How To Change Guitar Tuners

The different parts of a guitar neck have a specific role to play. Guitar tuners are a part of guitar neck that is attached to the tuning pegs so the pitch of a string can be lowered or raised. When you strum a chord and hear an unsoothing sound on the guitar then you may feel discouraged. This is sometimes because of incorrect technique, but most of the time it is because your guitar is not in tune.

You may try loosening and tightening the guitar tuning pegs, but still, the sound may feel wrong. It means you need you to need to change the tuners. Guitar tuners are useful for tuning the guitar to a proper pitch so it sounds good. Sometimes, these need to be changed to improve ropey tuning. So, how to change guitar tuners and which tuner to select.

Types of tuners and making a selection to replace these:

There are so many tuner choices that sometimes it becomes confusing to choose the ideal one. Unless you get the tuners of an exact same spec that you removed, you will have to make some modifications to install them perfectly. You may also need to enlarge the peg holes with drilling action to place a new set of tuners. It can be either enlarging the peg holes or drilling some additional mounting of holes This needs to be done carefully.

Tuners come in two different styles where one is the finished style and the other is classified as sealed machines.

Finished style machines include open back tuners where many replace the open back tuners with closed back tuners. Closed one does not collect dust and it is easy to clean them. With the help of a tuner bushing installer or remover, you can get the new tuners installed.

Vintage tuners can be identified easily with the help of press fit bushing. These bushings are pressed into the pig head and held in by friction. You will see vintage tuner installed in quarter-inch holes that have been placed into 11 30’’ peghead face so it can support the bushing. On an old Gibson guitar with such specs, if you do any modifications it can spoil the guitar. The impact can be negative on the guitar. So, for such guitars choose the guitar tuner buttons of exactly the same size. Original pig head bushings and screws should be used to the finish of the guitar should not be destroyed.
Vintage type machines have sealed gears that have a die-cast housing and it is made in such a way to the dirt and debris can be kept out. It also keeps the gear properly lubricated.

If you check different brands, the make of these sealed gears is just the same. If you take a close look at the pig head to identify the type of tuner. If it has a 10mm threaded bushing and a surrounded washer on it then you can be sure that you have a sealed gear machine. If you turn the guitar and check these tuners, the gear will be held on the pig head using a single mounted screw. The pig holes of the sealed tuners vary from 3/8 “ to 10 mm and this will depend on the brand that you use. while changing the tuner check the mounting screw position as it will be different for every machine, even if it is of the same brand. You may have to plug the holes or make them bigger so the newly sealed gears can stay in one place.

In most of the modernly styled guitars, you will notice that these look like vintage style tuners. The housing on the modern machine has a larger diameter casting and it needs a bigger peg hole to fit. Some locking tuners do not need mounting tuners at all. They have an indexing pin underneath the housing that fits in the hole drilled in the peghead to keep the tuner in place. This hole is a little difficult to drill as it is underneath the housing, so drilling correctly can be quite problematic. To make that job simple, using the pin drill jig is a good option so the holes can be drilled perfectly.