yeah, but that still didn’t save me from “one of THOSE days” today! 
The locking tuners were far more user friendly. usually my mechanically challenged days are really good for musical timing. I should try something really hard to play…
Not at all I change 4 guitars and that’s just about every other month. I keep pretty good tune on acoustic exceptions of weather change here in New Jersey but as for my fender strat I noticed a big difference when playing even with tremolo that now stays In Tune better with locking tuners then it did with the regular fender tuners. Is this my imagination! Maybe ,but I do like them.
I reckon so. How can a tuner have any effect on a tremolo arm?
FWIW my Fender strat has a tremolo arm and it seems to have no effect on the guitar’s tuning.
If the temp drops, the tuning goes sharp. If the temp rises the tuning goes flat.
That seems backwards. Warmer should expand the wood, making the tuning go sharp, and vice-versa.
Moisture content has the biggest effect on movement in wood. It takes time for the wood’s moisture contect to change. Hours to days for an acoustic. Weeks or months for an electric. Metal expands or contracts immediately with a change in its temp.
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That’s all true, but the fact remains that if a guitar tuning is going to change with temperature, it’s going to be going sharp from heating and going flat from cooling, not the other way.
From the Fender website:
“Guitars and their strings are greatly affected by extreme changes in temperature, as they will expand when it’s warm (making it sound flat) and contract when cold (resulting in a sharper sound).”
If the temp rises, the metal strings expand immediately. The body and neck take much longer to catch up. Expanded strings equals less tension, which equals flat.
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Okay, that resolves my question. I was wrong.
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I agree with this. For me it makes it hard to predict if my guitars will be flat, sharp or in tune when I pick them up. Temperature goes up and down quite a bit every day here, and humidity varies a lot - some periods extremely humid, some very dry. The humidity definitely changes the guitar necks, as does temperature I’m sure. I’m not sure how much the strings actually move though. Surely metal doesn’t expand/contract that much in livable temperatures?
On locking tuners though. AFAIK they do absolutely nothing to hold tune. Just help with string changes. If you want your guitar to hold tune you need something like an evertune bridge or maybe titanium rods in the neck.
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I don’t know. According to Fender it does. 
That’s my understanding too. It’s all kinda moot anyway. We always tune our guitars every time we pick them up, don’t we?
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I would say that the primary benefit of locking tuners is they make string changes quick, easy and more reliable (as less stretching is is required).
This may not be that important for home use where you change strings only occasionally, but it’s very useful for gigging musicians.
I used to help out a local band and the guitar player there would change his strings before every gig and he took 2 or, sometimes, 3 guitars with him. He had locking tuners on his guitars because it saved him around 20 minutes each time, which is important when you also have to unpack and set up the band gear, do a sound check, etc.
Also, when he breaks a string, it’s useful to be able to put a new on in quickly. He will normally adapt to the break during the song, and swap guitars for a bit, but he does want to go back to his main guitar as soon as possible. That means someone (usually me). doing a fast string swap for him so he can, ideally, go back to his preferred guitar on the next song.
You might consider them “a gadget”, but they are a valid tool and a lot of higher-end guitars have them as standard. Professional musicians (who definitely know how to string a guitar) prefer them for very good reasons.
Does it make sense for us “bedroom players”? Possibly not. Only one of my guitars came with locking tuners and, whilst I love them I, personally, see no need to upgrade the others.
But there’s nothing at all wrong with having locking tuners: it’s just a different style of tuner. If you have a cheap guitar with poor quality tuners, and are looking to upgrade them anyway then it’s worth considering.
Or if you just fancy them, then why not: they aren’t really that expensive compared to decent quality standard tuning mechanisms.
Cheers,
Keith
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A very very stupid question…. When i stretch the strings after a change, is that thightening up around the pole?
I thought i stretched them due to «movement» in new strings…
It’s a bit of both but, in my experience, it’s mostly tightening the strings around the posts, especially on the thicker strings.
When I change strings on my PRS with the locking tuners, I still have to stretch my strings but not nearly as much before they stay in tune than I do on guitars with conventional tuners.
Cheers,
Keith
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Here’s a fun experiment to try. After tuning, find a wound string that is a few cents sharp. Using your finger, give the string a good pull to stretch it. Now, recheck the tuning and see that it is spot on. This has nothing to do with “looseness” of the tuner winding.
While we’re at it, always good to remember that it’s best to tune up to the pitch, not down.
When I do that with my locking tuners, the string tends to stay sharp…
Great experiment!
Cheers,
Keith
So I made the jump and upgraded my acoustic with Grover romantic 18:1 self locking tuners. I love the fact it’s super fast to change strings and they look really good. Super easy upgrade.
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Generally, if you change one grade of standard tuners for a similar grade of locking tuners there will likely be no change in tuning stability. It’s when you change to locking tuners and also upgrade the construction quality of those tuners in the process that tuning stability is improved.
I also think that anyone using locking tuners should maintain the practice of multiple wraps on a tuning post as this affects the strings’ break angle over the headstock which impacts tuning stability.
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Oh my tuners where Grover like tuners and where ok but I definitely think getting real Grover tuners with 18:1 tuning is more precise.
I don’t have locking tuners yet but based on the little research I’ve done, it seems that is the biggest mistake people make when having locking tuners.