Tuners

[lwknives]

how much should i pay for tuners they cost lots more than i thought they would are the cheap ones any good?

i want to have a realy good guitar but $50 fore tuners seems a bit more than i want to spend.

should i just spend the money or get the $15 ones.

[jmrentis]

Its up to you really. I personally like Sperzels quite a bit and will likely be using them for a while to come. They sell from about $60-$80 depending on color and type of the Trim-Loks you want. They have other types like open backs which look cool as well. I think they are worth buying, I was so surprised at the stability increase in my tuning, plus it takes like two minutes to put new strings on with them. There are other brands like Gotoh and Schaller that also have very nice tuners, but most will cost you around that same price range. I have seen some really nice looking and decent Gotoh's that will run you maybe $35 ish, which will be better than economy tuners and look nicer, but won't have the quality and features the more expensive ones do. I just saw some Grovers that'll run you about $50 and are locking tuners, haven't heard much about them, but the Grovers on my acoustic seem smooth and solid.

Again, its completely up to you, its all about your preferences, but if you went with the high end tuners you will not be disappointed at all, very nice stuff. I was shocked at the price of tuners a few years back when I started replacing a few of mine, but once I had bought a pair, put them on and tried them out, I could instantly see why and knew I would never buy economy tuners again. Do realize that if your are replacing tuners, you might have to make some minor modification to your headstock as the holes are slightly bigger on the some of the tuners like the Sperzels, so be prepared to change this if you have a neck with regular tuners already on there. Best of luck to you. J

[lwknives]

thanks fore the reply im going to put them on a guitar im making from scratch. I gues ill go with more expensive ones

[Rick500]

I like Sperzels best too. But if you're going for inexpensive, Carvin's house brand tuners are decent for $25 and shipping: http://www.carvin.com/products/single.php?product=C6C

[Mattia]

Best tuner for little money: standard Gotoh. About 30-35 bucks from most places. Locking: well, whatever you want, really. But my standard for non-trem guitars is the gotoh.

[guitar2005]

Best tuner for little money: standard Gotoh. About 30-35 bucks from most places. Locking: well, whatever you want, really. But my standard for non-trem guitars is the gotoh.

Yup - Gotoh tuners are pretty good value. Ibanez has been using Gotoh tuners on their Japanese guitars for a long time.

For custom builds, I'll use Grovers. I'm trying a set of sperzels for the first time on my current project. They're nice and small.

[Mattia]

Frankly, I'm far from convinced Grover makes a better tuner than Gotoh does. Gotoh's 510 is nicer than any grover I've handled (never built with them), and the overall quality between Gotoh, Grover, Schaller (basic model Gotoh) is dead-on. Only thing Gotoh could do better is a slightly cleaner plating job on the bottom edge of the tuning machine buttons/casting marks, but that doesn't affect the function at all.

My basic choice is Gotoh's regular line. My standard choice for slightly fancier builds is Gotoh, just the 510 line instead of the cheaper line. Grover or Gotoh for open-backs, and schaller or sperzel for locking, but only because I can't find anywhere that stocks Gotoh's locking machines, else I'd use those.