Dougie
Senior Member
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2008
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And now my only beef with Grovers, Schallers, and other sealed tuners. The washers on the tuner shaft are usually the curved little spring called a bellville washer. Once under tension of tuning a string, these flatten out. Any change can cause the washer to spring back into it's curved state, which causes the tuning post to turn, usually causing the string to rise in pitch. Had manufacturers put the bellville washer on the other side of the tuner case, so it would actually pull the gear lash toward the case instead of away, this would never happen and tuning would be much more stable.
I take the springs off, and put the tuner button back on and this is never more an issue as gear lash is now held snugly in one place without the inconsistency of the spring changing shape.
If you have a non-locking tremolo guitar, Bigsby or Maestro, and sealed tuners, try this. Stick toothpicks through the string hole once the guitar is tuned up, then work the tremolo, and watch those posts turn. The toothpick becomes a handy pointer so you can see the movement I outlined in the first paragraph. Once the tuner steals a little bit of slack from the string by the post turning, it won't go back to where it was when it was tuned and you have to retune. Take the curved washers off and repeat the experiment and notice that the tuners stay where they were when the strings were tuned.
THIS is why I stick with Klusons. The gear lash is held against the back of the tuner cover, like it should be and I have excellent tuning stability.
I take the springs off, and put the tuner button back on and this is never more an issue as gear lash is now held snugly in one place without the inconsistency of the spring changing shape.
If you have a non-locking tremolo guitar, Bigsby or Maestro, and sealed tuners, try this. Stick toothpicks through the string hole once the guitar is tuned up, then work the tremolo, and watch those posts turn. The toothpick becomes a handy pointer so you can see the movement I outlined in the first paragraph. Once the tuner steals a little bit of slack from the string by the post turning, it won't go back to where it was when it was tuned and you have to retune. Take the curved washers off and repeat the experiment and notice that the tuners stay where they were when the strings were tuned.
THIS is why I stick with Klusons. The gear lash is held against the back of the tuner cover, like it should be and I have excellent tuning stability.