First impressions: Planet Waves locking tuners

[Xyrium]

I installed these on my model 6 today. First, they fit in the original factory cutouts nice and snugly, I had to give a few twists of a piece of sandpaper to clean the cutouts a bit. Screws fit right into the factor holes and lines up perfectly. THe height was the same as the stock tuners as well. Very happy.

Now, installing strings. Good god, why did it take so long for someone to invent these? This cut down on string changing time by at least 15 minutes. As a complete surprise, I discovered that they cut off the string as well, and leave a beautifully clean edge.

So far, I love them. They have a nice high 18:1 turning ratio, so that will make them nice for fine tuning as well I suppose. Next up, a set of the Schaller lockers, probably going on a Jackson SL2HT. However, when I placed one on the model 6, I noticed the key height was lower than stock.

[jkielq91]

Would locking tuners work on a guitar with a Floyd in place of a locking nut? Just curious.

[tomanyjacksons]

Would locking tuners work on a guitar with a Floyd in place of a locking nut? Just curious.

Carvin has done it that way for awhile.

[jkielq91]

Carvin has done it that way for awhile.

cool

[Xyrium]

The planet waves tuners do not lock the gears, they lock the string in place on the tuner for installation. I know that Carvin uses Sperzels, so maybe they are different. To my knowledge, the overall term "locking tuner" indicates that you are locking the string on the tuner in order to speed installation, and avoid winding. It does not mean that you can eliminate the locknut of your Floyd.

[straycat]

Kind of overkill if you have a floyd nut to lock the strings down.To each his own.

[Xyrium]

Though I don't use the trem much, this was primarily to eliminate string winding during installations (cleaner cut, less stretching involved). Locking tuners don't lock the gears, or stop the string from moving, so they don't replace the Floyd's locking nut.

[straycat]

Ok I see what you mean.
I used Sperzels on this one the staggered ones so I had enough downward pressure.Works great with the flat mount Kahler trem and graphite nut.

[snake_pearson]

I thought about getting the planet waves for my RR5. I ended up getting a set of the locking tuners from Dragonfire Parts. Some of the stuff they sell is a bit suspect, but the locking tuners are pretty legit for the $30 I spent on 'em as opposed to double that for Gold sperzels.

[Animus]

Kind of overkill if you have a floyd nut to lock the strings down.To each his own.

Well while you are still restringing we have already restringed and recorded 3 songs. ;-)

[Hellbat]

Kind of overkill if you have a floyd nut to lock the strings down.To each his own.

I use lockers on my floyded guitars as well. For me it has nothing to do with tuning stability in that situation, its all about super fast and easy string changes that look nice and clean, up on the headstock.

I use the Schaller locking tuners and have Sperzels on one guitar. The Schaller ones have the nicest locking wheel of the bunch. The Sperzel locking wheels are kind of like a pizza cutter. I realize they do that to stop gorillas from overtorquing the crap out of them but damn they can hurt just spinning up to the point when the string stops slipping.

The one thing to be aware with the Schallers is the shaft portion that goes through the head is a hair wider so the holes may require a little reaming out. The tabs screws lined up perfectly in all cases. Also the button shaft are a little shorter, bringing the buttons a bit closer to the headstock. I personally prefer it looks wise but some people may not.

[Xyrium]

That's exactly what I found when I initially placed a Schaller on the M6. They were indeed shorter, and I wasn't sure if I'd like the look. Both needed a slight reaming with very light sandpaper to get them through, but once done, they fit very nicely.

[TKEblue]

Are you sure that some don't lock the gears? Im could have swore that when I was messing around with an ec1 000 that they locked the gears.
And wtf man knocks 15 minutes off of restringing?! Lol that would mean you could have it done in like negative 5 minutes with these? :P restrung 5 minutes before you even thought about it, ima have to get some then. xD

[Xyrium]

There's no secret button or locking mechanism that I can locate, and there's certainly no mention of it on their website or instructions. So, yep, positive.

...and yes, time travel is my specialty.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Depending on the guitar the Schallers may bolt right on. On my old DK1 ('02 IIRC) I had to ream the holes but none of my newer Soloists required ANY work at all.

They are shorter. It looks great on a Strat-head (Charvel Custom Shop uses the same profile) and it makes no difference to me on the Jackson headstock.

Also that deal where the high E wants to sit up out of the back of the Floyd nut slot unless you wrap 10 turns of wire on is mostly eliminated by the shorter posts.

I have locking tuners on tremolo and non-tremolo guitars and overall I think they are gimmicky in the sense of "helps your guitar stay in tune" and would never buy them for that - but the time savings is REAL.