I've got a 15-year-old Gibson SG and the tuners are starting to slip a bit. Anybody have good experiences with Kluson, Grovers, or Gibson replacement tuners? I don't want the axe to look drastically different nor do I want to take a router to it!
I've used both Kluson and Grover with good results.
Check your guitar first, find out what size the holes are that go through the headstock, they make different sizes. If you have to change them you can if you're careful.. Put masking tape over the holes to minimize the chips of wood and finish that might be broken off, drill halfway from the front and halfway from the back very carefully.
In some cases the screw holes are loose, the ones that hold the tuners in alignment, you can use a broken off piece of a toothpick and a dab of wood glue in the holes to get them back in place tight. If you have to drill new screw holes, again go carefully, use a little masking tape or a white metal marker as a depth gauge so you don't drill all the way through. Usually they should line up pretty well, if not you can often use the toothpick method to move them slightly. No need to drill in that case.
But..are you sure the tuners are slipping or is it strings slipping from the way you install strings? I'm still using 50 year old open back tuners on my 1966 Harmony that are still working perfect. The no name el cheapo tuners on my Squier Strat are still working perfect after 15 years of my abuse, the original open back brass tuners are still working great on my late 40's or early 50's Electromuse lap steel...
I've seen exactly one bad tuner in over 50 years playing guitar, and I've found that most people who think they have bad tuners are actually causing string slippage by the way they string their guitars, or just think because XYZ guitar company traditionally uses cheap ones they are crap and have to be replaced...poppycock...I'm still using some of the cheapest ones ever made...with no problems at all.
I cut my strings about 1 ½ inches past the tuner hole, leave a tag end about ½ inch after it goes through the hole. Wind it above the tag end first wrap, below it the second, I usually end up with no more than 2 ½ wraps and my guitars stay in tune very well. I pulled my Strat out of the case Saturday night for a gig, put it on a tuner and had to make a very slight adjustment to one string. Everything else was still in tune from practice 3 nights earlier. Cort CL1500 had been sitting in the case for 3 weeks or more, didn't have to touch it. Takamine acoustic still almost perfect after playing it at practice too.
That's pretty typical except when major seasonal temperature changes cause tuning issues. It only takes 2° temp change to throw a guitar out of tune, that's the number one problem with tuning onstage. That's why I'm fairly sure I have no slippage even with cheap open back tuners over 50 years old. I can pull the Harmony out right now and it should be very close to still in tune. I had lots of problems before I started using the method I described above to string my guitars, probably from too many wraps. That leaves too much string wrapped around the tuners to stretch, and stretch some more, and stretch some more...sometimes it was a week before I could get a guitar to really stay in tune all night.
Next thing...if you're hearing a PING when it slips, that's the nut not the tuners. Strings get in a bind in the nut slots, and won't drop back into tune when tuned down, using a whammy bar, or sometimes when bending a note. A little graphite from a #2 pencil will help.
