Leaderboard

Graphtech - Staggered Tuner Gear Ratios

  • Thread starter Thread starter swarfrat
  • Start date Start date
S

swarfrat

Guest
http://graphtech.com/products/product-categories/machine-heads

Just saw this. Dunno if it's a solution in search of a problem or "Duh, why didn't I think of that". If it were more complex, it'd be in the former camp for sure. But since it's just chosing gear ration... I'm actually thinking it could be the latter.
 
And oh yeah - ouchie on the $150 tuners. Not happening here yet
 
Interesting concept, but like you said, more of a solution in search of a problem..... I found them on Amazon for $75 in plain, closed back. No sign of the lockers.
 
Yeah, that was the gold lockers list price.

Like I said - it's not any more complex, it's just picking different ratios. It's not like the little 12v battery powered air compressor for your car that sucks . It should be as robust and reliable as any tuner. Cost - benefit is really the only thing to screw up here.
 
It's a cool idea for what it is, but I can't say that I have ever found the typical all-equal gear ratios on tuners to be a problem. This is a solution to a problem that I didn't know I had.
 
No. Erlewine sells expensive gadgets you could make yourself in a few hours. Street pricing on non-locking looks to be about $80, which is more or less in line with other tuners. We all did fine with stock ratios for more than a century, but people pooh poohed locking tuners too, and many people here swear by em now. I'd say it's arguably more useful than having separate forks for salad forks and desert forks, etc.. and that's still with us.

If they just knocked about $20 off the price, I think it'd be a no brainer. So basically I'm saying - clever idea, but I'm not really willing to pay more for it.
 
swarfrat said:
No. Erlewine sells expensive gadgets you could make yourself in a few hours. Street pricing on non-locking looks to be about $80, which is more or less in line with other tuners. We all did fine with stock ratios for more than a century, but people pooh poohed locking tuners too, and many people here swear by em now. I'd say it's arguably more useful than having separate forks for salad forks and desert forks, etc.. and that's still with us.

If they just knocked about $20 off the price, I think it'd be a no brainer. So basically I'm saying - clever idea, but I'm not really willing to pay more for it.
Click to expand...


on production engineering side , it do cost more to made it , with more tooling change need , more classified management cost , and less mass production .
 
hmmm...  I dunno.  It sometimes seems that everyone out there is looking for a new angle to make money on guitar collectors  (note that I didn't say players).
 
I'm not sure how these would appeal to the collector market. They're attractive and presumably they work, and they don't resemble the ugly, dysfunctional stuff we've had to live with in the past. Whether there's a call for the "ratio" feature they provide remains to be seen, but if there is I would think it would happen with more rational, modern builders/users.

Like others have said, I suspect this may be more a solution in search of a problem than anything else, especially with the growing popularity of locking tuners that don't require that you twist the pegs 32 times to get the string up to initial tension. Once you're up to tune, how radical an adjustment do you ever make? Modern tuners rarely have any backlash to speak of and with lockers there are no winds on the pegs to speak of, so you're just making small movements to get in tune anyway.
 
swarfrat said:
I figured Mr B-Bender would be one of the supporters....
Click to expand...

Nah - when I need to drop the low E down to D I just turn the peg and listen for it.  :)
 
line6man said:
This is a solution to a problem that I didn't know I had.
Click to expand...
Same here. Of course, I didn't think I'd ever want staggered, locking tuners either.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

H
NAMM Report(s)
2
Replies
31
Views
7K
-CB-
C
C
  • Locked
  • Sticky
Everything about all the finishes <long read, sourced>
Replies
13
Views
44K
thephatboi
T
Back
Top