the BEST Guitar Tuners Ever

the BEST Guitar Tuners Ever

Over the past 20 yrs. it’s safe to say I’ve used every brand of guitar tuners made. Grover, Schaller, Sperzel, Gotoh, Planet Waves, Musiclily etc. And to be honest most of them are really good tuners. But when I tried Sperzel it was my first time using locking tuners. I loved them so much that I can’t ever go back to regular tuners ever again. So when I bought my first Dean Leslie West Signature guitar in 2017 it came with Grover Rotomatics, I ordered a set of Hipshot locking tuners for the first time and was amazed. Now not only will I only use locking tuners but I will only use Hipshot locking tuners (I now have them on all 4 of my Leslie West Models). Here’s why: the first thing I noticed was the overall quality which is second to none. They were super easy to install and they look fantastic. The locking mechanism works flawlessly, and they have an 18:1 gear ratio which I found awesome. The industry standard is 14:1. The 18:1 ratio allows me to really get an accurate tuning far beyond anything else I’ve ever used. Others use 12:1, 15:1 and some offer 18:1. There are several other ratios in use but when you add it all up the Hipshots come out on top for me at least. They also come in sealed or open gear. I’ve always used sealed tuners before but I decided to give the open gear style a try and I love em No real reason for that except they look cool. Hipshot also has replacement buttons in every popular shape and finish (see image below). So you can change the look of your axe without buying a whole new set of tuners And one more thing, their customer service is great. I decided to change the buttons on all of mine to the half moon shape so it would be closer to the Grovers that came on my guitars from the factory. I removed the standard Hipshot buttons on one of them. In between the button and the tuner body there is a nylon washer and a metal washer. The metal washers are tiny. I placed them in a sort of aluminum pie pan looking thing on my workbench. I replaced all the nylon washers first then I did a really stupid thing. I tossed a screwdriver on the bench which hit the edge of the pie pan which flipped up in the air sending all of those tiny metal washers everywhere. I only found one of them so I guess the rest went into another dimension. So I emailed Hipshot and told them what I had done and asked If I could buy some replacements. They emailed me back the very same day and said “give us your address and we’ll send you some. How many do you need?” Being that I had 3 more guitars to go I said “12” just to be safe. 5 days later I received a little ziplock baggie with way more than I asked for. Now you may think “what’s the big deal”, well the big deal is this: these washers are very specialized and you ain’t gonna find them in a hardware store, I know because I looked. Plus they just sent them to me at no charge. No postage or anything. When I get customer support like that it makes me loyal to the brand. They were great. So in the world of guitar tuners everybody will have their favorites, but you owe it to yourself to give Hipshot a try. You’ll be glad you did.

click to enlarge

Related article