Locking vs vintage tuners

[Keith B.]

I'm a recent joiner of the PRS family with a new CE24. I love it and am blown away by the locking tuners and tuning stability.

Even though it's just been a few weeks, I'm already eyeing other models. I seem to be drawn to McCarty Singlecuts.

My question is how well do those tuners perform? My les Paul with regular tuners is quite stable. Assume the prs would be same or better. Thoughts?

 

[veinbuster]

A PRS with vintage (not locking) tuners is plenty stable, particularly if you don’t put too many wraps around the tuning peg.

 

[AP515]

Non-locking tuners become locking tuners if you use this technique. I use it on all my guitars that don't have locking tuners, and I only have less than one wrap on the peg.

https://www.prsguitars.com/index.php/support/article/prs_non_locking_tuners

 

[dmatthews]

Non-locking tuners become locking tuners if you use this technique. I use it on all my guitars that don't have locking tuners, and I only have less than one wrap on the peg.

https://www.prsguitars.com/index.php/support/article/prs_non_locking_tuners

^^^Learned that from this guy^^^ Thanks Joseph!

 

[Ovibos]

My les Paul with regular tuners is quite stable.

Since this statement proves you're a witch, I think you'll be fine.

 

[aphantomvaper]

I will attest this locking technique on non locking, even non prs, tuners works great!

 

[Boogie]

Been doing this for years and years, experimenting with the amount of slack before winding. I found hat I like a couple of winds on the highest strings and basically one wrap on the wound strings. The secret is in the stretching technique. Mrs. B always accused me of trying to rip the strings off the guitar after so meticulously installing them. The cats love the clinking of the excess tail before snipping. They are huge helpers.

 

[gush]

I'm a HUGE fan of the Mann vintage lockers. Even though the wrap/lock method works it's just soooooo much easier to get strings on AND OFF the guitar with the lockers. String changes are so much faster too.

I put them on my McCarty and I highly recommend them!

 

[alantig]

Been doing this for years and years, experimenting with the amount of slack before winding. I found hat I like a couple of winds on the highest strings and basically one wrap on the wound strings. The secret is in the stretching technique. Mrs. B always accused me of trying to rip the strings off the guitar after so meticulously installing them. The cats love the clinking of the excess tail before snipping. They are huge helpers.

Do you ever remind them that strings used to be made of catgut? I like to casually toss that out every now and then and watch them out of the corner of my eye, trying to gauge how much English they really understand.

 

[GADonis]

I've never had any tuning issues on my McCarty's with vintage tuners. I recently just installed some MannMade Kluson vintage locking tuners on one of them. They fit perfectly with zero modification. I put them on solely for the purpose of making re-stringing less time consuming.

 

[Going Modal]

So, check this out--I just bought these to replace the gold ones on my '08 McSoapy:
https://us.prsaccessories.com/collections/tuners/products/vintage-style-tuning-machines
...and even though I had no intention (or indication of the product that I was buying) of getting locking ones--they are indeed locking tuners! Vintage from the back and pegs... modern from the front. Bonus!?!?!?

 

[CVS]

I hate changing strings on my guitars but when I have to I prefer locking tuners because they just make the job easier for a non techie like me. With that said, I have found that all of my PRS guitars (all have locking tuners) stay in tune much better than my non PRS guitars (which do not have locking tuners)

 

[vchizzle]

So, check this out--I just bought these to replace the gold ones on my '08 McSoapy:
https://us.prsaccessories.com/collections/tuners/products/vintage-style-tuning-machines
...and even though I had no intention (or indication of the product that I was buying) of getting locking ones--they are indeed locking tuners! Vintage from the back and pegs... modern from the front. Bonus!?!?!?

So do they have the typical locking thumb screw then?

 

[SinSir]

As everyone's said locking tuners aren't necessary if the wrap is done right but they sure do spoil you! My favorite vintage lockers are Gotoh sd90 (the NON thumb wheel ones or sd91), maybe even my favorite tuners. I have them on a few guitars and every time i use them I think to myself these are so nice.

 

[bodia]

So do they have the typical locking thumb screw then?

Yeah, they do. These are the “new” Vintage tuners that they’re putting on the 594 and McCarty.

 

[vchizzle]

Yeah, they do. These are the “new” Vintage tuners that they’re putting on the 594 and McCarty.

Interesting. Cool, I like the concept and trying to bridge the gap between vintage and modern.

Slightly odd they aren’t trying to advertise that in the listing details.

 

[Going Modal]

So do they have the typical locking thumb screw then?

Yup, they sure do. Imagine the standard brass post that you typically see the vintage-style tuners as of late, but with a threaded hole on the visible headstock side, where a tiny black thumbscrew goes into. It's like they married the "vintage" and "modern" together seamlessly. (They're downstairs in their box awaiting another finishing piece for the guitar before I install everything; if I can get a picture I will do so.)

 

[Broseph]

John Mann is now selling these for those interested in locking tuners on their newer McCarty's
https://www.johnmannsguitarvault.co...Tuning-Machines-Set-of-6-Nickel-x54674389.htm
Personally I'm enjoying the vintage look of my S2 and brass post. It's nice not staring at a black thumb screws. I think I'll stick to the locking wrap method for string changes and not change the tuners out. As other's have said: the tuning stability is great on these guitars. Swapping them out like SE lines is not necessary.

 

[Going Modal]

Couple months later, and I realize I never shared the photo that I promised (see 2 posts ago) in this thread. So, here you go--purchased straight from the PRS Accessory store, unintentionally:

 

[Broseph]

Weird that they quickly pulled them from the store. Seems like plenty of people wishing to upgrade to locking for no other reason than the ease of string changes. Hence the disappointment for many when they changed back to vintage tuners from Phase 3 on the Core lines. I would think a market would exist to buy these vintage locking directly from PRS. Maybe pandemic related and need to focus on making guitars? Seems they have been extremely slow to update the accessory store since pandemic hit.