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locking tuners: how much string to wrap on the peg?

Santuzzo

Santuzzo

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 22, 2013
Messages
204
Location
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Hi,

I'm still relatively new to locking tuners and I'm never quite sure about how much string to wrap around the tuning peg.
-is it ideal to try to have as little of string wrapped on the peg or
-is it better (for sound or tuning stability?) to have maybe a half of whole turn of string around the peg?

how do you guys go about it?
 
As little as possible I think. Less room for tuning instability. I always pull the string straight through as far as possible and then lock it in, works great.
 
Thanks!
Initially that's how I went about it, too, I would pull the string as tight as I can then lock it down to have as little string on the peg as possible.
But then I have seen guitars with locking tuners where the string made like one or half a turn, I was wondering if that would benefit sustain or is that non-sense?
 
Yep. There's no reason to have the string wrapped- once the tuner is locked, the rest is just excess. Pull the string tight, lock it, tune to pitch. Then cut it relatively close to the post.
 
beej said:
Yep. There's no reason to have the string wrapped- once the tuner is locked, the rest is just excess. Pull the string tight, lock it, tune to pitch. Then cut it relatively close to the post.
Click to expand...

+1 on that
 
Yeah, what beej said covers it very well. Keep in mind to avoid over-tightening the locking wheel, as it can eventually break from the excess pressure. Just tighten it enough so that it grabs the string firmly.
Cheers.
 
Yes as far as I understood one of the reasons for the tuning stability with locking tuners is less winding around the pegs that might slack on/off with bends resulting to tuning instabilities. So as little as possible, straight through and lock the string.

Another technique good to know is to keep the angle of the locking tuner hole so that it's easy to slip in the string from the top, then move the hole so it's straight towards the string, lock, tune the string. Much easier than trying to push in a string with an odd angle on the hole.
 
+1 more to the chorus. Pull straight, lock, tune, done!

On my high e-string tuning up will naturally result in more than a 1/2 turn around the post but that's fine.
 
Thanks again for all the input, guys!
I should have posted this thread BEFORE I put on new strings... now I have like 0.5 to 1 turn on my strings...oh, well, next string change then :)
 
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