« Best tuners on the market today »

The Sperzel Trim-Lok tuner is my favourite tuner that is currently on the market. I have compared it to Kluson, TonePros, Grover (regular and locking) and Schaller locking just to name a few. They are the tuner I always request on a guitar if I'm having it built to order as I love the ease of use as well as the good clean look that they offer. They're really well designed and eliminate much of the tedious work in stringing guitars. Instead of leaving a certain amount of slack on the string and then trying to get a clean number of windings (I usually shoot for five or six). Often times using typical tuners, my hands will slip and the winds will end up overlapping and looking like a total mess which will also kill tuning stability. With the Sperzels you basically just pull the string through the tuner (making sure the string pull is as perfectly straight as possible) and once you pull it through... just pull it taut and then bend the string at a right angle. Then tighten the thumbwheel on the back and tune the string to pitch. It only takes about half a turn and doesn't require a string winder and endless attempts to get it right. I can string a whole guitar with Sperzels in about 2 minutes if I work quickly... it's like working in NASCAR... gotta be fast and quick and get back to the races.

They're a little bit difficult to install (hence why the rating's not a perfect 10) and do require some drilling. I'd like to see them put out a tuner that would fit a Les Paul or other Gibson without drilling and use the same TrimLok technology as the regular tuner. For $80 per set, they're a bargain, plus they're available in a bunch of colours from the standard to the extreme.