HOW TO MAKE OLD GUITARS PLAY AND STAY IN TUNE
It may be helpful in a creative context, but friction is your enemy when it comes to keeping your guitars in tune. The vast majority of tuning issues are caused by friction at the nut. Strings cannot move freely through poorly cut or badly worn nut slots, which is why locking-vibrato designs such as the Floyd Rose dispensed with conventional nuts altogether.
Nut work is tricky. It requires specialist tools and is generally best left to experienced guitar techs. But friction can be an issue in other areas, too. Here, I’ll be addressing tuner and vibrato servicing. Practically everything here can be carried out by any competent amateur tech with a bit of DIY experience, and avoiding unnecessary hardware replacement will save you a lot of money in the long run.
Over time guitar tuners can stiffen up, get sloppy and loose or, occasionally, even seize up completely. Replacing worn Klusons with Grovers and Schallers was in the past common practice on old guitars but, in my experience, old tuners can usually be made operational again and will tune up more accurately and hold tune better than before.
This is true for most old machineheads,
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