Locking tuner not locking

[dhgleaves]

Anyone ever had this problem? I installed a set of locking tuners (Hipshot - and I've had a few sets of these) and the high E string (9 guage) will not lock; it just slips. I don't want to tighten the locking mechanism to the point that I damage it. Would this be considered a fault with that particular tuner, or is there something that I can do? Thanks.

[Craig]

Anyone ever had this problem? I installed a set of locking tuners (Hipshot - and I've had a few sets of these) and the high E string (9 guage) will not lock; it just slips. I don't want to tighten the locking mechanism to the point that I damage it. Would this be considered a fault with that particular tuner, or is there something that I can do? Thanks.

Have you tried exchanging the high e tuner with the low e tuner (or one of the other tuners)?
You might contact Hipshot Tech Support and ask them for suggestions.

Hope this helps.

[dhgleaves]

Anyone ever had this problem? I installed a set of locking tuners (Hipshot - and I've had a few sets of these) and the high E string (9 guage) will not lock; it just slips. I don't want to tighten the locking mechanism to the point that I damage it. Would this be considered a fault with that particular tuner, or is there something that I can do? Thanks.

Have you tried exchanging the high e tuner with the low e tuner (or one of the other tuners)?
You might contact Hipshot Tech Support and ask them for suggestions.

Hope this helps.

The tuners are staggered, so I can't switch with the low E, but I could switch with the B string tuner (because they are the same height). I'll also try to contact Hipshot, but I tried that once before and they never replied.

[dhgleaves]

As a follow-up, I installed two different sets of these Hipshot locking tuners over the weekend, and they both did the same thing. That is. the high E string slipped on both of them. I was able to deal with it by wrapping the string around using the technique described at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opmg6lK8FkY but that sort of defeats the purpose of having locking tuners. I've also tried to contact Hipshot to see what they have to way but haven't heard back. One thing for sure is that I've had better responses from Sperzel than from Hipshot when I've tried to contact them. The person from Sperzel was extremely helpful when I had an issue.

[DanDoulogos]

I had a similar problem with locking Sperzels on my (then) new 92 Strat Plus. I could tighten down that high E all the way, but even then it was iffy.

My solution (and this probably isn't all that helpful): I started playing on 10s instead. That was a big decision for me, because my other guitars were all 8s. I was playing the thinnest gauges I could find because I didn't have the finger strength to play any heavier gauges...

I laugh about it now, because I can't play on 8s or 9s any more - they feel crazy-flimsy, and sound (tonally) thin in my ear. At the time though, it was a big change (for about a week or two). I had to press a harder on the strings to avoid buzzy notes, and suddenly bending wasn't as easy as it had been. Looking back on that now, I'm kinda glad that the 9s gave me so much trouble, because moving to heavier strings helped both my playing and my tone.

Had the Internet been around at the time, I may have sleuth'd a hack to make it work, but (for myself) I'm thankful for how it all worked out. I don't think my experience qualifies as a "solution" to your slippage problem, but it may be an option if you've ever thought of maybe moving to a heavier gauge string.

Notwithstanding, the problem you are describing may be tolerance related (i.e. manufacturer defect). I'm not intimately familiar with the Hipshot brand, but typically the knob you twist to lock the string in the head can be loosened all the way and removed. That threaded "piston" is what eventually presses up against the string to lock the string in place.

If what you're looking at really is a tolerance issue (i.e. some variance in the length of these pistons that oughtn't to be there), then some pistons will be slightly smaller than others, meaning there may be one or more that are longer, and thus "within spec". Since you have a second set - you could pull the pistons from the one set and see if they are identically sized. If one seems longer - replace the one in your E with that one.

That allows you to keep the stagger. I don't have a set of Hipshots in front of me, so I am speaking in general - things may look different on your desk.

Now this next part is a more advanced hack, so you may not be able to do it, or feel all that comfy with the idea, but I offer it because it may be of some benefit...

The pistons are threaded to go into the machine head - but it may be that yours are also threaded into the "knob" part of the piston. If that's the case, you could (in theory) unscrew the piston from the knob itself, put in a shim (a few folds of tin foil perhaps) then screw the piston back into the knobby part - and presto! you have more piston shaft available. That'd be an "extreme" hack - that may not even be possible, since it requires the piston to thread both into the machine head, and again, into it' own "bottom" part. But if that is how it comes together, in theory you could shim it. I expect it'd be more hassle than it's worth trying to separate the two, since you'd likely damage the thread in separating the two - but you never know.

I'd personally (If I found no difference in piston sizes) give the more extreme hack a shot if the knob and piston were not machined from the same piece of metal (ie. if I found they were two pieces, and not one - I'd try and take them apart and put a shim between the two, then assemble them together again with more of the piston showing...), but if not, then that would be the end of it.

I hope something in there is useful to you. Cheers!

[dhgleaves]

Thanks, Dan, for these many suggestions, including the larger strings. I actually have some 9.5s that I could try next time I string it. I'll consider the other possibilities too, although I'm also curious to hear what Hipshot will say, if anything. David