'Best Tuners For Baritone?...

[Strat Avenger]

I am thinking about building a baritone guitar. I am actually more into traditional guitars, but the band I play in could benefit from a baritone.
I like Sperzels, but would a 056 gauge string fit through those?.

 

[stubhead]

I have Sperzels on my pedal steel guitar, and they handle the low "C" .068" or .070" with grace. The one tuner I know of to avoid (ack) is my beloved Schaller locking tuners, .056" is the absolute maximum you can get through there and even so, I've had to squish the windings with "flat" plier jaws slightly. Doesn't leave you much room for experimentation. I wouldn't be at all surprised that the pedal steel pegs were a special set, though. If you "like Sperzals" I assume you have some? In which case a bit of prudent hole-poking is called for, here.

 

[Strat Avenger]

I have Sperzels on my pedal steel guitar, and they handle the low "C" .068" or .070" with grace. The one tuner I know of to avoid (ack) is my beloved Schaller locking tuners, .056" is the absolute maximum you can get through there and even so, I've had to squish the windings with "flat" plier jaws slightly. Doesn't leave you much room for experimentation. I wouldn't be at all surprised that the pedal steel pegs were a special set, though. If you "like Sperzals" I assume you have some? In which case a bit of prudent hole-poking is called for, here.

My Warmoth Soloist has Sperzels. The low E is a 046. 'Feels kind'a snug. I don't have a 056 to try to poke through right now.
I was just curious what the baritone players here are using for tuning machines.

 

[AutoBat]

might sound goofy, but couldn't you get 5 schaller lockers and 1 non-locker for the low string?

 

[jay4321]

I know Planet Waves work. I tried a .070 with a bass string and that worked. I can confirm for sure later on with how far it goes, I can't recall offhand, but for the gauges you're talking about those work. Actually I have Sperzels and Schallers too if you want me to test a certain gauge or something.

 

[Strat Avenger]

I know Planet Waves work. I tried a .070 with a bass string and that worked. I can confirm for sure later on with how far it goes, I can't recall offhand, but for the gauges you're talking about those work. Actually I have Sperzels and Schallers too if you want me to test a certain gauge or something.

Cool. Yeah, if you don't mind, I'd like to know if a 056 fits through a Sperzel without difficulty.

 

[jay4321]

Will do. Won't be home until early tomorrow morning but I'll check it out. I know offhand I have some bass strings and various guitar strings but not sure how close I have to that gauge though.

Worst case scenario I'll order some, since I'm having a guitar setup with big beastly strings anyway.

 

[jay4321]

Sperzel's didn't go for the .056. Some people are saying up to .058 will fit but I couldn't do it on any of the 6 tuners I have. The next size I had was a .052 and that was okay on four but not the other two. What the hell? And yes, I did clip the string ends and make sure the locking wheel was all the way down.

They can be drilled out at least, but this is pretty unsatisfactory on Sperzel's part. At least be consistent...

I still like Planet Waves better. The Sperzels look better on the guitar in question, I guess, and they're not a problem with the gauges on that. I wish they were a little more accommodating out of the box though, it's not as if we're talking unheard of string gauges here.  

 

[tfarny]

I have the gotoh sg38s that warmoth sells, and I use the Ernie Ball bari set which has a really thick low string. I had to drill out the hole by hand, it wasn't hard or anything. Since you probably won't have a trem on your bari, or break strings (they are thick) locking tuners are not really that useful.

 

[stubhead]

Sperzel must make some kind of special run for the pedal steel builders, because they're pretty much a new standard on half a dozen makes or so. The older ones all had Grovers, before Grover went Oriental. C6th necks are pretty common, and the second string is usually a .058" or so (first is a .068" or .070"). It's kind of odd that no tuner manufacturer has figured out that with all the seven (and eight) string guitars out there, and all the baritones, they could do a good bit of business just by selling larger tuners to that market. This comes up quite often over on the seven string forum. I just looked at Ibanez's site, and here's what they say about their EIGHT-string RG2228:

RG2228's 8-string headstock and Gotoh precision tuning machines.

Schecter uses Grovers on their eight-strings, and that low F# is usually a .070" or .072"... so Sperzel, Grover and GOTOH are all making what you (and a jillion others) need - you just can't -have- them.  :icon_scratch: Maybe if you ordered a thousand of them....

EDIT: I just posed the question - Where to buy the big holers - on the Steel Guitar Forum, lots of builders there. Watch this space! (not if nothing's happening, dude)

 

[2ManyShoes]

Hey, I had the same problem until I finally found Hipshot's website.  They sell all kinds of tuners in singles (which is great for 7 and 8-strings), and they actually measured the string hole for me on the phone:  the standard tuner hole (i.e., non-locking) is 0.81, which is the ONLY tuner I've found that will take the .80 I'm going to use as the low string on the bari 7-string I'm building without special routing.  Check out www.hipshotproducts.com.  Super-nice guys.

 

[thebutcher85]

I used Sperzels on my Baritone Marauder build (checkout in the LP/LPS section), I used a 70 on the low string, I only had to *very slightly* file the opening to get the string through the tuner, but it works great!

 

[thebutcher85]

The strings were the Zakk wylde ghs custom boomers (70-11's). I used a small round jewelry file to widen the hole just slightly.

 

[thebutcher85]

http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=17659.0

Haha sorry for all the replies, I'm on my mobile and the d@mn thing is being annoying! Haha

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Gotoh SG38's are working fine for mine.  Nice & lightweight too.

 

[Experimental_Insanity]

This is kind of off topic but I am turning my guitar into a Baritone. I filed the low E Tuner down. All went well. Now I have run into issues with my Floyd Rose. The string tension is rediculous! The entire bridge is rising up almost vertically...ok bit of an exaggeration but yeah. It literally is taking almost full body force just to tune it to A Standard. I was wondering what can I do to be able to set it up to relieve all of this tension. I have also just now brought the saddles back as far as possible to help with intonation. Took a spring out....the center spring out of the back also. It is a Jackson Dinky with a Floyd. Any help would be highly valued. I am beyond determined and motivated to git er done. It would be ideal to me to be able to get as low of string tension as possible...be able to bend more easily all while being able to play without fret buzz. A gigantic thank you to anyone who can help.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

You took a spring out?

 

[pabloman]

You need more spring tension to pull the bridge back down.

 

[Experimental_Insanity]

Yep, took one out. Right, thank you PabloMan. I appreciate that information. Working on it at this very moment. Thank you both for getting back so quickly.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

Yeah, get as many springs in there as you can. You can also buy springs that provide more tension than regular ones, which might help if you still run into problems.