GotohLocking Tuners Nickel (3 per side)

As the title suggests, this is a must-have upgrade if you own a Les Paul or SG or any other guitar with the typical Gibson tuner hole and mounting screw dimensions.I wanted to retain the classic look of the stock Kluson tuners but wanted the tuning stability of a locking tuner. These thing work great and the magnum locking mechanism is brilliantly simple and effective. A high quality product that's made in Japan.You literally cannot tell a difference between the stock and Gotoh tuners. Visually identical to one another aside from the locking post.The Gotoh's do however feel much tigher and secure when turning the tuning peg which I like.The included bushing press tool makes install easy. Simply unscrew the 2 screws holding the stock tuner on, remove the tuner and then using the bushing press tool, insert it through the back of the headstock and just push gently to remove the stock bushing.Press the new bushing in by hand and then slip the new tuner in and re-screw the 2 screws in to secure the mechanism and you're done!Checkout my review video showing how they lockhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQbFbO03WsA

These are great looking (the same as on the guitar), and install fairly easily. You do have to punch out the original ferrules, but a punch comes with the tuners.The thing I cannot stand about these is the locking mechanism, overly complicated for no reason. It took me 18 minutes to string up a guitar, fiddling around with these stupid things. Some of the Pins on the inside were halfway up, some were all the way up, some were down. I had to mess with the tuning keys to get the opening near the bottom of the post for several minutes just to put the string through. Everything is chrome and it's not easy to see the string opening at all. I will be switching back to my original tuners at the next string change, and probably throwing these in the garbage, so no one else has to deal with these things . Not even close to a locking PRS or Grover tuner, the most frustrating tuners I have ever used!

These tuners were a drop-in replacement for the vintage style, small button tuners on my new Gretsch G5445T Electromatic. They include a tool to remove the original bushings, which is convenient. Probably nothing wrong with the original tuners, but I like the time savings and ease of using locking tuners. The mounting holes lined up perfectly, and installation was very easy. The locking system took a little getting used to. All my other locking tuners have locking knobs on the back of the tuners. I like that system because you just pull the string to a light tension, tighten the knob, and the string is locked. Two hand operation is very simple. There is a slotted nut at the top of the posts on these Gotoh's. To install a string, use a coin and loosen the post locking nut until a string can fit through the string hole. Thread the string through and pull the string taught. To lock the string, rotate the tuning buttons and an internal post rises up and touches the string to lock it in place. At this point just tune to pitch normally by rotating the tuning buttons. It is a lot easier is you have a powered string winder like the Ernie Ball power string winder. Until the string is locked in place, you have to keep tension on the string with one hand. The power string winder makes this a quicker operation. Tuning operation is smooth, and accurate. Once the strings are tuned and stretched, they stay in tune for me. I also lubricate the nut slots every time I change strings, so that helps prevent tuning problems as well.Removing strings is a little trickier than with the knob-style locking tuners. The slotted locking nut on the top of the tuner posts does not want to turn very far with a string installed. It is easy to remedy by loosening the string with the buttons and a string winder until there is no tension on the string. then cutting the string close to the tuner post. Once this is done, the slotted locking nut can turn with the short piece of string still installed until the string unlocks.So, they are not as convenient to use as the locking tuners that have a locking knob on the back of tuner, but they look great and I did not have to drill into or modify my headstock. Everything lined up perfectly. The trade-off is well worth it for me.

These are an upgrade for an overseas-made Les Paul that came with non-locking tuners with those ugly green tops(why those companies can't make the color better is beyond me). These look much better. The package includes a tool to tap out existing bushings(a nice addition) and the fit is perfect if replacing similar-style(Kluson) tuners. So far, they seem to work well, though the wound strings took longer to finally lock as compared to the plain strings.

These tuners worked well with my PRS SE Zack Myers guitar. The only necessary modification was to slightly enlarge the holes in the head stock to accommodate the new bushings. I probably could have gone with the stock bushings but the Gotoh's looked much nicer so it was worth the effort to me. I used a small rat-tail file to enlarge the holes - a pro would probably have used a reamer.I also noticed that the Gotoh's are slightly lighter than the stock tuners - .8/oz compared to .9. That doesn't sound like much but that's .6/oz and given the moment-arm way out there on the neck it can have a larger impact to the balance of the guitar. It might just be my imagination but the guitar feels much more balanced now, especially when I play it without a strap sitting down. Absolutely no 'neck dive'.As for their primary job, the Gotoh's have the string locking feature and also feel much more 'solid' than the stock tuners. The buttons are also white and not ghoulish green. So all in all I am extremely pleased with this purchase. I think it has moved my SE up a notch in every way. Highly recommended.