Steinberger Gearless Tuners-anyone try these??

[Citrus]

Looking for locking tuners to replace the Schallers in my Artist with Bigsby. Saw these in the stew mac catalog.

I'm looking at the specs trying to figure out if they would fit properly, and if they are any good, or a big hassle to use

[Uncle Thor's Hamer]

I've got a version of them on my headless Hohner, which is a direct copy of the original Steinberger and uses Steinberger hardware. The tuners are actually in the bridge, but are the same 24:1 ratio as the headstock tuners.

As to fit, you'd have to look at the stewmac specs.

They do work, but to me the 24:1 isn't vastly superior. The tuner pulls the string, it doesn't wrap it. So I'm not sure that the 24:1 really means anything that can be compared to standard designs with 12:1 or 18:1 ratios.

However, the design does have two advantages. One is that the string doesn't wind onto a post, so the tuning stability is superior. There is no stretching or slipping of the string that is wound around the post. This means that the string stretches into tune with the Steinbergers and after a couple of minutes it is all stretched out. From there it stays in tune a long time. If you wind a string around a traditional post 3 times, that is a lot of string that will slowly slip and stretch, which means that for quite a while your new strings will be going flat. The other advantage, which is debatable, is that the string isn't twisting as you tune it up. Some people claim that twisting will cause a loss of harmonics or tone. In fact, some people will pre-untwist the string so that it ends up non-twisted when in tune. I don't know if I buy into this theory, but some people swear by it.

Anyhow, I personally would not put on the Steinbergers on my Hamer just for the asthetics of not having a traditional tuner button visible from the front of the guitar. I am buying locking tuners to reduce the amount of slippage on the factory tuners.

Just to be clear, I do love the Steinbergers on the headless broomstick guitar. They work great. But the look is too radical for me to put them on a semi-hollow Hamer.

[unfun75]

I think some of those Gibson guitar of the month/week things have those Steinberger gearless tuners. Maybe you could find some reviews within the reviews.

[geoff_hartwell]

FWIW I've replaced most of my Artists, DuoTones, etc. stock Schallers with the locking Schallers from Stew Mac and I LOVE them. Usage is THE BIGGEST BENEFIT IN THE WORLD. On some there are evident screw-holes, but SCREW IT - guitars are meant to be PLAYED!!!

And having the locking Schallers means you're always mere minutes away from fresh new strings!

Looking for locking tuners to replace the Schallers in my Artist with Bigsby. Saw these in the stew mac catalog.

I'm looking at the specs trying to figure out if they would fit properly, and if they are any good, or a big hassle to use