These building houses each kinda' have a particular style to their builds, which can really be easily told by the way each one builds the most popular form of cheap guitar - the STRAT COPY. Take several Strat copies from several of these cheap makers, and you'll notice a particular style to them, and that style changes based on the manufacturer, when it's made, and who made it. See table below....

1978 Hondo Strat Copy	1983 Memphis 302	1987 Memphis 302HB	1986 Harmony H80T	1989 Kramer KS-400	1999 Rok Axe
So here's what a Strat copy basically was in the 1970's, this one likely either made by VERY early Samick, so it's an early Korean guitar. Notice how it's got an ashtray that screws into the wood, no vibrato, and the wacky "Squished" placement of the pickups, as well as the controls being a little out of whack in placement. Also, headstock end truss rod with truss rod cover like a Gibson, and a lawsuit Fender CBS style headstock.	This is a Matsamoku built guitar, and is also branded as the Hondo H76. These had the Samick X13 pickups in them, a very slim, high gloss poly neck with that sorta quasi-harmony-esque headstoch shape to it that's a little more rounded off. Notice - if you look closely, the pickups are actually a little bigger than regular Strat pickups. The construction of these is the same as the other guitar next to it, which is VERY different from a regular stratocaster pickup (more on that later). The body is plywood, the neck is maple with proper rosewood (Pau Ferro and even baked maple became popular choices later), and it has Diamondback tuners (the 70's unit on the far left would have open-gear tuners more than likely).	Okay, if this looks familiar, that's because it is, it's my own personal Memphis 302HB my wife bought me as a wedding gift - this is how it originally was before I swapped the neck and souped up the trem and electronics. By 1987, Samick was putting out thicker bodied copies of the Strat that were more boxy - compare the shape with the H80T next to it, and the Kramer KS400, it's VERY Similiar. Seems samick was using this body on darn near everything. Hondo's Hondo II Strats ALSO used the same body from the late 80's onward. These used the not-so-(in)famous "bent metal inertia plate" style Strat trem. The neck has a fretboard-fallaway on the upper frets, diamondback tuners, no string trees because the headstock tilted (and Memphis used this same neck on other models including some late A2-TR guitars).	Notice the boxy shape of the body similiar to the 302HB to the left of it. This is earlier than the 302HB as I noticed Samick rounded off their bodies a little more beforehand. It seems by 1987, the demand got higher, and they stopped rounding the edges off so much to save time and money. Technically the same electronics as the 302HB, same bridge, but a different neck. This particular neck had simliar build quality to the 302HB neck though, same wide-ish heel, same wider, flatter profile, same diamondback tuners, except this one does not tilt and has a body-end truss rod adjustment like an actual Fender.	The Kramer KS400 was Kramer's last gasp of life before shuttering most of it's operations in 1990. It was basically the same guitar as the Memphis 302 and Harmony H80T, except these got a neck with a KRAMER headstock on it, and that's it. Same cheaper rosewood material, same cheap 21 frets and plastic nut, same round string tree as the Harmony for the High E/B strings, same diamondback tuners, same pickups. The difference was it said "Kramer" on it. Also built in the same Samick factory. One other obvious thing we can look at on the KS400 is the Sunburst finish. Notice how on actual Fenders or anything really that has a body not made of wafer-like layered plywood, there's no blacking-out of the arm contour (or back contour too). Sunburst was done like this on these cheap Strats to cover up the plywood layers that would be visible if it was done like a regular Fender instrument.	Before First Act by about 2 years, was a little company called "Rok Axe" who sold cheap, $99.99 guitars at Wal-Mart. These guitars were EXACTLY this, and I'm quite famliiar with them (as I am most in this chart). The KS400 and Rok Axe belonged to Lithium's "Hawk Davis", who I did work for and played in that band with. The 302HB I own still. I also almost bought an older pearl while 302HB like the pearl white 302 here, and I've played countless Hondo strat copies over the years, including other branded versions (Burny, Global, Palmer, Memphis, etc..). The Rok Axe was sort of a lesser-known start to the typical manufacturing style of 2000+ copy guitar builders. Gone was the plywood body, it's now a lightweight solid wood like basswood or some cheap asian wood that's a bit more soft (though it looked like styrofoam from inside, lol). The necks were made now with semi-gloss poly to make the neck faster to play, but the neck on these was big and chunky, and had a Pau Ferro fretboard. The headstock again had the old Diamondback tuners, we would see these on everything cheap up until the advent of cheap copies of the Schaller S6 design that's popular now. It had pickups that used plastic bobbins and were proper strat-type designs, but with a ceramic bar magnet across the bottom, and mini-pots inside, and a decent pot-metal strat trem. Overall, quality goes up on newer examples.

As you can see, the quality varies on these instruments quite a lot over the span of about 20-30 years. The 1970's was an era of inaccurate copies that looked legit to the untrained eye, the 1980's was when the Korean, Tawianese, and Indonesians got better and started making stuff that was "close enough" but still a little deviant. And the 1990's grew to give us fairly accurate copies, and some pretty decent quality original designs that needed no rehab.

Six on a Strip - These came to light in the 1960's on cheap import Japanese guitars, and were still used well into the 1990's on only the cheapest of student models. These student models included, most notably, the Harmony H802/803/804 student guitars commonly bought from Montgomery Ward and J.C. Penny Wishbook catalogs (often sold as the "36 Student Electric"). The majority of them really sucked because they had low quality plastic buttons, low grade brass capstan gears, even lower grade cast magnesium tuner gears, and on a lot of them, the capstan was STRAIGHT, because these same tuners would be reused on inexpensive 12-string acoustic guitars with slotted headstocks originally. Typically, with heavy use, they'd wear out by either cross-threading the worm/capstan gears making the tuners really hard to turn, to the point some people turned to pliars to tune their guitar (eventually breaking off the plastic keys in the process as the tuners got more cross-threaded and "jammed up"). The other failure point was the weak metal strip the tuner mechanisms were attached to, plus the plastic bushings on the headstock face, would allow the capstans to lean ever so slightly, causing the worm gear to strip out the capstan gear and cause the tuners either not to work, work poorly, and they would often drift out of tune over time as a result.

Diamondback Tuners - These are what I call the classic, covered, non-sealed-gear machine heads found on most cheap instruments from the late 70's till about the mid 2010's. Diamondback tuners typically are just six-on-a-strip style assemblies made into individual plates for each machine head, and then a stamped cover goes over the top of them with a 4-sided "dome" like back. I also could probably call them SMB3 Castle Tuners because they look like the blocks found in teh castle levels of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES. These were mixed in quality, with some later examples from teh 2000's onward being pretty decent, to some of the worst coming from the 80's and having all the same failings as the six on a plate tuners for the same reasons. Diamondback style tuners are still able to be bought on the internet for fairly cheap (around $7-$20 depending on resource, particularly Reverb and E-bay), and can be replaced with a much higher quality set for that price in a lot of cases, so they are not terrible.

Sealed Gear Style - These, like diamondbacks, are a mixed bag. Some of them are poor quality, I mean to the point the rear covers fall off and you realize the mechanism inside is the same as the older Diamondbacks, but attached to a cast-magnesium or pot-metal cast chassis. Some others, however, are exquisite and a amazing bargain, and it seems to be getting a little bit better and more consistant these days.

They can be had in the widest variety ranging from basic sealed gear pot metal tuners, all the way to really nice quality budget offerings from Wilkinson or Guitar Fetish that cost around $20-30 a set. Even Kluson Revolution might not be too expensive for some builds if you're willing to put in the work to install them.

Sealed gear tuners present a bit of a challenge to people who prefer VINTAGE style tuner types because of the type of bushings installed. Almost all sealed-gear style machine heads utilize a nut-style bushing that has a metal washer underneath. This is truly what holds these machiine heads in place, and the screw in back, or the two prongs stuck into the wood (often seen on Squier guitars from the 2000's and 2010s of higher tier) is merely intended to hold the machine head in it's position.

On the left, we have a Harmony H804 headstock that features regular plastic "press-fit" bushings. These are merely decoration. On the right is my Squier Jagmaster with a different neck wearing a set of unbranded sealed-gear machine heads (most likely Schaller or Gotoh). This is a really good indicator of what kind of tuners we have, and also a good starting point for the next subject - machine head upgrades.

Machine Head Upgrades - Machine heads can be a great upgrade on an older inexpensive guitar, think anything prior to about 2005 or so. The only reasons you'd want to replace them are the following, if we're truly working on a budget....

1. They drift out of tune - assumign you strung the guitar up properly, have nut slots that are not dirty, binding, or a vibrato bridge that's properly setup, the strings still don't stay in tune long enough to last at least an hour without needing retuned under constant playing. If tuners are not doing their job - keeping the guitar in tune, then it's time to replace them.
2. Tuning the guitar is a royal PITA - Ie, you're basically needing a pair of pliars to tune your guitar, and you might have the same problem as above to go with it.
3. There are broken/missing parts - IE, screws fell out, pins holding the branded tuners in some Squier products have broken and now the tuner turns as a full assembly, every time you restring the damn press-fit bushings fall out of the guitar before you can get the string routed, or maybe there's no bushings at all and you can see the capstans leaning against the holes they are sticking through (usually combined with tuning drift, AND problems with turning the keys).

Now, I won't bring up cosmetics, because that's your own thing, and I'm not the pretentious type of guy to tell you that your taste stinks. That's up to you.

But another thing with machine heads, is you need to consider how much work it's going to take to replace them. Most of the diamondback and six on a strip installations can be replaced with "F-Mount" or "H-Mount" Kluson style machine heads (though the "F-mount" tuners have the diagonal going the opposite direction), which might be of real benefit because you might get the slotted "Safe-T" capstans that take the prickly end of the string and put it in a hole in the middle of the slot on the top. Also, they look GREAT on vintage style Strat copies such as a Harmony H80T or Hondo H76. These usually tend to use the same Fender Spacing. You MAY need to drill out the post-holes for the new bushings though.

For Sealed Gear machine heads - which include the Squier type that have the 2 pins that go in the wood (that sometimes break off), other sealed gear machine heads are an option. The only "vintage style" options I've seen, are Bolt-Mount Kluson TonePros and Kluson Revolution tuners intended to be retrofit to VIntage guitars that were drilled sometime in the 1970's-1990's for sealed gear machine heads.

To convert to sealed gear machine heads on a guitar that had six a strip or diamondbacks, you'll need to drill out the holes to be wider. The easiest ways to do this is either buy a tool from Steward MacDonald Guitar Shop supply like I have for drilling new headstocks, and use alignment pins to ensure they are correctly aligned, or more often, I just use a "Christmas Tree", or "stepper" bit and partially drill the head enough for the bushing, using one step of the bit at a time, and the back enough for any sort of "collar" the machine heads themselves have. I find this removes less wood and creates a much tighter installation. Plus you can test fit with each "rung" of the xmas tree bit.

The other way around would require the use of "Conversion Bushings" installed from the top. These are special tuner bushings designed to allow press-fit install into a headstock previously reamed out for Sealed Gear machine heads with bolt mounting. Then you can install standard, old-school non-sealed gear machine heads.

Locking Tuners - Let's talk a bit about the role of locking tuners as I see it. They are intended for a guitar with a non-locking tremolo unit the way I see it, like a Stratocaster. The intent is to make sure no parts of the tuner mechaism are allowing the capstans to move and thusly throwing off your tuning, as well as more often these days, make restringing faster and easier (ie, you're on tour and you break a string, your tech can have a new one on the guitar in 5 minutes or less), as they often have auto-cutoff parts, and don't let the prickly bit stick out.

To me, personally, they are an un-needed expense, because if you buy a quality set of tuners, which are not that expensive to be honest (just get some Klusons, Gotohs, or Wilkinsons if you're too afraid to try no-name knockoff tuners like I use occasionally), you won't have any problems assuming you know how to setup and restring your guitar properly. In my collection alone, I have a ton of no-name sealed gear tuners, quite a few guitars with Klusons, a Jagmaster with Wilkinsons on it, plus some Gotohs and Schallers hanging around, and I don't have a problem with any of them with regards to tuning stability. I even have a set of diamondbacks on my gold 2013 Strat.

Now, let's talk about String Trees and String Retainers. STring trees are the little clips that hold down the high E and B strings, and sometimes the G and D strings on the headstock of an electric guitar. String RETAINERS are a solid bar like those seen on Floyd Rose instruments, though older cheap guitars (1970's and older mostly) have this as well with a regular nut or Zero Fret. These are typically used on solidbody electrics with six-a-side machine heads (Fender style basically).

The purpose is to maintain a proper "back angle" over the nut. A lot of 3x3 designs, and even modern metal guitar designs work around this problem by having a "tilt" headstock that tilts back between 7 and 15 degrees. So instead, the proper break angle is induced by the angled headstock, not a extra piece of metal holding the strings down against the nut.

However, I think a lot of cheap guitar makers who build copies don't think about their execution or the purpose of these mechanisms, and thusly, don't do it correctly. You'll notice most cheap guitars with a Fender style flat-headstock with the curve up to a nut do it with 2 string trees, and often these are too close to the nut. The trick is to get the string guides just in the right spot where it's not so much breakover angle there needs to be more force for the string to be pulled through the string tree AND the nut, but not get it so far away it's ineffective. If you need a GOOD example, go look at any mid-to-high-end Fender guitar, and I'll assure you it's more than likely done correctly. The back angle of the nut is only going to give you so much Sustain before it becomes a tuning issue rather than a assurance against your upper two strings sounding like a Sitar.

I also think a big mistake they make is how DEEP their drop-down is to these tuners on some of these necks. Actual Fenders have a VERY shallow drop-off from the nut...about 1/4" or slightly more. I've seen some of these headstocks with nearly 1/2" of drop-off, and that's enough that you don't need two String Trees, sometimes not even for the High E string and B string need one either. Tuning Capstans are maybe 1/4" tall at most. So that's about half-the-height of the machine head there, especially if the headstock was cut thick (headstocks are usually cut on production instruments around 1/2" thick at most, usually around 3/8"), which a lot of cheap guitars tend to do to save on milling time (and likely to make the headstock more durable from abusive teenaged boys). So a lot of the time on these cheaper Fender-style setups, I remove the string tree for the G and D, and maybe move the one for the High E and B String about 1.5-2" away from the nut, kind of in a simliar spot to where a vintage Fender Jazzmaster would have it's butterfly clip string guide located. That seems to do the trick.

The older bar string retainers were even worse, they pulled down all six hard at the headstock, and that could with a deep dropoff (which a LOT of those early copies did), and a crappy set of tuners to boot leads to a massive tuning nightmare. I would be in favor of putting some kind of "roller" for the strings ON that bar, but would it be worth it? In my case, I'd probably just fill the holes, and put one well placed string guide on the high E and B string if they really needed it, and replace the tuners to be on the safe side.

With a Floyd Rose (and similiar designs, as there were a lot of attempts at making cheap Floyd competitors in the 1980's) - even the cheap pot metal licensed ones - this changes EVERYTHING. You NEED that string retainer, sometimes even with a tilt headstock, because of how the Floyd Rose locking nut is shaped. The Floyd Rose locking nut is not flat, it has a rounded hump inside the strings go over, and a matched, rounded clamp clamps the strings down over said hump. Sometimes, even with a 7-10 degree tilt, that's not enough angle to pull the strings flat to the whole of the nut. What happens is, when you go to tune the guitar, the strings get pulled sharp, and you run a risk with some crappier licensed nuts of breaking the strings at the nut by clamping them without proper seating (more on crappy locking nuts later). That Bar string guide's job is to pull all six strings taught against the locking nut, so when you lock it, all it's doing is clamping the string, not pushing it down against the nut - that's the string guide's job, even with a tilt headstock.

And that is where we get to "Nuts". There's three common styles of nut on a cheap guitar, Fender Style which is a thin piece of plastic simulated bone that fits in a 3/16" wide slot before the first fret, Gibson Style in which a 1/8" wide piece of plastic simulated bone is glued to the end of the fretboard before the 1st fret, and the floor of the headstock, and then Locking Nuts which are usually provided with Licensed Floyds, but also can be used with Kahlers and copies, and some original designs (Rock Lock,