Planet Waves Auto-Trim Locking Tuners, 6 In Line

I love my guitar, my Ibanez AZES-40 is extremely versatile. For the price, it’s hands down the best HSS out there. Now there’s just one gripe that both myself and many others have regarding this guitar. The tuning pegs are horrendous. It realistically takes 6 weeks for my strings to stay in tune. Not only that, but the tuning pegs are incredibly challenging to restring because the hole is on top instead of on the side.

Now these tuning pegs are amazing. I’m not even kidding when I say that in 10 minutes my strings were in tune and remained that way. The auto clipping feature is a game changer. And I’ve never reinstalled my strings that quickly ever before. I’ve gone from despising restringing my guitar to barely even thinking about it. I used to use Daddario’s XT’s for the longer life span, now I can honestly use any string I want, regardless of lifespan due to how easy it is to restring this guitar. If you have bad tuning pegs are just want to simplify the restringing process, I highly recommend these tuning pegs.

I would buy these again hands down.

Best upgrade I’ve bought so far…
Quality of my guitar experience went through the roof!!

Things to know about me
1. I’m new to guitar so I completely SUCK at changing strings and hate doing it
2. I’m older-ish and have other time commitments outside of guitar (I’ll never rival EVH)
3. I have four guitars and the strings are generally changed because I feel I need to practice changing them and not from wear
4. the acoustic guitar may make the sounds of God, but the unwound strings are what Satan brought to the design meeting

No amount of YouTube will get me confident in changing strings because -without unnecessary changes- I just don’t go through them very quickly. And when I do, the time lapse would show me aging LOL. Then I saw this product and I decided to take a chance as it seemed the worst was I may have to enlarge the post holes which is pretty easy. Sounds easy and who doesn’t like new tools?

Note: product comes with ZERO instructions so what follows is my experience for a 2020 Squire Affinity Stratocaster and a 2020 Epiphone Explorer…

Remove old new strings. Removed the stock tuners (loosened by hand) and noticed the D’Addario’s have a tiny screw at the back not present on either the Affinity or the Explorer. So I installed the tuners -posts dropped right in easy peasy- and tightened with a 12mm socket then predrilled rear screw hole (Affinity only) using 1/8″ bit through screw hole. I think if you kept the collar tight you wouldn’t need the screw but it may come loose over time due to tension (testing on the Explorer). Repeat 5x then restring guitar. The moment of truth… insert string -low E- into post hole, remove slack and tighten locking knob to hold string. Begin winding and notice gets very hard to turn as if cross threaded. Kept turning key…

SNAP! IT CUT THE STRING! Immediately becomes easy to turn key. Repeat 5x, Tune to pitch.

OMG, I love them. Why aren’t these or similar standard on all guitars? It made 1/3 of my accessories unnecessary. I’d pay for them… in fact I did, because I immediately went back to Amazon and bought 3 more sets for my other guitars. Great outstanding product and now I don’t fear needing new strings. Will update in a few days once other sets come and I install them (one more 6-inilne and 2 are 3+3 so may do a review there too). Thanks for reading and I hope this helps you decide one way or the other but I’d bet you’ll love them too. Adios.

SUMMARY
Nice tuners, and a reasonable price. If they fit your guitar, I think you’ll like them. Same locking mechanism as most locking tuners, with a thumbscrew on the back. I like the auto-trim feature a lot. When you tune the guitar, it just cuts those strings right off. Nice. Seem to have a nice snug feel and a decent tuning ratio. Not a good choice to replace modern Fender/Schallers because they don’t cover the alignment pin holes. Fits well in 25/64″ peg holes. (You can measure with drill bits if you aren’t sure what your headstock has.) I wish they made these with a housing that would cover the alignment holes of most other tuners (Fender 2 pin and Sperzel 1 pin look like they would leave holes these can’t cover.)

PROs
– Reasonable price for locking tuners
– Nice fit/feel
– Very secure once installed (properly)
– Black everywhere (unlike sperzel’s black lockers which have a silver center peg.)
– Fits in 25/64″ hole, typical of many guitars.
– They appear to be available in multiple finishes. I bought black.
– Small silver “dot” on center peg aids visibility/string insertion in darker environments. (like a club)

CONs
– Will not cover the 2 alignment pin holes on Stratocasters/Telecasters that use modern fender/schaller tuners. (as shown in photos on product page)
– Center peg is flat black, while the tuner handles and back casing are more of a shiny black.
– Washers and nuts seem thin/flimsy. I was concerned the nuts might strip really easily, but they went on ok using a socket.
– You will probably need to drill the holes for the alignment screws.

DETAILS, INSTALLATION HELP, OBSERVATIONS

I bought these to put on a Fender Custom Telecaster FMT HH that had black tuners, and they worked out great.
I was really annoyed that the tuners on that guitar had the 2 alignment pins about 1 pin width closer to the center peg than a normal fender/schaller tuner. But because of that, these Planet waves tuners were able to just cover the two holes. I wouldn’t buy these for an American for Mexican strat or tele because as shown in the photos – they do not cover the alignment pin holes — so they leave an unprofessional looking installation. But for this particular guitar, they worked great.

I really like the auto-trim feature. The locking knob could be slightly larger in diameter as it is the same as the tuner housing so is slightly harder to grip than it would be if it were a little bit larger, but it works ok. I prefer the shape of a fender/schaller tuning knob, so I may try taking the tuning knobs off the old tuners and putting on these, but I’m not sure if that will work or not.

Overall, these have a nice feel to them when installed. The basic mechanism is the same as any locking tuner, and they have a little silver pin on the center shaft that helps to show you where the string hole is. (Nice because with the black tuners, in a low light environment like a bar or club, when you have a broken string, the black is hard to see, but that little silver button/dot helps a lot. The nuts and washers on the front seem a little cheapish/flimsy, but they worked ok. These fit without issue in the 25/64″ tuner holes in my head stock, no modification there. Before you drill, install all 6 tuners into the headstock holes, tighten them snug but not so firm that you can’t rotate them with a little resistance. Then put a ruler across the back, align all 6 so they are straight, slightly tighten the nuts until you have them all aligned perfectly. Now drill the alignment screw holes using a 1/16″ or smaller drill bit. Be careful to drill no deeper than the length of the screw. If in doubt, drill slightly less deep.I used the tiniest drill bit I have (1/16″) to drill pilot holes for the anti-rotation screws…worked well. You can mark the drill bit with a black marker for the depth by holding it up to the screw to determine how deep it should go into the hole. Then drill slowly to get just the right depth for the screw. (Drill with the tuners in place.)

UPDATE 7/24/15 – I’ve had these installed for 6 months or more now on one of my guitars. I think they are really great. In fact I have upgraded my star rating from 4 to 5 stars after using these for a while. I’ve also expanded my own exposure to a variety of other locking tuners from Grover, Schaller and Fender and I have to say these would be my favorites if only the center post finishes matched the rest of the tuner, and if the mounting could conceal the holes of other original tuners better. Functionally, I love these. Cosmetically, they leave minor issues for me. I see they are now offered in some other finishes like Gold, Chrome and that’s good except they all have the same black center post? I’m not crazy about that. I also see both 3×3 and 6 inline offerings which is good. Would love to see them offer additional button options like keystone shaped, grover kidney bean shaped, etc. Another clever option would be to offer some thin mounting adapter plates that would allow the tuner to cover the mounting holes of other popular tuners like the Fender/Schaller tuners. Planet Waves team – feel free to take those ideas and grow your tuner business! I would have put them on 5 more guitars by now if they hadn’t lacked the ability to give a clean looking installation.

I am biased. Simply because I am using those tuners since some years already.
I changed the original tuners to PW in all my guitars. I love the auto trim function. I love how they work and look (whenever it is chrome, gold or black).

Usually they work smooth and precisely. Usually, because out of 13 sets I am using, 2 (two, zwei, duo) tuners are having the tendency to “jump” in some random position. Which is annoying as hell, and forces me to go back 1/4 of turn and retune. But still 13 x 6 = 78. and 2 out of 78 makes 2.5% ((2/78) *100) I will say – that is acceptable “pain”, and still love those tuners.

Honestly, with the auto trim function they shortening the time of guitar restringing by really huge amount of time.

Se los puse a mi Guitarra eléctrica Cort X100, le quedaron perfectamente, No se tuvo que perforar la madera ni nada, la estabilidad de la afinación mejoró muchísimo, se nota esta mejora de la estabilidad de la afinación al usar la palanca de tremolo. Éstos Locking tuners D’addario son tan buenos como los locking tuners de marcas como Gotoh, Grover, Schaller y otros, son de muy buena calidad, y como ya lo he dicho varias veces, la estabilidad en la afinación mejora por mucho.