Gotoh Locking Guitar Tuners

Replacing the vintage oval knob tuners
on a Fender Stratocaster guitar

I bought a used 1995 Fender Stratocaster Yngwie Malmsteen Signature guitar a while back and noticed that the tuners performed quite badly. They felt loose and wobbly and some of them could not hold the tuning very well. This guitar is a very nice Japanese Custom Edition Strat and is a great player, but I guess they saved on the tuners, the switch and potientiometer hardware. See more pictures of my Fender Stratocaster Yngwie Malmsteen Signature.

Invisible swap

I wanted to put on some new, high quality tuners, preferably locking tuners, but I didn't want to ruin the vintage look. Luckily, I found the Gotoh Locking Vintage Oval Knob Tuners, which are almost an exact copy of the original vintage oval knob tuners. They are a direct retrofit and there's no need to drill new holes for the mounting screws or anything. The exterior of the Gotoh's looks very much like the original, apart from some minor details. See if you can spot them in the pictures.

In all the pictures here, only the high E-string has the new Gotoh tuner mounted. I took the pictures before completing the retrofit, so you can compare the old to the new tuner.

Winding strings properly around the tuner

On normal tuners, many tuning problems arise from having done a poor string winding job. With the Gotoh's, you don't have to worry about this at all, because it is practically idiot-proof. You will only have about one turn of the guitar string wrapped around it when you're done. Very easy to work with.

The Gotoh feel

The Gotoh tuners feel awesome compared to the old ones. They are a little heavier and when using them, they feel very smooth and precise. No slack or wobble and the tuning instability is gone. I feel they have a finer gear ratio compared to the old ones, which is a pleasant change. I think sustain and overall string response has improved too, but that's one of those subtle things, that are hard to know for sure.

Recommended!