Open gear tuner vs sealed gear

mike_terror · Mar 13, 2009

what is the difference between the two?
open gear vs sealed gear

Kaneohe til the end · Mar 13, 2009

-open geared tuners

-closed geared tuners

khrome · Mar 13, 2009

It's the same mechanism - the closed one just has a cover. At first I thought closed tuners would be better at keeping dust and gunk out of your gears until I read this on the Ko'olau website:

A common misconception is that closed (covered) gear tuners, whether Grover, Schaller, or Gotoh are better quality than open, or exposed gear tuners. Some closed gear tuners are, in fact, high quality, precision machines; however, in many cases, under pretty “covers” is revealed very cheaply made gears. Often these tuners turn smoothly for part of the button shaft rotation, but then hit a tight spot, where the gear cut does not accurately match the fluted cut on the post.

Here is the link to the whole page
http://www.koolauukulele.com/tuners.htm

Kaneohe til the end · Mar 13, 2009

of course, you could always buy a KoAloha and get our awesome tuners, no matter which size you buy.

sukie · Mar 13, 2009

Kaneohe til the end said:
of course, you could always buy a KoAloha and get our awesome tuners, no matter which size you buy.

Yeah, but they are friction!

1014 · Mar 13, 2009

nothing wrong with friction!

Aldrine Guerrero · Mar 13, 2009

sukie said:
Yeah, but they are friction!

the have geared ones too. I think their 'friction' tuners have gears as well. They're pretty awesome, you should check them out.

GX9901 · Mar 13, 2009

Sealed gear tuners are usually heavier than the open geared tuners. I believe the advantage of sealed ones is that it prevents dirt and other things from getting into the gears.

I'm not sure where the notion of sealed gear tuners are higher quality came from. The best geared tuners I know of, Waverly and Gilbert (used on Jake Shimabukuro's uke) are only made in open gear configuration.

Kaneohe til the end · Mar 14, 2009

Aldrine Guerrero said:
the have geared ones too. I think their 'friction' tuners have gears as well. They're pretty awesome, you should check them out.

i agree fully.

Open gear tuner vs sealed gear

mike_terror

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Kaneohe til the end

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khrome

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Kaneohe til the end

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sukie

Aloha

1014

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Aldrine Guerrero

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GX9901

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Kaneohe til the end

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