Best tuners for a 24" mustang neck

[JerseyTrash]

Something that will give me the most stability in case I want to downtune with such a short scale.

Or at least, which ones have you had the best experience with?

Thanks!

 

[stratamania]

A good set of locking tuners. I like Hipshot open gear Griploks. You need the schaller holes ideally for them.

Down tuning on a short scale is another issue. The tuners will do it but the scale length itself is more the challenge.

 

[Cagey]

I'd use Schaller mini lockers first, then Sperzels second. In any event, locking tuners.

 

[Ace Flibble]

Short scale doesn't make a difference as far as the tuners go, and tuners being locking or not is no indication of stability. There are lots of poorly-made locking tuners which wiggle more than high-end, well-made, non-locking tuners.

As long as you stick to the bigger brands, you should be okay. The Planet Waves locking & auto-trim tuners are absolutely rock-solid—sometimes a bit too solid—and Grover 18:1 Rotomatic, and Gotoh 301, 381 and 510 lines are all dependable, too.

The main thing to be aware of when trying to set up a short scale guitar to downtune often is how quickly the string tension can change—much more dramatically than when downtuning longer scale guitars—and the need to wrap and lock the string correctly, even if not using locking tuners. Short scale guitars shift in tuning so rapidly that if you start tuning down, by the time you've retuned the last string, the first string you retuned may have shifted a whole half step or more. So you've got to make sure the nut and bridge are as solid as the tuners, you should be prepared to tighten the truss rod perhaps a little more than you would with a regular guitar, and you need to be careful with your string selection. The overall set up of the guitar is far, far more important than any one piece of hardware.

 

[stratamania]

@ Ace, why would you recommend tightening a truss rod for downtuned strings ?

Surely they are applying less tension to the neck not more. I can see a possible adjustment may be needed.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

I recently built a Mustang and I'll jump on the bandwagon by agreeing that tuners aren't the biggest variable in the equation for this one. Any good set of tuners will do you, I'd recommend pursuing locking tuners if you intend on using the tremolo but otherwise either way will work. My strongest suggestion would be to set it up for pretty heavy strings in order to keep enough tension for things to be stable. The one I built was setup for 10s and that was quite "slinky" even at concert pitch. Just dropping the E to D would result in some pitch drift as the string rang. If I wanted to downtune a Mustang, I'd be looking at 11s at the bare minimum, but probably 12s. I play 10-52s on 25.5" and 24 3/4" scale, that hybrid set might also be a good way to keep things stable with the nice heavy low end but still retain the lighter 24" feel with the slinkier top end.

 

[JerseyTrash]

Thanks for all the info. I actually use 12s on my LP tuned down to C# standard, so thats where I'd start. I actually like a little bit of wiggle (something in between 10s and 9s in standard concert pitch), as long as the strings aren't flopping around like crazy and buzzing a lot all over the neck.

And as for the bridge, I was thinking a standard Gibson-style TOM. So it should be (relatively) rock solid.  :headbang:
And yes, I intend to angle the neck pocket to compensate for that.