Steinberger gearless tuners

[Ron]

I have a BC Rich Mockingbird Masterpiece 6 string electric guitar. I've had it just over 2 years and while I really think it's a well-built and beautiful instrument, it doesn't hold it's tuning very long at all. My dad and I were attempting to take one of the tuners off to see if we could find a tightening screw for the gear mechanism and the round threaded post bushing broke off at the thread. We obviously discovered the tuner was a sealed unit with no tightening adjustment. I've looked on the internet for a new set of GOOD tuners and saw the Steinberger gearless tuners on the Stew-mac page. Has anyone used these tuners and are they difficult to adjust? What about re-stringing? Due to the 40:1 ratio, does it take all day to re-string or is there a gizmo I could use to wind them quickly? Any help or replies appreciated.

[Russell Vance]

Couple of things,

poor tuning on electrics is seldom caused by machine heads (with the exception of the cheap and nasty stuff and original Klusons),

Yes you can use the Steinberger tuners and they work, but so do virtually every quality tuner at about half the price. We use Sperzel Lockers and Schaller Non-Lockers on our production and custom guitars - I particularly like the Sperzels because of their low turret height giving a better break angle and the locking system (when used correctly - ie; no winding on, just lock em in straight and give a half turn) is dead simple and stable. But, that said, as a long time Ibanez player I've never had a Gotoh Tuner fail to deliver and they are well priced.

One other thing is that the Sperzels are machined from billet aluminium and are very light and strong which keeps down peghead weight (I can't find a spec for the Steinbergers but they are big units). Up to you - this is all I know . Rusty.