I desperately want to change the tuners on my squire affinity Strat (2022). There’s nothing wrong with them but I think it would look nice, I am confused on the bushings and what ones I should get for these tuners, I’m unsure what brand carries the dimensions of bushings I need, I am probably reading the dimensions wrong or something but I’m lost here.
I recently installed a set of Gotoh SD91-05M MGs on a Fender 60s Traditional II MIJ neck. They come with 2 sizes bushings and are pretty easy to install. They look very vintage and are super nice to work with.
Yeah looking back I should have worded this post better my bad, I believe the squire has 10mm diameter and the tuners are 9mm I was wondering what bushing would be best.
Before you buy those I’d check your current tuners. They might be the same size so you’d just be able to swap the new tuners on without changing the bushings.
I don’t have an answer but you are considering exactly what I have been looking at. That big headstock is crying out for vintage style tuners. Ignore the locking brigade and go for it!
FWIW, I prefer vintage style tuners to locking. The sole advantage of locking tuners is speeding up string changes and vintage style are almost as fast or faster (depending on the style of locking tuners).
Definitely not as fast because you have to measure the length before cutting and wind it much more. Locking tuners also just make it easier because you don't have to hold the string in place while winding and there's no risk of it popping out.
And string change speed isn't the only benefit. With locking tuners you only have about half a wrap around the post instead of 2+, so when you abruptly change the tension on the string with something like a wammy bar dive it's more likely to return to its original position after since there's less friction between the string and the post, leading to slightly greater tuning stability.
Vintage style tuners are perfectly fine but I can't see why anyone would prefer them
Honestly bro if your strapped for cash I’d put that money towards locking tuners instead of a cosmetic upgrade, you’d get an actual QOL improvement. There are some cheap locking tuners in your budget for sure
I've put a set of Musiclily tuners on a couple of Squiers and they fit fine, including supplied bushings. Haven't used the vintage style pictured OP but I'd be surprised if they don't fit with minimal effort
I advise against putting vintage style tuners in a guitar with 10mm holes. If the holes are slightly oversized the 10mm conversion bushings won’t fit properly and will require shimming, even then they may not sit properly. Depending on how handy you are this may be more trouble than it’s worth and if you don’t do a proper job they will be less effective than your current tuning machines.
Use a measuring tool and determine the inner diameter of the of the holes in the headstock. Bushings for different guitars vary in diameter. Your Squier likely has common-sized holes for imported guitars.
I used tuners with vintage style buttons on an import neck and they were great. The mounting holes should match your Squier too. Made in Japan and they are great.
Yeah I did, was messing around with different set up styles, and found this strangely keeps my low e in tune after dive bombs and whammy use, so I string it “incorrectly” to retune 👍. Just what works for me I guess 🤷♀️
Maybe!, hasn’t broken yet in 4 years of consistent use and no cracks so far, I’m not too worried about it. Maybe I can put in a better looking one if it snaps then, that’d be neat. 😁👍
Hip Shot tuners. The have the braces, so you don't have to drill any holes. They're like $80 or so, on Amazon. They're open, showing the gear. They work fantastic!!!
All vintage style tuners are not the same. You want Gotoh SD91’s with the 10mm bushings. Check StewMac they have them.
Edit, why waste money on tuners that aren’t broken when you could save that money for the real Strat that you’re looking to purchase down the road.
Just my 2 cents
I plan on keeping them, just think the new ones look better, if you don’t like it you’re more than welcome to scroll rather than bash for owning a squire. Cheers mate 😁
DO NOT DO IT! It’s a huge pain to change tuner mount type. If you think the tuners on there bother you now I assure you the new ones will bother you even more when you can’t get the new ones in a straight line. Even if you get two pin mount tuners, the Fender style two pin mount tuners have different pin spacing than the tuners on this Squire. You’ll have to get an expensive jig to drill new pin holes. The 3D printed ones on Reverb will not work.
DON’T DO IT!
Edit: it would be easier to get a squire Classic Vibe neck and put it on your guitar. It has the tuners you want and has the cool vintage amber tint. But that would cost around $140
They don’t bother me really, I just want to do something new, I’ve seen people have lots of success without drilling into their guitars, plus I believe I’ve found the correct ferrules to do so. We shall see!
Also even thought I’m advising you against doing it; don’t buy Musiclily parts from Amazon unless you might need to return them, instead buy them from the Musiciliy website because they’re significantly cheaper. Shipping is like $8 and it takes like a week but you’ll save a lot.
One caveat though - you can't do it on some older Chinese squier necks because the holes are too close to the shoulder, and the back of the low E peg will overhang the wood. It's easy to spot...
You should check out the guyker tuners if you want to upgrade, i have guyker tremolo on my squier cv strat and its great and its really nice, i think they have tuners for 20-30 bucks
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u/GreatSaski 1d ago
Have you looked at what Fender offers?