Bad Sperzel Experience

[jjasilli]

Built a Frankenstrat with a Carvin neck that came with Sperzel locking tuners.  They suck.  The locking wheel gets loose in use and rattles loudly.  If tightened enough, the internal locking pin won't come loose to change strings.  Now one pin is locked up inside the tuning peg!  Nothing unusual was done.  Sperzels' solution: tap gently with a rubber mallet or use an icepick.  Who the hell has such things at a gig.

It didn't work.  The pin won't come out.  I tried mallet; ice pick; little pry pars; penetrating oil; and finally a blow torch hoping heat would work.  NO success.  Did I mention these things suck!!!

[stingray_65]

Let it out man..

You're among friends so don't hold back..

So what do you really think of those Spertzels?

JK!!

I've found that everything breaks. The cheap stuff .. well you knew it would break when you got it.

the good stuff..waits till you depend on it...then you get mad cause you got the good stuff so it doesn't let you down.

So how did you finally get the locking pin out?

[jjasilli]

So how did you finally get the locking pin out?   It's not coming out. Maybe you can get it out with your radial arm saw   

[stingray_65]

BUMMER!

I figured it would come out easy breezy as soon as the crisis was over. Works like that for me a lot of times.

My guess is that pin is way to hard to machine out, but I can't say for sure.

sounds like its Dremel time, and a new set of tuning machines.

So what brand of replacements are you contemplating?

LOL if your luck runs like mine, Gabriel will post the easy way to save the tuner about10 mins after you take the power tools to it

Good luck!

[sluckey]

Bad Sperzel Experience

Sounds like a '60s acid band from Haight-Ashbury! 

[jjasilli]

LOL if your luck runs like mine, Gabriel will post the easy way to save the tuner about10 mins after you take the power tools to it  I'm done with them.  The internal locking pins jam most of the time when changing strings -- I've lived with that but it would be untenable at a live performance.  Now one is jammed up with no string through the hole in the peg.  BTW I forgot to mention that I tried drilling though the internal pin - through the existing string hole in the peg.  NO dice.  The internal pin is hardened steel cylinder,  The drill bit can't bite, but slips sideways and mills away the softer metal of the outer peg.  Did manage to break a drill bit though!

So what brand of replacements are you contemplating? Tonepros Kluson 6 in line:  http://www.wdmusic.com/tpk_6_in_line_25_64_bolt_bushing_tuners_16_1_metal_button_chrome.html  These will match the other hardware; will fit the 10mm existing hole right out of the box (I think); and should cover the existing pin hole which Sperzel's use on the rear of the headstock. 

[stingray_65]

I've always liked Klusons on a Fender.

[jjasilli]

Yes, I have Fender-Klusons on my other strat which is vintage-style.  They have the top slot and safety hole.  Didn't think I'd like that, but I do!  But this strat is modern in appearance and tone.  Modern pegs might fit the style better, but the vintage style will covr up existing holes.

[G._Hoffman]

Actually, I don't have an easy way to fix that, because I've never seen a set of Sperzels do that.  They are normally very well made gears, and though I've only put them on one of my guitars, I've seen a lot of them, and never heard anything similar.  

Mind you, I don't use locking tuners very often, but when I do I prefer Gotoh's 510 locking tuners.  (Not all 510's are locking tuners - 510 is just their high end line of hardware.)  You need either a flat screwdriver or a quarter to undo them, but they work really well, and there mechanism is less complicated than most locking tuners.  I only ever use them on trem guitars, though - there just isn't any need on a fixed bridge guitar, and I like things to be less complicated, not more.  To wit, I'm trying to find a two way blade switch for my strat so I can have just the two in-between positions!

So what brand of replacements are you contemplating? Tonepros Kluson 6 in line:  http://www.wdmusic.com/tpk_6_in_line_25_64_bolt_bushing_tuners_16_1_metal_button_chrome.html  These will match the other hardware; will fit the 10mm existing hole right out of the box (I think); and should cover the existing pin hole which Sperzel's use on the rear of the headstock.  

Those should work, though you could also go with a set of Grovers, or a set of 510 non-locking tuners.  The Grovers would probably be a bit cheaper, the 510's a bit more expensive.  I really like the old style Klusons as a replacement for old gears where you don't want to wreak the originality any more than you have to, but I'm not at all fond of their larger bushing gears.  I'd much rather use a proper closed back gear, if I'm going to use a modern bushing design.  Don't worry too much about the old holes - they are just cosmetic, and give your guitar character!  Plus, a set of Grovers might cover them up anyway (I'm not sure about that!)


Gabriel

[eleventeen]

I have no experience with locking Sperzels, but my current favorite guitar(s) are Strat Plusses, which came (originally) in their very early years of production with Sperzels, then switched to Schaller locking pegs. I consider these guitars to be incredible deals, if you can get one with low fret wear and made after 1993 with the LSR roller nut. The frets on the guitars are installed in a different way than other Strats and they are simply outstanding.

But I DO have experience with Mr. Sperzel, and if you send him that tuner, he will replace it.

I have not encountered Sperzels, because another change these Strats made was to switch to an LSR roller-nut and away from Wilkinsons. This they did in about 1992. I like LSR nuts MUCH better, and I understand the Wilkinsons aren't made any more.

OK, so that said, I have two of these guitars and thus two sets of locking Schallers. They, too, sometimes experience the internal pins getting jammed in the string capstan. I was able to free it up just by taking a (wound) string-end and diddling the pin back to the "open" position.

Now. One of the Schallers on one set of tuners developed a truly annoying "flat spot" where I could not get a linear adjustment and thus could not get the thing to tune. I had to replace it.

On the other guitar, one of the tuners is very hard to turn, even with the screw through the key backed off quite a bit. So there is something hinky with the gears inside the thing.

My point, I think, is that this new-fangled stuff isn't always the be-all end-all. I probably have had a dozen sets of Grover rotomatics that never gave me any troubles at all. Here I have 2 out of twelve tuners that are funky, one of them beyond being usable.

[G._Hoffman]

I have not encountered Sperzels, because another change these Strats made was to switch to an LSR roller-nut and away from Wilkinsons. This they did in about 1992. I like LSR nuts MUCH better, and I understand the Wilkinsons aren't made any more.

Wilkinson's are still being made, but they are made under license by Gotoh, who makes a very fine quality product. 


Gabriel

[jjasilli]

OK, so flattened the little dome on the top of the tuning peg; dimpled it with a center punch; and drilled into the top of the peg -- knocking out the jammed pin inside.      I removed the internal locking pins from all the other tuners.  I will see later tonight if these things can just be used as ordinary wrap around tuning machines - with the locking feature disabled.

UPDATE:  The Sperzels do seem to be functioning as ordinary wrap around tuning machines - with the locking feature disabled.

[Fresh_Start]

jj- I've had Sperzels on my Warmoth frankenstrat for almost 10 years with no problems.  Sorry you had such a bad experience.  Maybe their QC has gone down the toilet - that seems to happen more and more these days.

Chip

[jjasilli]

What is the secret to your enviable success?  I've thought about lubrication; and then I've thought about these damn tuners (rimshot). Anyway:  oil or grease is bound to evaporate through the hole in the tuning peg body.  Graphite?