Thomann's Custom Shop specialists specially trained at Gibson and knew well what he did.

norton

norton

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I ordered a set of chrome Grover locking 18/1 tuners today along with the router for countersinking the hole to fit, all from Stew-Mac.

 

Thanks everyone for your comments as it was very helpful.

pwrmac7600

pwrmac7600

Posted
Posted
1409616769[/url]' post='1559492']

I ordered a set of chrome Grover locking 18/1 tuners today along with the router for countersinking the hole to fit, all from Stew-Mac.

 

Thanks everyone for your comments as it was very helpful.

 

Which bit did you get? I was looking at a bit on stew mac made exactly for rear peg head reaming. Curious if that is the one you got? If so please let me know how well it works for you.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...