NGD - H535; Tuners?

[Taller]

Evidently the file is too big to post a photo, but I just picked up a brand new H535 in Antique Natural. Beautiful guitar, but I'm wondering about the tuners - "stamped Heritage".

I know it's a new guitar with new strings, and I'd expect them to stretch out a bit, but I've been playing this guitar quite a bit over the last few days and it keeps going out of tune. I'm  used to D'Addarrio strings and Heritage's website says these guitars ship with GHS Boomers. I somehow doubt it's the strings at this point. 

This is my second Heritage; the first was my 2008 H137, which shipped with Grovers. Never had any tuning issues with that guitar.

Thoughts? 

[PunkKitty]

I had those tuners on the 150 I bought a couple of months ago. I had a set of generic locking tuners that I replaced them with. They work much better. I think I bought the locking tuners from Amazon. They Kaish tuners. They work well when I have to replace them, I'll get a set of Gotoh, Grover, or Kluson locking tuners. 

I've been really disappointed with the quality of the tuners Heritage has been using lately. Even the Harmony locking tuners are better. 

[davesultra]

My 22’ H-535 has the Heritage stamped tuning machines, and I’ve experienced no issues with them. They look very much like Grovers to me. The casing looks the same, along with the “beans”. Screw hole alignment is also the same. Aren’t the Grovers being made over in China now anyway? Are you sure it’s not the string binding in the nut slot?

[Taller]

I don't hear the typical 'ping' when a string gets caught in the nut. 

I'm not used to the stock GHS Boomers. Do they take some time to stretch out? I play D'Addarrios.

I'm doing nothing more than some riffs and blues wankery and after bending the G and B strings a few times, they're pretty flat.

[davesultra]

No telling how old the strings actually are, so old strings are a possibility. You could always try putting a small dab of Chap-Stick in the nut slots to help with friction. Tuning issues are “usually” due to issues with the nut. However it’s not out of the realm of possibilities that you could have a bad tuning machine. 
Another thing to remember is to always tune up to pitch.

[TalismanRich]

I haven't really noticed a difference between GHS Boomers,  Ernie Ball Slinkys, and D'addarios as far a stretching or tuning stability.   I have guitars with each of them.   I've read comments on other forums and one will say that A is the better than B,  and another that B is more stable than A.  I suspect that if you tallied up all the comments they would be roughly equal.  

While there are lots of variations in how wound strings are made, with round cores,  hex cores,  flat wire, nickel wire, coatings etc., the plain E, B and G are just basic wire, and while there are some exotic ones (like Titanium, cobalt enhanced or cryogenic treatment )  I think the majority are a high carbon spring steel.   It might be interesting for someone with metallurgical expertise to look at the composition of the standard strings.  I've looked at various places, but have never really found any definitive information.

 

[rockabilly69]

Put on new strings of your typical brand, stretch them the way you normally do, and lube the nut slots with whatever is your favorite lubricant. I seriously doubt that there's something wrong with the tuners. If anything, there may just be some roughness in the nut slots. 

[LK155]

You could see these symptoms if the strings never got stretched after installation.

Easy enough to tell:  change strings, make sure they're stretched properly, and see if the problem has gone away.

 

[Kuz]

7 hours ago, rockabilly69 said:

Put on new strings of your typical brand, stretch them the way you normally do, and lube the nut slots with whatever is your favorite lubricant. I seriously doubt that there's something wrong with the tuners. If anything, there may just be some roughness in the nut slots. 

 

1 hour ago, LK155 said:

You could see these symptoms if the strings never got stretched after installation.

Easy enough to tell:  change strings, make sure they're stretched properly, and see if the problem has gone away.

 

99% of the time tuning instability is due to the nut.  Follow the above excellent recommendations (especially lubing the nut slots) and you should be good to go.  And if you are used to Fender style guitars, you still will have to tune a "Gibby" style guitars more often than a long-scale Fender six in a line tuners style guitar (especially after big bends).