Is it possible to attach a locking nut to a Fender Telecaster without damaging the guitar or having to change the neck?

I'm moving away from alotta music in Standard tuning and hitting the heavier drop C tunings and stuff, but obviously neither my fender or Gibson should really be tuned down that low with .9 guage strings. I wanna be able to drop my guitar down to C, and not worry about it going outa tune every song/middle of song.

What do you think then?

i don't think i've ever seen it done, but i'm sure it's possible. take it to a tech and ask them, it can't hurt.

You don't need a locking nut, why would you need it with a fixed bridge? Use heavier strings if you are tuning lower, if you use a regular 9-42 set for standard, go a step heavier on each string, plus a heavier string on the bottom. I would not use a string lighter than 54 for the low C, I currently use a 58 for it, and I use 10-48 for standard. I know a few guys who use 10/13/17 on top and tune to D or drop C - you mainly want the bottom to be a bit heavier then a standard 10-46 set as the heaviest string in those sets is barely heavy enough to handle drop tunings. 28-30 / 40-42 / 54+ work for the bottom three, I recommend against a 52 on the bottom as it tends to wear out a lot faster than the other strings regardless of the string maker (I have tried Daddario, Dean Markley, DR, Ernie Ball, GHS, and SIT over the years). I have tuned to drop C for quite a while, I tried 10/13/17/26/36/52 (standard 10s with a 52) and I now use 11/15/20-22/30/42/58. Only a very slight tension rod adjustment was required.

As far as your guitar being able to handle it, you just need a tension rod adjustment if you add a bit of tension to control vibration. 'Earth 2' was recorded on a Telecaster tuned very low (A or B I think).

If you really want a locking nut there, it can be done, but it isn't going to help on a fixed bridge guitar, you simply need strings that are a bit thicker to handle it.

What Zodijackyl said.
Try to use heavier strings because a locking nut on a hardtail guitar won't change much.

I don't really feel the need to mix and match strings, DR's BT10's or ernie ball skinny top heavy bottoms worked fine for me when I used to play in drop c. I never had trouble with a .52 tuned to C.

In honesty, the idea of mixing strings does appeal because the music i play varies in tuning and style so that seems a good option.

So i tuned my Gibson down to drop C earlier and it was ok for a couple of songs, but started to downtune further again, so i grabbed my mates Ibanez which has Zakk Wylde 60-10's on, and it was perfect actually.

As for the adjustment of the rod, i'm not gonna start fiddling with the inner depths of my axes because i change what i play with my mood every day, and i can only imagine it'll mess up the feel for stuff i usually play.

There's always the fact I could save money for a couple of months, i saw a pretty nice LTD today with floyd rose, locking trem etc etc and it wasn't out of my price range, but i don't wanna just buy new guitars when i wanna play a new song lol.

Many thanks for the help guys, i genuinly at a loss over the whole affair. I'll keep you posted with my progress or failure lol

\m/

As a cheap fix throw some sperzel or gotoh locking tuning machine heads on your guitar to help stop it from dropping out of tune. Just an idea.

Some people are fine with it, some deal with it because they are loyal to a string company that doesn't sell singles/custom sets. I personally don't like the bottom string bouncing around due to having less tension, and when I have a .052 tuned to C it wears out a lot faster.



I avoid changing tunings on the same set of strings - the change in tension when tuning up or down a full step is uncomfortable to play on, and changing the tuning of a string wears it out faster, and it doesn't stay in tune very well either.

fo sho