The Steel Guitar Forum

I realize that most answers are relative to the person giving the answer, but which do you feel is the better tuner, Grover or Sperzel, and why?

Most of us who have Sperzels on older steels run into issues with the grease in the gears hardening up. People have addressed this with mixed result. (I have them on my '81 Sho Bud and my '97 Carter). On the other hand, the Grover 18:1s that Ricky Davis put on the '70 Professional I owned for a while (when ya gonna sell that back to me Rick Abbott? ) were excellent! NOT the mini Grovers: the standard Rotomatic size, 102 Series.

Those 18:1 Grovers are my favorite,hands down.

Grovers are a notably superior product

Older Sperzel's were crap. I replaced the original Sperzel's on my 82 D-10 Franklin about 10 years ago and the new ones were smoother and not "loose" feeling. I kept the Franklin 8 years after installing the new Sperzel's and they were still like new.

Two of the GFI's I had used Grover's and I hated the small knobs. The wider knobs on the Sperzel's are easier to turn.

My current GFI is keyless as I didn't want another with the Grover's.

Of the two, I'd say Grover. I put a set of locking Sperzels on a Tele sometime late last century and they were a bit troublesome – and only 12:1. Bur I'd rather use Schaller, Gotoh or Hipshot - in that order.

Grover Rotomatics. I love the Imperials too for regular guitar.