Phase III Locking Tuners

Posted Mar 23, 2012

Behind The Gear

Every part of a guitar has an effect on its overall tone. Anything a string is attached to will drain energy away from it.

Let’s consider tuners. Tuning pegs are one of only a few parts that a string actually touches, so they’re very important. If we made the entire tuning peg out of silicone rubber, would the guitar sound better? That question is an exaggeration to prove a point, which is: every single part of a tuning peg has an impact on the sound of the instrument and the tuning stability. A guitar with rubber tuning pegs would sound lifeless and have little sustain.

Our new Phase III machine head was designed and built with two goals in mind : One, that it doesn’t detract from the tone of the guitar and allows the tone woods of the neck and body to do their job, which is to be musical, and two, stay in tune while maintaining a highly useable gear ratio.

On a purely aesthetic level, I believe these new Phase III machine heads are handsome. They also sound great and just plain work. For those of you that don’t like change - get over it! I am confident that once you spend time with these new tuners, you’ll feel the same as I do.

In addition, I’ve heard that a few people have asked if the tuner’s open back design might be susceptible to dirt and wear prematurely. Absolutely not. Look back at all the old, high-quality instruments through acoustic guitar and bass history. History is very favorable to open back tuners.