Pegs or Mechanical Tuners?

John A

John A

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Hi

I was just wondering about tuning pegs… I've seen a beautiful, 1940s style Uke for sale that comes with Grover Tuning Pegs rather than the enclosed mechanical style. Are they in any way inferior to the mechanical type, do they slip or go out of tune more easily, etc.

Many thanks, cheers, John
 
Friction tuners seem to be a love hate thing but then again not all friction tuners are made equal either. I have a cheap set of tuners came stock on a Flea that I upgraded with better friction tuners by the same manufacturer. I also found a set of friction tuners that seem to be very close to the upgraded set except they were only $3-$4 from China. I might be drilling out an old Harmony that has horrible friction tuners.

To me any tuner that uses a metal finish washer is garbage. The stock tuners on the flea were like this and they dig into the wood. My Harmony which has undergone extensive repair (shes scarred quite visibly) came with cheap replacements like this as well. I stopped the finish washers from digging into the wood by placing rubber o-rings under each washer. They work OK but I'm considering drilling for the Chinese tuners.

Finish washers diamond-plate-rock-guard-finishing-washers-1.JPG

Friction tuners can be a little trickier to tune but once a good set is tuned and strings are stretched they stay put. Owning both I myself wouldn't have friction tuners be the make it or break it on a new purchase.

~peace~
 
Thanks very much Al for your informative advice… many years ago I had an old violin with wooden tuning pegs and they were terrible, relying purely on being pushed in like a bung and very difficult to fine tune. The pegs that I have seen are Grover and made of metal, so I'm presuming that they must be superior to the old wooden friction type but I was just a little worried that they might slip, your opinion has helped a lot. Thanks very much for your help… cheers, John
 
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They appear much like the ones I upgraded my flea with, the ones that came stock on my Kala pocket ukulele. They appear to be like these here.

t_101_02.jpg

You can see this design doesn't eat at into the wood and relies on a couple of washers inside to create friction, very similar to the Chinese design. These hold very well for me and can be changed easy enough.
 
Yes, I am an international distributor of PEGHEDS. They are the best of both. They are traditional in appearance, but are the lighest mechanical (4:1) tuner in the world. www.ukeeku.com has an unbiased review. He bought his PEGHEDS just like everyone else. I didn't even know he was a reviewer. Unlike the chinese knock-offs from Music 1-2-3, which only have a 45 DAY warranty,
PEGHEDS have a lifetime warranty. They come in two different lengths of the shaft, and two different finishes. The black ones and the new this year, chrome with ivoroid buttons. They are made in the USA. My computer crash messed up my PEGHEDS.net site, but Chuck still has PEGHEDS .com if you are interested in learning more. Buying from him will cost more, because he is so busy making them, he charges full price. I charge half way between what I pay and what he charges. If you want to buy 144 pieces (36 sets) get 'em from him at the same price I do.
 
John A said:
many years ago I had an old violin with wooden tuning pegs and they were terrible, relying purely on being pushed in like a bung and very difficult to fine tune.
Click to expand...


All violins are this way, even the fancy new electric ones. It's the nature of the instrument, and part of learning to play is attaining the finesse needed to deal with the tuning pegs. Most players use the fine tuners at the bridge for day to day tweaking.

On nylon stringed instruments (like most ukes), geared tuners are a nicety, but not a necessity. Good friction tuners are adequate because the strings don't take too well to being stretched/slackened very often. They are also a bit safer because you can feel the string tension as you tune and avoid suddenly snapping a string. The geared tuners were designed for steel-stringed instruments that are frequently set to a variety of altered tunings.

I'm not advocating one over the other for a uke - everyone has their preference - just pointing out some differences.
 
I gotta say, that I have come around completely on Pegheds. I love them in Collings ukes, and I also just got a couple sets from Bill, and they installed nicely in a couple older ukes I repaired. The short set only weighed 21g for all four! That was in comparison to 42g for the friction tners on my 1950 Martin, and over 60g for the Gotoh UPT's (which I also happen to really like). For a small, light instrument, I'm not sure Pegheds can be beat.

I can also vouch for Bill (crafted cow) as reliable, and trustworthy seller. I have now bought tuners from him twice, and both times were good experiences.

-Steve
 
The two sets of tuners Inksplosive AL shows are Grover Champion types. Grover also has a line of vintage tuners - new tuners made to the vintage spec and design. https://www.grotro.com/Grover/UKULELE. What TheCraftedCow says about pegheds and some Chinese products is pretty true. He makes it sound like a commercial - which I don't care for but I do agree with him.

This issue of Chinese brass is a problem. There are some good Chinese mfrd "brass" - generic term. I believe some Gold Tone products use them. However some chinese brass is of poor quality and some is outright junk. The tuners John A showed looked like chinese mfr - how good or bad they may be I wouldn't speculate. Rather than the junky "finish" washers inkspot shows flat washers from your spare parts box or hardware store can be used. They would be OK for the Harmony too. Its the old time way of doing things. If you do this on a new or vintage instrument remove the rust and give the washers a coat of nail polish. Clear matte for choice. Purple Passion could be used I suppose.
 
Wow… thanks everybody for all the information concerning pegs, etc. There's obviously a lot more to this than first meets the eye! The photo that I posted shows the tuning pegs on a Washburn WU5320 all Koa Concert, it states in the spec that they're Grover… so I'm presuming that they would be fairly good quality? Thanks again for all your help… cheers, John
 
This is very enlightening. I have two ukes with closed gear tuners, and another with pegs. The pegs have been a real learning curve. We have a Harmony bari too and it has terrible friction tuners. Even after being honed out, they still suck. I want some pegheads for it....I think it'll be a fun uke then.
 
The pressing question is are you buying the ukulele?

I looked up the model and it states it comes with geared tuners but shows a smaller picture identical to the picture already shown. I thought Grover made geared tuners that kinda look like friction tuners but the base under the tuner is large and chrome.

Decent friction tuners should preform better than wood violin pegs. The Chinese friction tuners I spoke of have no brass in them and zero gears being a friction tuner. I am interested in a set or five of those pegheads though in time but those projects are a story for a different thread. The rest of this talk consider it an upgrade for any ukulele.

Sadly BTW the stock Grover tuners on my 1st gen pineapple flea had cheap metal finish washers digging into the wood. The staytight tuners were a direct fit replacement just a little tricky to install due to the flea headstock design.

~AL~
 
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I looked up the model and it states it comes with geared tuners but shows a smaller picture identical to the picture already shown

Yes Al, I was wondering if this was a mistake in the spec… it states geared tuners but the photo seems to show standard peg tuners… I guess a quick email to Washburn might solve the riddle! Thanks for your help. I'm pleased that this thread was useful to you Nickie… it seems that this subject might be worth some deeper research.

Cheers, John
 
Pegs all the way for me, all of my ukes have them (even my 8 string taropatch!) Of course there are good pegs and bad pegs (and good geared and bad geared too), but a well setup uke with quality friction pegs on it is a joy. Just remember to keep the screw nipped up and don't let them get loose, and tune up to the note, not down (good practice for any type to be honest).

I think the addition of geared pegs (and I'm not talking pegheads here, which are a very elegant solution, but sticky out 'ears') to ukes, especially soprano/ concert ukes is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. The string tension does not require them, and I suspect they are fitted to appease guitarists coming over to the uke.
I really dislike the look of 'ears', particularly on an otherwise traditional looking instrument.
 
I think that I agree with you Phil about those 'ears'! I am a guitarist who has found his way to the ukulele, and I've always placed a lot of importance on the quality of the tuners on my guitars. I carried this view over with me to the ukulele, but I have changed my mind now… I too love the look of the traditional headstock with pegs. The trouble is, or perhaps was, I didn't know enough about pegs, other than my experience with the squeaky, dry, sticky pegs in my old violin! The different members who have posted on this thread have shared a lot of knowledgeable information concerning tuning pegs and, like Nickie above, I have found it very enlightening and it's completely changed my rather biased opinion. As you say, there are good pegs and there are bad pegs, so bearing this in mind I think I will purchase the ukulele in question… thanks very much for your own thoughts and experience, it's good to hear from a total peg fan!

Cheers, John
 
I prefer friction pegs but I'm not going to change the geared tuners on the ukes that came with them.

I have no problem with the default tuners on my Flea. They work well.
 
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