Gotoh Tuners

jimmybookout

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Here are the new tuners I put on my Kanilea K3 last night. These are Gotoh UK700 in gold finish with M5 (ivoroid) buttons. My Kanilea came with Grover statites that I never liked. The Grovers were not precise (actually sloppy is more acurate) and the overall quality was lacking. As an example, the plating on the tuner buttons was almost completely gone and these are only 6 years old, the Waverly's on my Collings (guitar, that is) are 17 years old and still look new.The new Gotohs look very similar to Waverly's, the base plate, in particular, is a dead copy of a Waverly plate. They are open back (like Waverly's) and have a finer ratio (15:1) than any ukulele tuner I have seen (Grovers are 14:1). They also have adjustable string pole height for various thickness headstocks. In action, the Gotohs feel great, very precise and firm. These are very high quality and strongly recommended. Be aware that they are not cheap (about $60 per set) but the control in tuning is worth every penny (it also helps that they look good!).

Jimmy
KanileaK3withGotohUK70032110005.jpg

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HiJimmy

I agree. I had a guitar custom-made by Breedlove and I asked for a set of Gotoh 510 and they are wonderful. I used Weaverly twice with good results and once with bad. I felt Weaverly quality was slipping (possibly just a bad batch) so I tried Gotoh. That will be my choice from now on.

Enjoy!
Cheers
Chief http://www.chiefnoda.com/
 
Wow looks really nice! I have some 510s on my Martin guitar and love them! Any shots of the back of your headstock?
 
I've got Gotoh on my Uke, but the friction type. Eventually I want to change to the geared though. I'm not into the gold stuff, so I will go with the nickle finish, with black buttons. I think those are a little cheaper than the gold aren't they? But the real question I have is, how do your Gotoh tuners change the weight and ballance of your Uke? I put cheaper Ping geared tuners on my cheapie Kola Uke, and it made it way head heavy. I'm not sure I want my better Ohama heavy like that, so I am reluctant to do it with my good one. So, does it make a big difference in weight and balance? Or is it something that you can easily enough just get used to?
 
I've got Gotoh on my Uke, but the friction type. Eventually I want to change to the geared though. I'm not into the gold stuff, so I will go with the nickle finish, with black buttons. I think those are a little cheaper than the gold aren't they? But the real question I have is, how do your Gotoh tuners change the weight and ballance of your Uke? I put cheaper Ping geared tuners on my cheapie Kola Uke, and it made it way head heavy. I'm not sure I want my better Ohama heavy like that, so I am reluctant to do it with my good one. So, does it make a big difference in weight and balance? Or is it something that you can easily enough just get used to?

My Kanilea has always had geared tuners on it so I can't comment on the head balance with pegs. I can't believe that geared tuners made such a noticable weight difference. What size ukulele did you put them on, were the Pings sealed tuners (which are heavier than open back tuners, and finally, were the Pings ukulele tuners or guitar tuners? (Obviously, guitar tuners will be heavier because of size (like longer string post for instance). While I'm sure pegs are lighter than geared machines, good open back tuners can't weigh that much more than high quality ukulele pegs (like Gotohs).

Jimmy
 
They are Ping open back Uke tuners. I put them on a soprano. They aren't as bad as all that, but the weight difference is very noticeable. I dont think it wouldn't be too much to get used to, but it did throw the ballance off.
 
Weight is an issue I think. Although the precision of geared tuners does feel great, and I used to look for them on every uke, now I have got used to friction tuners on KoAloha, I'm happier with the overall balance.

For particularly crazy balance, check out a Kala Thinline Soprano, which for some reason ships with geared tuners - crazy. Still a fun little uke though!
 
They are Ping open back Uke tuners. I put them on a soprano. They aren't as bad as all that, but the weight difference is very noticeable. I dont think it wouldn't be too much to get used to, but it did throw the ballance off.

I think this weight/balance issue is probably more noticable on a soprano. My Kanilea is a Super Concert (Concert body with Tenor neck)

Jimmy
 
I love the figure on your uke!

Thanks, I always thought that the koa was about perfect on my Super Concert until Joe built this Kanilea for me a couple of years later (this is baritone body with a 23.5 inch guitar neck. Tuned like a guitar with classical guitar strings)

Jimmy
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Uh... Dont get me wrong. That is a beautiful instrument, and obviously very unique. But, wouldn't you more consider that a guitar rather than a Ukulele? The only thing I see Ukulele about it, is the Baritone body, which is pretty darn close to a guitar body anyway...

Im not saying this to be a bonehead. But, other than having a nice looking, unique guitar, what is the point? Is there a particular sound quality that comes from that set up?

(I am genuinely interested, not trying to sound like an smart ass)
 
Uh... Dont get me wrong. That is a beautiful instrument, and obviously very unique. But, wouldn't you more consider that a guitar rather than a Ukulele? The only thing I see Ukulele about it, is the Baritone body, which is pretty darn close to a guitar body anyway...

Im not saying this to be a bonehead. But, other than having a nice looking, unique guitar, what is the point? Is there a particular sound quality that comes from that set up?

(I am genuinely interested, not trying to sound like an smart ass)

It was not my intention to remotely present this as an ukulele. It is not an ukulele, it is a guitar. A small, very tonally balanced guitar that records great, is very portable, and is unique (to my knowledge, this is the only Kanilea "G6" in existence). This guitar is braced using principles from Charles Fox' Ergo guitars, it is not braced like a baritone ukulele. The body size and shape are baritone uke, the construction is guitar.

Jimmy
 
Ahh.. Ok then.. My bad.. I was thinking it was being considered a Uke, lol.. Well, on that account, it is a very unique guitar, and would be nice to play.. Bet it gets some attention doesn't it..
 
Ahh.. Ok then.. My bad.. I was thinking it was being considered a Uke, lol.. Well, on that account, it is a very unique guitar, and would be nice to play.. Bet it gets some attention doesn't it..

It does get attention because of the outrageous curl of the koa, which you can't ignore. Then, as you look at it more, all the nice little details Joe incorporated make themselves known (curly maple binding everywhere including the bridge,etc.) And then, you hear it. It is obviously not very loud acoustically, but there's a wonderful "old wood" tone to it, very mellow and balanced string to string. The one downside to it is that it is neck heavy because of the scale length so I use a strap when playing it, even sitting down. It is a great somewhat "parlor" type guitar, made for fingerstyle playing with a flat fingerboard, 1.875 inch wide nut and E to E spacing at the saddle of 2.30 inches.

Jimmy
 
I looked at the specs for sta tite vs uk700.
Can you help me with
1. The gap for the holes seems off by a fraction of a millimeter. Did the uk700 drop in replace? Any gotchas?
2. As per spec uk700 are lighter. Is that your experience?
 
I've got Gotoh on my Uke, but the friction type. Eventually I want to change to the geared though. I'm not into the gold stuff, so I will go with the nickle finish, with black buttons.

Yes, the geared Gotohs are very nice. I try to match the tuner color to the color of the uke, but white buttons are not my favorite. Like you, I prefer black - and sometimes amber. I recently ordered some from HMM, and my main requirement was for silver, preferably not white buttons. I know they don't stock every possible combination, so I was willing to compromise. The sent me the silver, but with white buttons ($59). To get exactly what you want, pay $89 to the company in Japan and wait two months.
 
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