wileypickett
Enlightened Member
Ever play an SG?
Not sure I ever played an actual SG, but I played SG style guitars in my early days. I eventually settled on Strat style electrics -- I preferred the sound.
The 12-string electric I used for decades though was a Hagstrom with a headstock larger than any SG and with 12 full-sized tuners. On that one I used an untanned leather strap and never felt like the neck was too heavy.
Possibly of interest:
What Is "neck dive" and How to Fix it - Our Complete Guide - Killer Guitar Rigs
We go over the causes and some popular solutions to the all too common issue of neck dive - if you're an SG player, you'll want to read this!
killerguitarrigs.com
Note solution #3:
"Get a wide or grippy strap . . . We recently tried out one of Levy’s 3″ wide leather straps and it was able to keep our SG in place with no issues. On top of that, being a very wide strap, it made wearing something heavy like a Gibson Les Paul very comfortable, even for long stretches. Well worth checking out, and not just for neck dive."
I suspect the Levy's was similar to what I was using way back when.
But back to the question posed by the poster of the thread: I use both locking and traditional (non-locking) tuners. I'm not advocating the use of one over the other, but the weight of the tuners is a non-issue for me. I can't discern a difference.
It's all about convenience, speed and higher tuning ratios.