People upgrade their Squier tuners all the time. Find a used set and you’ll be fine. I’ve rarely spend over $30 on a set of tuners and I’ve had no issues.
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Are Cheap Tuners Good Enough?
- Thread starter BobKos
- Start date
I ran into this question early in '22 when my Squier Mustang had a defective tuner from the factory. I decided that getting exact replacements was a better option than spending the extra dollars on high end tuners. $20 later, I've got 3 extra tuners for when the others fail. Nearly a year later, on a daily basis, they've been perfectly cromulent tuners.
I have a set of Musiclily 2+2 tuners that were $15 for all four. They've been just fine for almost three years.
A high gear ratio is important as well, it makes it easier to get in tune well, which isn't so trivial.
I don't skimp on critical components like tuners and jacks, as those get the most wear, if I'm upgrading. What's the point of going from cheap to cheapish?
Gotohs are affordable and good quality and should last a long time.
I don't skimp on critical components like tuners and jacks, as those get the most wear, if I'm upgrading. What's the point of going from cheap to cheapish?
Gotohs are affordable and good quality and should last a long time.
One does not need the "best and lightest" tuners, *but* I have had a very bad experience with Gotoh Y tuners replicas on new basses, which would break/slip forever on the first string change. Unacceptable. Though all brands can fail, I rather work with reputable brands such as Hipshot, use real Gotoh parts, etc. On the other hand, if you have a used bass with perfectly working tuners, unless you hate the way they turn, their looks, etc. one may as well stick with what works. I had super worn stock Gotoh copies on a bass 25 years old, and they *never* ever malfunctioned-were changed because their age was showing on its looks, and the turns could have been more precise-I doubt sticking to these old tuners would have been technically problematic, and I just changed everything to match the look of a newly added Hipshot Xtender.
In short, if it works well and you like them, no reason to switch to a groupthink approved brand-but I would never buy cheapest among the cheap tuners for any bass due to my bad experience with the aforementioned, factory new basses.
I do not think you must change tuners for all your basses if they are performing well. Hipshot won't make the bass necessarily better. It may make it lighter, heavier, or smoother a turn, but it's not such a big deal, unless you are wary of possible failure due to extreme cheapness of manufacture.
In short, if it works well and you like them, no reason to switch to a groupthink approved brand-but I would never buy cheapest among the cheap tuners for any bass due to my bad experience with the aforementioned, factory new basses.
I do not think you must change tuners for all your basses if they are performing well. Hipshot won't make the bass necessarily better. It may make it lighter, heavier, or smoother a turn, but it's not such a big deal, unless you are wary of possible failure due to extreme cheapness of manufacture.
Some of my basses have Gotoh knockoffs, and they still work just fine.
Only tuners I’ve had a problem with, are the ultra cheap ones on my little Harmony (Teisco type) bass. They would vibrate out of tune in short order. But I was able to tighten up the cases and they’re fine now.
Only tuners I’ve had a problem with, are the ultra cheap ones on my little Harmony (Teisco type) bass. They would vibrate out of tune in short order. But I was able to tighten up the cases and they’re fine now.
In my limited experience, cheap tuners vary in quality just like expensive ones do. Most will probably be fine and of the ones that aren't working well there are maybe some easy fixes.
I have gone in the middle with a couple of sets. Grovers have worked well for me, look nice, and are affordable. I haven't used their customer service, but they claim to stand behind their product.
Tuners are first on the list for my new Glarry PJ, along w/ strings: stock are sealed, and there’s slop in the tuning. Yeh, I can get in tune, but I don’t like the random eruptions of imprecision: it interferes. I’ve had tuners w/ the same/similar glitch on a bunch of guitars, but just lived with it
A new set of Wilkinson open-backs soaked up an existing credit @amazon (sub-$30), so zero out-of-pocket. Pickups & controls can wait ‘til I have an amp.
A new set of Wilkinson open-backs soaked up an existing credit @amazon (sub-$30), so zero out-of-pocket. Pickups & controls can wait ‘til I have an amp.
