Locking Guitar Tuners Chrome 6 In-line 19:1 Machine Heads Tuning Pegs for Fender Stratocaster/Telecaster

Tried a few "cheaper" locking tuners from Amazon and these were by far the best. There's a little bit of "slop" but they hold tune, seem well made, and there's little to no "play" as compared to others I tried. These were great as an upgrade for a cheap tele I have and I'm going to purchase another set for a strat project as well.

So, I can upon these after trying a set of 10mm Wilkinson EZ-Lok that would slip and seemed to be a terrible ratio for the strings I use on a Yamaha EGV. I went with the Jin Ho tuners because they are standard hardware on Reverend instruments and Reverend had previously used the Wilkinson EZ-LOK (Only for the first year or so after launching the line from Naylor Amps demise) tuners before utilizing the Jin Ho brand. Anyhow, these perfectly matched the offset screw design of the OEM tuners(Gotoh offset), which I never used, but had already planned on replacing when I bought the Yamaha. I have a habit of buying or building cheap guitars and modifying them into what I like. This usually involves parts casters and the like. The Yamaha is just a really cool looking guitar, but with cheap hardware, electronics, pickups, etc. I picked up this guitar for a steal, so I had no intentions of using premium aftermarket parts, because it would cost more than the guitar. I had intended to buy cheap lipstick pickups and outfit the guitar completely with Wilkinson hardware. None of that came to fruition after installing the tuners though. So here we are....... I installed the Jin Ho's and haven't looked back. The quality is on par with most reputable locking tuners. Locking tuners don't have to cost $100 bucks to be reliable, but finding the right set can be a crap shoot. The ratio makes it easy to tune to pitch, whereas the other tuners struggle to reach and maintain pitch. I read complaints about them using cheap wood screws, but anyone that has built a guitar can tell you that you must drill pilot holes before using any type of wood screw, because maple is a hard wood. In fact, I did break the screws included on a premium manufacturer's tuners when I first ventured into building fifteen years ago. It's not the material, it's the lack of preparation. Anyhow, the Jin Ho tuners are comparable in function to Grover, Gotoh, Kluson, etc. They cost a bit more than the standard Chinese fare, but that's because they are of the highest quality when it comes to functionality. I highly recommend these for any budget build that might need a set of locking tuners for keeping tremolo usage under control. I just wish they would expand their product line to include different patterns, such as the two pin, Grover 3X3, and the Kluson patterns. It's a quality part and it only makes sense to expand upon a product line that's proven. Oh well, until then, I guess I can splurge for a different manufacturer's tuners on any other guitar that I acquire that doesn't feature the Gotoh offset like the Jin Ho's do.

Let me preface this by noting that I've been working on guitars on and off for over 20 years. Sometimes that has been in a paid capacity, other times it's been solely on my own instruments, yet other times I'm building instruments to sell or give away as gifts. Regardless, I've seen countless different sets of tuners over the course of my life.Most recently I've completed a pretty straightforward Strat style guitar build from an inexpensive kit. The goal here was mostly just to experiment with some different finishing techniques and have a usable instrument I could give away at the end. The kit included some tuners, but I generally favor locking tuners, plus these were inexpensive and fit the pre-drilled mounting holes on the headstock. Also I've had reasonably good experiences with some other inexpensive tuners I've bought on Amazon and these had some positive reviews.The first red flag was that the posts didn't fit the holes in the nuts very well. On most tuners, there's very little clearance here, maybe .25mm at the most, but these had well over 1mm (I didn't bother getting an exact measurement) which is ridiculous. The second red flag was that the chrome plating was very poorly done. The third was that the mechanisms were quite rough; a couple of them being rather difficult to turn and a couple others being very inconsistent.The biggest disappointment was their utter failure to perform the intended function. There were completely unable to hold a 9 gauge E string at tension for longer than a few minutes before it slipped. An 11 gauge B string then started slipping after trying to stretch the string a bit. I've been using locking tuners for quite a long time and I've never seen any fail this completely at their job. I could perhaps get them to hold by wrapping them a few times, but then what's the point in having locking tuners?Anyway, I can only assume these came from a bad batch as anyone else receiving the same ones would be unable to leave a positive review as they wouldn't have a functional instrument. Unfortunately I wasn't able to return them as I had to cannibalize the buttons off of them (I needed the guitar done today to make room for another project and the only other set of tuners I had that would fit had buttons that were too large). After taking the buttons off, I chucked them straight into the garbage.

OK, these tuners are not in the same league as a good set from Schaller or Grover, or even Gotoh, but for the money, they're the best I've found so far. There are some real stinkers out there selling for about this same amount, so it was nice to find a decent set in this price range. I've installed them on a cheap guitar that I just couldn't justify putting a fine set of tuners on, so I'm happy with the result. They do what they're supposed to do. They hold tuning well, and they lock well. They are not as smooth as Schallers or Grovers and they have a little more slack than premium tuners do, but if you make the habit of always tuning up to pitch, they'll work well enough for you.