How often do you change your guitar strings? Once a week? Once a month? Once a year?
Back in my touring days, playing guitar six or seven nights a week, I changed strings daily. It was a pain, but there’s nothing like a fresh, crisp sounding set of strings when getting on stage.
When changing strings daily it’s natural to get pretty quick about it. Normally 20 minutes or so and my axe was good to go.
We all know the process of changing strings. Run the new string through the bridge, up the neck, feed it through the little hole in the stem of the tuner, grab the string winder and crank!
After repeating this process six times, the wrist can feel like it’s got a severe case of writer’s cramp. No wonder none of us looks forward to changing strings. Easier to just hope we get another week or two out of the old ones.
Then the clouds parted…
Somewhere along the way some bright engineer hunched over a work bench came up with the idea of locking tuners, and it was like the proverbial parting of the clouds. And I for one, could kiss their feet!
Locking tuners work by “locking” the string in, once it has been threaded through the tuner stem. It varies by manufacturer but there is typically a small, screw down knob that has been added to the tuner, and when knob is turned, an inner mechanism “clamps” down on the string, locking it into place.
This gives you the ability to install a new string without having to “wind” the string around the stem of the tuner. You just thread the new string through the stem, pull it semi-tight, and “lock” it down and tune it up. It’s that easy.
Locking tuners are available from a number of manufacturers in a variety of styles and price ranges.
Many new guitars nowadays come with locking tuners as standard equipment, but if you don’t currently have them on your guitar, they can be added.
Although they originally were seen mainly on electric guitars, they have become more prevalent on acoustics as well.
When replacing standard tuners with locking tuners, it’s important to try and find a replacement that is as close in size to the original as possible.
Quite often, new holes will have to be drilled in the back of the headstock, and the tuner hole will have to be increased. For the inexperienced, this could be a challenging and possibly damaging process, so it is highly recommended to have a qualified repair tech do the installation.
Locking tuners take most of the pain out of changing strings, turning a twenty or thirty minute operation into about five. In addition, they hold the string in tune better than standard tuners.
If you are considering buying a guitar with locking tuners, or possibly adding a set to your existing guitar, and are hesitant about the cost – don’t think twice about it. You will quickly find that it was well worth the investment!
