Locking Tuners: How They Keep Your Guitar in Tune
Locking Tuners
Have you ever been playing an epic guitar solo? The notes land in the right place. The crowd goes wild, and then you try one last bend and it drops out of tune. The hours of practice, gone because your guitar didn't stay in tune. This is one of the worst experiences possible. But, locking tuners may be your answer.
Many things affect how well a guitar stays in tune. The strings, the guitar nut, the bridge and so many more all play a part. If you want the most effective change, locking tuners are one of the most effective tools. Locking tuners hold the string in place while you play guitar. This makes it more difficult for the guitar to fall out of tune.
There are two types of locking tuners
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The Standard Locking Tuner
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The Floyd Rose Style Locking Tuner
The Standard Locking Tuner
The Standard Locking Tuner uses a post inside of the actual tuner of the guitar. Check out the image above to see what they look like. The tuner is simple. You place the string through the tuner. Clamp it down then tune it to pitch. You can tune it at any time without damaging the string.
Oftentimes there are metal rods inside of the tuner. They can be lost if you completely remove the locking screw on the tuner. Newer locking tuners often do not allow you to remove the screw.
[products=standardlocking]
Floyd Rose Locking Tuner
The Floyd Rose is one of the most popular tremolo systems used in playing styles like Van Halen. You can detune the pitch of your guitars until the strings are like spaghetti noodles. It requires a locking system to maintain tune stability.
The Floyd Rose locking system locks the strings at the nut. This provides the tune-stability that the standard locking tuners have. However, the locking nut does not allow users to tune at the headstock without releasing the lock. If you tune a guitar at the headstock while the locking nut is in place, the string will break.
Changing strings on a Floyd is harder than on a standard locking tuner. You have to cut the ball ends off the strings. Then you loosen the bridge string holder and insert the string. You then need to put the strings through the tuner with slack like a non-locking tuner guitar. Then tune to pitch and stretch the strings. Once the strings are stretched, you can add the lock nut. If you don't know how to do it, take it to a guitar tech.
When Eddie Van Halen discovered the Floyd Rose, he loved it. He could do crazy guitar tricks never seen before. Back then, the Floyd Rose did not have a way to tune the guitar without undoing the locking mechanism. This was frustrating. If the guitar went out of tune, you had to reset the whole thing. Eddie looked at violins. They have tuners on the bridge to make minor tuning adjustments. He brought this idea to Floyd Rose. Nowadays, every Floyd Rose comes equipped with these tuners on the bridge.
[products=floydrose]
The next time you go on stage, use locking tuners to keep your guitar in tune. You can show off your skills without worrying about tuning. Get a set of locking tuners at roxymusic.com.
