New Grover Locking Tuners

[thedoctor]

I am building a total Vintage Tele and these new Grovers would look right and if they lock, so much the better. Anyone used them yet?

I guess it would help if I could get the link to work but I can't. It is a new Grover locking machine with no external hardware.

Dang! I messed the search up and I have all the answers I need now that I spelled Grover correctly. Sorry for the wasted space.

Edited June 10, 2005 by thedoctor

[SoundAt11]

I am building a total Vintage Tele and these new Grovers would look right and if they lock, so much the better. Anyone used them yet?

I guess it would help if I could get the link to work but I can't. It is a new Grover locking machine with no external hardware.

Dang! I messed the search up and I have all the answers I need now that I spelled Grover correctly. Sorry for the wasted space.

←

I use the Gold 3+3 locking Grovers on my neck-thru. I don't really care for them. Right off the bat, the screws that they come with are really soft metal, very easy to round out on the 1st installation (unlike my old non-locking Grovers that have been installed on numerous guitars and haven't rounded out).

The main thing is that they don't seem to hold a tune any better than regular grovers and here's the comparison. I've used the old (USA) Grovers on my mahogany/Rosewood necked SG and a maple/Rosewood necked Sheraton. Both were "pretty good" (not as good as the old Schallers on my Ovation, it can hold a tune for months at a time). The locking Grovers (on my hard-rock maple neck (with dual trussrod and graphite reinforcement rods) with an ebony fretboard, neck-thru, straight-pull headstock, graphite nut (IE: it should theoretically have the most rigid neck possible), and tuneomatic bridge) don't hold tune for more than a day or tune and constantly need tweaking as they always seemed to detune on me.

I'd suggest getting something different like old Schallers.

[frank falbo]

The locking mechanism is somewhat of a ripoff of the Gotoh mechanism. You will be better off using the Gotohs if you can. As I mentioned somewhere else, they're my favorite. They will have a good, strong screw, too. It's a little larger than the Grover screw.

[Mickguard]

I haven't had any issues with Grover screws...but now that I think about it, if the existing holes match up, I use the screws already on the guitar a lot of the time.

As for the tuning...that's hard for me to say...on one guitar I replaced the stock Grovers with locking tuners, but I also put a bigsby on there! The original tuners held great, with the Bigsby on there, the lockers struggle...but I haven't really tweaked the guitar.

I put a set of Grover lockers on my strat, and that stayed in tune great. I also put a set on a tele with Bigsby and had no tuning issues...

AND I have a set on my Melody Maker (from a couple years ago)...and here's the weird part...when I'm practicing at home, I play that guitar 3-4 hours a day...and I tune it up once a week (and just check the tuning after that).

BUT, last night practicing with the band...I had to tune up three times! I even had to stop playing during a song, it just slipped out of tune during the song...

I tend to chose Grover minis because I like the way they look over other tuners...but if they've lowered their quality, I'll think twice...

[mikhailgtrski]

Does Gotoh make a 3x3 locking tuner in gold? I can only find them 6 in-line mini or Kluson type. I was going to use the Schallers because they have 3x3 in gold plus removable buttons (I want to make my own) but then I saw the Grovers, which look nicer without the knob on the back. Are the Grovers really that awful?

Mike

[thedoctor]

I think the Grovers would look better in this particular build also but the prevailing opinions seem to say they don't work that well and have issues. I am going to use a set of non-locking Grovers instead. Hey, it's a vintage Tele. They didn't even HAVE lockers available. Except at the bus station. Oh, and the YMCA but let's not go there.