Locking tuners designed for easier string changes

Patent drawing

I see a lot of confusion regarding locking tuners online. A lot of people seem to think locking tuners will provide additional tuning stability, or are redundant when a guitar as a locking nut (a la Floyd Rose). E.g., one person claimed: “Tuning stability is why they were invented.” 

So, um, yeah. Not exactly. The first locking tuners were invented by Robert Sperzel, who was granted patent 4,625,614. The main benefit Sperzel lists in that patent is that his invention “provides a tuning device having a string post which is rotated through a short distance to quickly and easily tune a string of a musical instrument to a desired pitch [...] by rotating the string post through a short distance.” His invention was intended make string changes less of a pain in the ass, faster and easier compared to existing tuners, which he describes: “The string post of the tuning device [then in use] must be turned through several complete revolutions before the string is pulled sufficiently tight to have the desired pitch or tune. Due to the gear ratio between the worm and pinion, many turns of a knob connected with the worm are required in order to turn the string post through just a few revolutions. Therefore, substantial time and effort is required to rotate the worm to effect rotation of the string post through several revolutions to tune a string.”

The patent then does go on to discuss stability: “Rotating a string post through several revolutions results in a corresponding number of wraps or coils of the string being formed around the end of the string post. During playing of the musical instrument, these coils can shift relative to each other and change the pitch of the string which was so laboriously tuned. The change in pitch of the tuned string, due to shifting of the coils on a string post, becomes particularly troublesome when a tremolo bridge system is used to vary the pitch of the string.”

In practice, I personally haven’t experienced any noticeable instability as a result of multiple winds around the tuning post, but that could be because I almost exclusively play hardtails. 😎 

Discussion. And I should point out that at least this post from Ultimate Guitar characterizes Sperzel’s patent the other way: “Bob Sperzel wanted to address a problem that had plagued guitarists for decades: strings slipping around tuning posts, particularly during aggressive playing or tremolo use. His solution was elegant - if strings didn't need multiple wraps to stay in place, there'd be less opportunity for those wraps to slip and cause tuning drift.”

Anyway. I have ’em on the EC-500 (previous owner), installed them on the EC-300, and they come stock on the H-1001 and the Horizon-III. I like ’em. (And they look cool.) I’ve found, now that I’m actually playing a lot more, even when I wipe the strings down after playing, I need to swap my NYXLs out after a few weeks. Anything that makes that process faster and easier is clutch.