Zach Meyer Replacement Tuner (drop in) suggestions

cmedcoff

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I recently picked up Zack Meyer. I love it's lower, growler type of tone, thicker, heavier than my others. I love everything about this guitar except tuning it. I don't know if it is the non-locking tuners, but I have a hard time getting this guitar in tune. Once it's there it seems to be OK, but getting it in tune just seems difficult. Very different that my US custom, my Torero, my EG2 which all tune up and STAY in tune, one of the best things about PRS guitars. One of the reason's I got this guitar is for its fixed bridge to facilitate fast tune change to drop D etc. Tough to do on my other guitars as they are all floating bridges.

I'm playing 9's like all my other guitars. Try tens? Trying new tuners? Get it setup? Intonation at the 12th fret doesn't seem like its out of wack. Suggestions?
 
The PRS SE Zach Myers comes with vintage style non locking tuners, same as on my PRS SE Bernie Marsden and my Core PRS McCarty Korina. For both, I swapped the tuners for Gotoh SD90 MG locking tuners, which are REALLY drop in. The Gotoh operation manual advices you to replace the original bushings, but I recommend continuing use of the original PRS bushings. They fit better than the replacement bushings, whch tend to slip a bit out of the peg holes.
 
The PRS SE Zach Myers comes with vintage style non locking tuners, same as on my PRS SE Bernie Marsden and my Core PRS McCarty Korina. For both, I swapped the tuners for Gotoh SD90 MG locking tuners, which are REALLY drop in. The Gotoh operation manual advices you to replace the original bushings, but I recommend continuing use of the original PRS bushings. They fit better than the replacement bushings, whch tend to slip a bit out of the peg holes.

I would do this, and a Core nut.
 
The PRS SE Zach Myers comes with vintage style non locking tuners, same as on my PRS SE Bernie Marsden and my Core PRS McCarty Korina. For both, I swapped the tuners for Gotoh SD90 MG locking tuners, which are REALLY drop in. The Gotoh operation manual advices you to replace the original bushings, but I recommend continuing use of the original PRS bushings. They fit better than the replacement bushings, whch tend to slip a bit out of the peg holes.

Thanks. Did you notice the same issue? Replacement improve it?
 
I recently picked up Zack Meyer. I love it's lower, growler type of tone, thicker, heavier than my others. I love everything about this guitar except tuning it. I don't know if it is the non-locking tuners, but I have a hard time getting this guitar in tune. Once it's there it seems to be OK, but getting it in tune just seems difficult. Very different that my US custom, my Torero, my EG2 which all tune up and STAY in tune, one of the best things about PRS guitars. One of the reason's I got this guitar is for its fixed bridge to facilitate fast tune change to drop D etc. Tough to do on my other guitars as they are all floating bridges.

I'm playing 9's like all my other guitars. Try tens? Trying new tuners? Get it setup? Intonation at the 12th fret doesn't seem like its out of wack. Suggestions?

I have a ZM for almost two years now and I never had tuning problems with it, actually, it just won't go out of tune. I play 10's and it came from the factory with 10's. Before you replace your tuners I would suggest to look at the nut. Maybe it cut for 10's, or maybe it just cut poorly. It would be a lot cheaper to start with the nut and also if you have a problem there, locking tuners won't help.
 
I've had a Zach for a year and a half now. Had a graphtech nut put on it when it got a setup. In the past 3 months, I can't keep the G or low E in tune. I'm doing the Gotoh locking tuners soon. Those MIK tuners seem cheap and slip over time
 
This from John Mann may be the ticket. I haven't used either so I can't speak to which is better. But John Mann's stuff is top notch from all I've read.

Locking tuners for Zacks and Bernies
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It was my impression that the ZM shipped with 9's. My tuning stability was poor, initially. It made me consider the Gotoh SD90 locking tuners. However, I switched to 10's and, voila!, vastly improved tuning stability. The G string slot needed just a minor bit of filing.
 
It was my impression that the ZM shipped with 9's. My tuning stability was poor, initially. It made me consider the Gotoh SD90 locking tuners. However, I switched to 10's and, voila!, vastly improved tuning stability. The G string slot needed just a minor bit of filing.
That's correct. To my knowledge, the only SEs in recent years that have shipped with anything other than 9s were the Bernie Marsden siggy, the Mark Holcomb siggy, and the 277 baritones.
 
The PRS SE Zach Myers comes with vintage style non locking tuners, same as on my PRS SE Bernie Marsden and my Core PRS McCarty Korina. For both, I swapped the tuners for Gotoh SD90 MG locking tuners, which are REALLY drop in. The Gotoh operation manual advices you to replace the original bushings, but I recommend continuing use of the original PRS bushings. They fit better than the replacement bushings, whch tend to slip a bit out of the peg holes.

So I ordered these and installed them today and my impression is that it has solved the problem. However I'll need to get a few more hours of play time in. I did consider putting 10's on it, maybe I will yet, but one of the things I like besides the great tone of this thing is how easy it is to bend on it. I fear putting 10's on and I'd lose that. I've tried 10's on pretty much all my guitars before and play them for weeks but I just prefer 9's.
 
I have a set of John's tuners on my SE Santana. For my Zack. I used a set of Gotoh Magnum locking tuners, they are a direct replacement. (This was prior to John announcing these) One thing that is great about MannMade, is they will send you a shipping label to send your non-locking SE tuners that you are replacing back to them, and will either offer a store credit or a cash back credit. Great customer service!
 
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