Quick fix for stock tuners

[Donelson]

I stumbled across this by taking the tuners off of a Fender Highway One tele to "gleamify" the satin finish on the headstock. Seemed like the good but somewhat sluggish stock tuners worked better. So I have now tried this on five axes, including my H575 Custom Heritage, best guitar I ever owned. The stock Grovers on it were mushy, sluggish, you name it. I carefully took those tuners off, thoroughly cleaned them & the headstock, looked for problems (found none), & reinstalled. Now those tuners work great! As if they were brand new. I didn't "repair" anything; just cleaned up everything I could. Amazing improvement. I had been pondering replacing those tuners; but not anymore, for now at least.

 

P.S. This has nothing to do with lubricating the nut, bridge, etc. I've done that for years. Just seems like taking them off & reinstalling fixed them somehow. Sounds stupid but seems true.

[brentrocks]

One thing you always need to check on the older Heritages....the nuts on the top of the tuners will loosen over time. I have recieved Heritages where the nuts have been "finger" loose...that will effect tuning stability.

 

Lubing the nut is ALWAYS a good call!

[yoslate]

One thing you always need to check on the older Heritages....the nuts on the top of the tuners will loosen over time. I have recieved Heritages where the nuts have been "finger" loose...that will effect tuning stability.

 

Every time you restring or do a setup. One of the things I've learned apprenticing Tom. He does it to every guitar he works on.

[Hfan]

So the original poster's success could have been a result of the nuts being tightened when reinstalled? Was trying to understand how an external cleaning would help the internals.

 

Any advise on tuners that have dead spots/slippage when turning even after tightening the knob screw? Are they done at that point?

[Donelson]

One other thing I did on the five axes mentioned above is, use a string crank & turn each tuner many times pretty fast, in both directions. Seemed easier to do that with the tuner in my hand rather than installed on the guitar. Also, I didn't pay any attention to which tuner went where, so they are probably on different strings than they were originally.

[bolero]

I wonder if just working the tuners cleared out enough internal gunk to make them turn easier?

 

just be careful not to tighten the nuts down too much, or it can disfigure & raise the nitro finish on the face of the headstock