More tuning woes… but don’t blame the machineheads, offers Dave Burrluck
QI’m confused! I bought a cheapo Strat-alike online a while back and most people’s advice is that I’ll need to change the machineheads, the tuners, as they’ll be rubbish. Actually, now I have the guitar, they feel okay, as in smooth tuning, but I am having some tuning problems. My question is, are the tuners at fault and should I change them? Do I need locking types or am I missing something?
AOkay, I think we need to untangle that question a bit. Let’s start with the actual tuner. In the day job of reviewing guitars I can’t remember coming across a set of tuners – irrespective of the cost of the guitar–that didn’t work or in any way impeded stable tuning. The caveat is that I’ve certainly come across tuners that feel better than others and, let’s be honest, when we’re writing about instruments that can span thousands of pounds in terms of price difference, the quality of the individual parts will vary considerably. So, for example, when I was writing about a Harley Benton T-style in our last issue, the split-post-style tuners felt tight and smooth in action and I had no tuning issues at all. When I went to restring the guitar, however, I found that the hole in the string post, where you push in the string, simply wasn’t deep enough to hold the string as you wound it around the post. But that guitar did cost £133, so was I really surprised?
You don’t mention exactly what sort of tuning issues you’re having, and without checking your guitar a precise diagnosis is difficult. However, odds on, those nagging tuning issues will come from not putting your strings on properly (too few or too many wraps around the post, for example), not stretching the strings properly, and nut slots that haven’t been cut properly. Of course, if you use the vibrato a lot, then issues there can certainly cause tuning problems. Simply changing the tuners isn’t going to change any of those issues, with perhaps the exception of locking tuners, which mean you’ll have fewer problems with actually attaching your strings to the string post.
Like so many guitars, I’d guess it’s the nut that
