The tuners, you are probably used to, are most likely 14 or 15:1 and the Kluson/Gotoh tuners you are talking about are 12:1, which means it takes fewer turns to move from an E tuning to a D tuning.
Also, the older Klusons are quite valuable in today's market, and the newer Gotoh's, although they have the same gear ratio, are superior because the backlash problem has been resolved.
In my opinion, the tuners aren't better or worse, they are just different. It'll just take some getting used to, is all.
