Opinions On Wilkinson Ez-lok Tuners

[Mickguard]

I came across these:

Wilkinson EZ-Lok Tuners

I put locking tuners (Grovers) on my guitars as a standard mod. I think they really help in terms of tuning stability. So these tuners caught my eye -- a different design, very simple idea.

Anyone know if they actuallly work? They're less expensive than the Grovers I usually buy --and Grover doesn't make black mini locking tuners, and that's what I need.

And then I got to thinking...looks like it wouldn't be too difficult to modify an existing set of tuners (got plenty of those here) --just get out the dremel.

Which leads to the next question---in your opinion, which would be more effective

1) Add the 90 degree hole ABOVE the existing hole

2) Add the hole BELOW

I lean toward option 2 because on normal tuners, there isn't much room left at top to drill into. But drilling below, you run into problems too --unless I can find slightly thinner nuts, which would leave more of the shaft to drill into.

And then I got to thinking some more (it's morning, sun's out, drinking my coffee, I'll get around to working in a few minutes )...does the second hole have to be straight through--or does it make sense to have it dip down on either side to meet at a slightly lower point in the center?

This would work around the problem of not having much room above the nut to drill into. It also makes sense that the string would end up being locked down even tighter that way.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I just can't help myself...I was born to mod...

But now I'm all inspired by Kritz Guitars --check out their R&D page --you think I'm bad? These guys have found a way to mod every piece of their guitars! Very cool...(tip o' the hat to Verhoeven!)

Like I said, I have a few sets of tuners to play with here...I'll start with the broken ones...

[balooka]

I never really browsed on their website before, but those tuners look OK indeed. These might be good (enough) for my first project...

I just have to wait untill someone with actual knowledge about them replies

[thegarehanman]

Idch, have you looked at the sperzel sound lock tuners? Now take this with a grain of salt(because I'm not technically a mechanical engineer yet), but the design of the sperzel seems to be a lot more effecient than the wilkinson at stopping string movement. I'm putting the sperzels on my next build. Also, you realise that most of that stuff on the Krits R&D page has been done before, in some form or another, right?

peace,

russ

[Mickguard]

What I like about the Krits guitars is that they're putting ALL of it onto a single guitar...I think it's funny as hell...partly because I'm constantly coming up with new wheel designs myself

For the locking tuners, I usually use Grovers...they pinch the string nice n' tight, there's no way for the string to move. But the Wilkinson idea is really appealing in its simplicity --and it does make a lot of sense, it seems like it would take a lot to get the strings to move once they've been threaded through like that.

And if they added in my 'V-Lok' ( ) hole design, I'd be willing to bet that the tuner would be just as stable as any locking tuner out there.