Graph Tech kindly sent me a set of their new Ratio Tune-a-lele black plastic geared planetary tuners for evaluation. I find them to be be very good, light and precise.
None of my eight ukes have peg or planetary tuners, but I recently bought a used plastic fret Fluke from the UU Marketplace with the original Gotoh tuners. Two of them would not stay tight so I had to adjust the knob screws, but would only stay if they were really screwed tight, making them difficult to turn.
I looked around for better ones when I saw posts here in early January about the new Ratio tuners that were going to be shown at the NAMM show. I held off and checked them out when I went and was very impressed and commented about them on those posts, which prompted Graph Tech to send me a set.
I received them a couple of weeks ago and installed them on my Fluke. They're a bit fatter than the Gotohs so the holes need to reamed out a little (I went too far with one and had to tape around the ferule to get it to stay). They also have two small screws to hold them in place. The frame is also slightly wider than the sides of the Fluke head, so they hang over slightly, which doesn't bother me at all.
They work so much better than the Gotohs, very precise with no play in them at all. There's never need to be adjusted and at $30 for a set, are a great buy. I highly recommend them.
Here are some photos I took at NAMM of their sample set, and of my Fluke after I installed them.
This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 11 solid body bass ukes, 9 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 34)
• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers
None of my eight ukes have peg or planetary tuners, but I recently bought a used plastic fret Fluke from the UU Marketplace with the original Gotoh tuners. Two of them would not stay tight so I had to adjust the knob screws, but would only stay if they were really screwed tight, making them difficult to turn.
I looked around for better ones when I saw posts here in early January about the new Ratio tuners that were going to be shown at the NAMM show. I held off and checked them out when I went and was very impressed and commented about them on those posts, which prompted Graph Tech to send me a set.
I received them a couple of weeks ago and installed them on my Fluke. They're a bit fatter than the Gotohs so the holes need to reamed out a little (I went too far with one and had to tape around the ferule to get it to stay). They also have two small screws to hold them in place. The frame is also slightly wider than the sides of the Fluke head, so they hang over slightly, which doesn't bother me at all.
They work so much better than the Gotohs, very precise with no play in them at all. There's never need to be adjusted and at $30 for a set, are a great buy. I highly recommend them.
Here are some photos I took at NAMM of their sample set, and of my Fluke after I installed them.
This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 11 solid body bass ukes, 9 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 34)
• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers