DrNomis_44's Gold Standard STA-1M Build.

[DrNomis_44]

That's weird. I had a set fitted to one guitar and they were fine. Were they real Sperzels or a copy? Of could they be copies sold as Sperzels?

Yep, they are a full set of genuine USA made Sperzel Locking Tuners, I'm thinking that their quality control may have slipped a bit, or maybe I was just unlucky enough to get a dud set, the tuners do turn smoothly, it's just that they all exhibit about 1/8th of a turn of backlash, from reading what they said on their website, these Sperzel tuners are supposed to have minimal end-play, backlash, and tuner-shaft wobble, I don't think it's the nut that's causing the trouble cause it seems to have been cut correctly, all the strings ring-out with no sitar-buzzing, and the 1st fret action seems all good too, it's definitely the tuners that are at fault, unfortunately it's been a bit too long for me to get them replaced under warranty.

I know that they are genuine USA Sperzels since they have "USA" stamped on them, besides, they look too genuine to be fakes.


I've got a set of new 3-A-Side Kluson Revolution Locking Tuners installed on my LP Studio guitar that I recently bought, at the moment they are exhibiting practically no noticeable backlash in comparison to the Sperzels, and they seem to be doing a bit better job in keeping the LP Studio in tune.

[Simon Barden]

Have you tried tightening the screws on the end of the tuner buttons? I normally tighten them until it takes a reasonable bit of effort to turn them. It does help keep the tuner key in place and can reduce some backlash as it helps pull the worm gear against the rotary gear.

[DrNomis_44]

Have you tried tightening the screws on the end of the tuner buttons? I normally tighten them until it takes a reasonable bit of effort to turn them. It does help keep the tuner key in place and can reduce some backlash as it helps pull the worm gear against the rotary gear.

Yep, tried that, I found that it didn't help to reduce the backlash, all it did was make the guitar harder to tune up to pitch, I think when they made my set of Sperzel tuners the manufacturing tolerances was a bit off so that the gears didn't mesh tightly enough with the worm-gear, I might try buying a new set later on this year and see if I get better performing ones, in the meantime I'll have to make do with the Grover Rotomatics, just wish the Grovers didn't have a tendency to break certain strings when tuning up to pitch (the high E-string is the one most prone to breaking).

[Simon Barden]

Worth dropping an email to Sperzel and explain that you''d bought them some time ago and had only just got round to fitting them due to delayed guitar construction. They might know of a problematic batch and offer to replace them.

[DrNomis_44]

Worth dropping an email to Sperzel and explain that you''d bought them some time ago and had only just got round to fitting them due to delayed guitar construction. They might know of a problematic batch and offer to replace them.

Sounds like it's worth a try, I'll wait till tomorrow to email them then, and I'll see what they do in response, cheers mate, my LP Studio guitar is still playable so I can still record a good demo of my new Boss RE20 Space Echo pedal, but that'll have to wait till the morning.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:

Just noticed something interesting about the Gold Paint I used on the body of my Gold Strat, over the last couple of weeks since I put the guitar together, I've noticed that the Gold Paint has developed a copper-ish patina to it even though I distinctly remember spraying it with a few coats of clearcoat, I may keep it like it is cause it looks a bit reliced.

[Simon Barden]

I don't think you have much choice unless you want another 200 pages of build.

[DrNomis_44]

I don't think you have much choice unless you want another 200 pages of build.

Hahahaha.....you guys must be getting sick of me updating my build thread....lol.

[Zandit75]

Hahahaha.....you guys must be getting sick of me updating my build thread....lol.

Only when you update without pictures!!!

[DrNomis_44]

Only when you update without pictures!!!

Hahahaha, well that's fair enough mate, my excuse is that some unknown person sabotaged my NBN internet connection last Monday, and I couldn't get online, had to wait till this morning for an NBN Co. Tech to come and fix it for me, I managed to take a pic of the damaged Fibre Optic cable before it got fixed, here's the pic so you can see for yourself, I was without an internet connection from last Monday afternoon till this morning when it got fixed:




As you can see in the pic, some unknown person pulled the Fibre Optic cable out of the NBN Co. Box that's next to my front door, so there was no way to get online.


And here's a pic of the Fibre Optic cable after the NBN Co. Tech fixed it, I just literally took this pic half a minute ago: