Putting Kluson's on my thinline....

[The String King]

I almost can't bring myself to do it.... I know it will give me better tuning stability and etc, and I love the look of them, but I also love how the 'F' tuners fit in with the guitars look. And when I took them off I noticed how much darker the rest of the neck was than under there. God I love this guitar and don't know if I can bring myself to drill holes in it.

Is it worth it??

A pointless moan really

[boris bubbanov]

I am with you on this.

Despise the way those 'F' style tuners work (or should I say fail to work).

I've got so many Gotoh split shaft or 'Kluson' style tuners; they're everywhere around here - way better in every conceivable respect.

I simply "parked" the neck on my MIM 69 Thinline and put an aftermarket neck on there, primarily because the 'F' tuners stink but I don't wanna mod the neck as it is gonna look rabid. Distance on center between tuner bores is different than the Gotoh splits.

I keep hoping Gotoh would step up and make a super quality replacement for this tuner, but with bigger string holes down the middle for much bigger strings (cannot abide by that feature, either).

A tuner that will not accept a low E string bigger than .049 inches is not adequate.

Now that Ping's vintage "Kluson" style has gotten better, I wonder if they'd take a stab at making a nice one. Or maybe they ARE making these crappy ones, actually.

[Vole]

I've a '74 Strat w/ it's original 'F' tuners and I never need to tune the thing, despite my serious string bendin' style.

It's the most stable tuning Geetar I've ever played...

[KevinB]

Is tuning stability an issue with the guitar? If not, then leave it alone.

My originals on a '74 Tele have been fine for the 30 some years I've owned it, but maybe the newer (Ping?) reissues are not so good.

[The String King]

Tuning stability IS an issue. But is it such an issue to mod the neck?? I just don't know what to do really.

That guitars my pride and joy and the next plays perfect so I don't want an aftermarket one!

I'm torn.

[rob2]

I don't know if our MIM's will ever be regarded as "vintage" but I wouldn't rush into changing them!
But I'm surprised you have tuning stability problems-in my experience most complaints about tuning end up related to how the strings are wound on the post,lack of stretching in, and the condition of the nut.Its not often that tuners"slip".I have two MIM's and a reconditioned Lead 2 with these tuners and they're perfectly stable and will no doubt become as notchy,clicky and quirky,tuning in leaps and bounds, as the originals do over the years!
Incidentally the sets of 70's replacements as used on the Thinlines have a little "made in Germany" sticker on the packet so I assume its still Schaller making them.

[KevinB]

The Chinese Pings do deem to be getting better but if I could get some German Schaller replacements, I think I'd try those before I modified the headstock.

If the guitar is your "pride and joy" what have you got to lose? $40 or so for a replacement set of tuners?

[rob2]

Hope I've not caused confusion-the "F" tuners as supplied with MIM classic series appear exactly the same as those sold as replacements with the "made in Germany" label.....!

[boris bubbanov]

I apologize. My comments above are strictly about the MIM reissue guitars and the tuners on them. I just don't have enough recent exposure/recollection about the 1970's F tuners (of which there were at least 2 kinds, right?) to have a meaningful opinion about those.

Those tuners on your 1970's original USA Fenders could well be fine, I don't know.

Then there's the issue of how far apart on centers some of these different types of 'F' tuners are. They certainly don't interchange with the 1952 style, as we see here:

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-tech...new-*lol*.html

Now, your Allparts dealer can order a set of 'S' Schaller tuners that look like these 'F' style tuners but I don't know which version they correspond to. http://www.allparts.com/store/tuning...01,Product.asp

Sorry about that.