Upgrading MIM Strat

[Eduardo]

Hi everyone

I have a 60th Anniversary Standard Stratocaster and I'm planning on doing some upgrades. I'm buying callaham parts for the bridge, as well as Graphtech Ferraglide saddles, but it'd be great to upgrade the nut and the tuners as well..

About the nut, I heard that Graphtech TUSQ nut is a great choice, how about the tuners? Locking tuners would improve tuning stability right? But I want to avoid drilling or anything like that.

What are my choices?

Thanks

[Offshore Angler]

Locking tuners would improve tuning stability right?
Thanks

Not really. Tuning instability is usually the saddles and the nut. From my experience, properly stretching in the strings and having a properly cut nut will eliminate 90% of all stability problems.

[cooltone]

From my experience, properly stretching in the strings and having a properly cut nut will eliminate 90% of all stability problems.

I agree. The only real advantage to locking tuners is that it might save you 10 minutes when changing your strings.

[pc]

Right on. If the locking tuners are high quality and a good gear ratio, they'll be more "stable" than cheaper tuners that might tend to slip, but that would be true of any high quality tuner versus a lower quality tuner. Aside from that, I agree that true stability issues are found elsewhere.

[cdw2000]

+1 to others opinions on not needing the locking tuners. A few years ago I bought a '98 MIM strat from a guy in Florida who turned out to have once been a guitar tech for the beach boys.

After it was shipped to me in New Hampshire, I took it out of the shipping box and was amazed to find that it was still in tune! I looked at how he tied the strings on the standard tuning posts and have strung all my guitars this way ever since. Fretnot has a tutorial on this method:

http://www.fretnotguitarrepair.com/stringing.htm

On my guitar the ends were clipped and neatly bent down over the wrapped strings. It was sad when I eventually replaced the strings, because I was never able to completely replicate the neatness of his work. The only mod I ever made to that guitar was to add the Callaham trem block.