Hip-shot D-tuners

tonefight · Post by **tonefight** » Thursday Dec 04, 2008

Anyone got opinions on these ? I've heard 1 good and 1 bad opinion on them.

metalchurch · Post by **metalchurch** » Thursday Dec 04, 2008

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaster-d ... tuner.html

I found these reviews on a Tele forum or something like that.
I've never used them myself, but I'd imagine that they are fairly good at what they are designed to do, because they sell very well.

Do you want this for your Strat to drop the "E" down to "D"?
If so, another thing that I would consider is a Graphtech nut, or something similar with a slippery material to inhibit snags and hang ups at the nut.
An LSR roller nut would be the ticket, and those are made for to retro-fit into a Strat with minmal effort. ($39.99)
http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/ ... sku=361268

Here's a comparison between the Graphtech and the LSR:
(I found this very informative)
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/sho ... ?t=1616035

And here's a Harmony Central review, but it's about the Bass version, but it'll give you a general idea..
http://reviews.harmony-central.com/revi ... Tuner/10/1

Sorry I dont have first hand experience, but hopefully these help answer any questions you have?

ps
www.stewmac.com sells them as well:
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Guit ... _Keys.html

tonefight · Post by **tonefight** » Friday Dec 05, 2008

yeah just for dropping form e to d, It isn't a problem tuning down but i seems to have a problem remembering I tuned down and I start the next song in drop tuning

if I had the d tuner at least I could get back on track qiuk.

I did have the graph tech on my american standard but i've been using the graphite lube on these with pretty good results. I have the tusq nut on the mexican and put the grahite lube on when i change strings and it's good to go.

The review on the tele forum sounds good, someone told me that they couldn't get it to actually drop in perfect tune. But I figured it may have been hangin up in the nut. Those guys don't seem to be having problem with that

metalchurch · Post by **metalchurch** » Friday Dec 05, 2008

Ok, sounds like you know your equipment very well then. I wan't implying that you didn't because you seem to know what you're doing.

I just figured that the tuner and an aftermarket nut would go hand in hand.
Pretty much any gigging musician using a Strat knows all too well how to take care of the nut issue.

The Stewmac site makes it appear as thought you'd have to buy the whole set of tuners. Maybe it's just (1) Hipshot for the Low-E, and the other 5 are just regular tuners that match it?

I'd say maybe try and find a good use one somewhere and use it at home on another guitar to see how it acts first.
That's funny that you forget to bring it back to E when you're playing out! Hahaha! I bet that sucks!

Sapo · Post by **Sapo** » Friday Dec 05, 2008

They are on all my four strings. They are great. I can't imagine how they could be a negative.

http://www.hipshotproducts.com/

Bloodsong · Post by **Bloodsong** » Friday Dec 05, 2008

onegunguitar on here has used onr for quite a while; you may want to shoot him a pm...

onegunguitar · Post by **onegunguitar** » Friday Dec 05, 2008

Bloodsong wrote:onegunguitar on here has used onr for quite a while; you may want to shoot him a pm...

I always thought the Hip shot was more for bass guitars. I have the EVH D Tuna(which is on the tremelo) on my Wolfgang for dropping to dropped D,it works good,but my Floyd is a flush mount, I wouldn't recommend them on on floating trem though.Just my 2 cents.

ToonaRockGuy · Post by **ToonaRockGuy** » Friday Dec 05, 2008

You guitarists just like talking about your nuts.

metalchurch · Post by **metalchurch** » Friday Dec 05, 2008

ToonaRockGuy wrote:You guitarists just like talking about your nuts.

And you drummers are always rantin' about your "skin"

Whats up with that?

tonefight · Post by **tonefight** » Saturday Dec 06, 2008

Metal church, that link you posted to the tele forum said some guys are using banjo tuners for the same concept and you can use them on multiple strings. That would be awesome to drop the whole guitar to open D. Good Link, Thanks

metalchurch · Post by **metalchurch** » Sunday Dec 07, 2008

tonefight wrote:Metal church, that link you posted to the tele forum said some guys are using banjo tuners for the same concept and you can use them on multiple strings. That would be awesome to drop the whole guitar to open D. Good Link, Thanks

Do you mean Straight D tuning? Down 1 whole step. (DGCFAD) I'm not sure what open D tuning is?

I dont know if I'd trust having 6 tuners responsible for down tuning my guitar, because of the ineitable variances, such as the bar room heating up, which changes your action and your neck tension whether you feel it or not, it happens.
Some of you may know what I'm talking about here. Thin necks are especially prone to temprature changes in a room.

I mean having only 1 tuner would be ok, but any more than that...

How about one of those new Gibson "Robot" guitars? Man they're about a crock of shit arent they?

And they want $3,000+ for them:roll:

It's too bad that there isn't some kind of saddle that can be retro-fitted onto a Vintage (Strat) style trem that would allow Drop D tuning.
Maybe you should consider putting a Floyd and an EVH D-tuner on it.

Or get another guitar? But that's probably the whole premise behind figuring this out, is because you want to play with only 1 guitar.

I'll keep looking to see what I can come up with for you.
Let us know if you decide on something, and of course how it works for you, so we all know.

Merge · Post by **Merge** » Sunday Dec 07, 2008

Open D is D-A-D-F#-A-D.

metalchurch · Post by **metalchurch** » Sunday Dec 07, 2008

Thanks Merge!

tonefight · Post by **tonefight** » Sunday Dec 07, 2008

Yeah as Merge said Open D is : D-A-D-F#-A D, so you are retuning 4 strings. I just thought of that when I saw the banjo d-tuners. Open D sounds awesome with a slide, that's where that real "bottle neck blues" or "Delta blues" sound really shines through. And of course you have Open E and open G also.

Hipshot does make a complete bridge that offers you limitless retuning options but it is pretty cumbersome and not very pretty. Its on their site I believe its called the "Trilogy"

I see what you are saying about the stability and that was pretty much my question with the the d-tuner in the first place. Is it going to land in tune when I flip that lever and flip it back ? Some are saying yes and some are saying no, others just say it was difficult to get it adjusted and I think that may come into play with the whole sticking at the nut issue you brought up earlier.

metalchurch · Post by **metalchurch** » Sunday Dec 07, 2008

Tony, it's really a toss up.
I asked some advice about this on another forum, and I'm waiting some responses, and I'll let you know what they say.

I'd say that if you can find atleast 1 good used one on ebay, go ahead and try that and see how it does.
+ if you dont like it, you can re-sell it.

I saw that Trilogy,and it looks bad ass dont it?

Sorry, I got confused about what you meant about open D, but I've heard people call DGCFAD, open D alot of times, and i always have to ask them what they mean.

I set up a floyd for someone, who specified "Open D", so that's how I did it, and he plugged it in and said "this thing is out, it doesn't sound like Open D to me"
I shit you not man!

MeYatch · Post by **MeYatch** » Sunday Dec 07, 2008

I got one with a neck I bought a few years ago, never fit any of my basses. But now I got it on the jag I picked up. Seems pretty cool, but I havn't really messed with it much. Needs some lubrication as it hasnt been used in at least a couple years, and who knows how much longer.

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Monday Dec 08, 2008

I play five-strings exclusively, but I've always wanted to add a Hip-shot to my basses on the E string. I've never needed to drop my B to an A, but I always thought it would be nice to drop the E to a D to create a 5th interval. It would really work with things based off of an open D that have huge interval leaps further up the neck (think about a lot of Tool's material).

EyesOfAnguishbassist · Post by **EyesOfAnguishbassist** » Monday Dec 08, 2008

I have one on my P - bass.. IMO they work very well.

slackin@dabass · Post by **slackin@dabass** » Wednesday Dec 10, 2008

they're jusrt a pain in the ass to get the e and d in tune relative. other than that, no biggie. easy switch from e to d

tonefight · Post by **tonefight** » Wednesday Dec 10, 2008

Well i see they are a hit among bass players, the guitar version's can't be that much different.
Thanks everyone