Am I the only one that likes friction tuners best?

ashleychantel

ashleychantel

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I've noticed that in a lot of discussions on the forum people seem to strongly favor geared tuners. I don't know why but I just like friction tuners better. I like the look better and they seem equally as easy to use.. In fact, I just got a new Kanile'a concert and the only thing I would change about it if I could is that it would have friction tuners instead of the geared ones that came on it. Am I missing something or am I just crazy? :p
 
Friction tuners don't bother me. I toyed with the idea of putting KoAloha's awesome-looking friction tuners on my tenor to make it a little less neck-heavy, and to drive geared-tuner enthusiasts completely insane.
 
Nope. You are just crazy. LOL. I am just the opposite. When shopping for ukes, I almost always dismiss ukes that don't have geared tuners. I just think it is so easy to get the uke perfectly in tune with them. Do you use a digital tuner? If not, I could see how you wouldn't need to be as precise, but for me, If I have my tuner clipped on, I won't start playing until all four strings are dead on tune. Trying to tune my fluke always seems to take twice as long as my lanikai or pono.

Mike
 
I love friction tuners, and once I got used to them, I have NO problems getting my uke precisely in tune using a digital tuner. I prefer the look of friction tuners (especially on soprano ukes). I was a little intimidated by them at first, but now I have a hard time imagining buying a uke that doesn't have them. I think they just look funny (usually) with geared tuners.
 
LOL. I use a digital tuner but I don't really have any problems there.. and they stay in tune forever too
 
ukudaily said:
nope. You are just crazy. Lol. I am just the opposite. When shopping for ukes, i almost always dismiss ukes that don't have geared tuners.
Click to expand...

agreed 100%!
 
I like friction tuners better then geared. In fact, I really like the wood peg friction tuners I have on my old Kumalae! You are not alone Ashley!
 
at first I was afraid to get friction tuners, but now I like them just as well because they stay in tuner better. The ones on my new Ko'olau are pretty smooth. They are more expensive than geared tuners. However the ones on my Koaloha give me that 'fingernails on the chalkboard' feeling. Good thing they stay in tune so well so I don't have to change them much.
 
I know I'm crazy..... but not becasue I also like friction tuners. Aound here we call geared tuners "drunky tuners" . If you've had one too many "Drunky Tuners" are the only way to go. (Don't ask me how that got started). Else friction tuners work great and don't weigh so much, makes a uke feel like a Mace or some other primitive weapon.
 
Well, maybe I need to give them another chance. I am passing over a lot of potentially sweet instruments just because of the tuners. I didn't really take into consideration the weight, which I probably should as I am not a thumb wrapper but instead always keep my thumb on the back of the neck. On that point, I sure don't understand how anyone plays with their thumb peeking around the top side of the neck. When I do so, I can hardly make any shapes. I guess I just have a weird shaped hand.

Mike
<><
 
IMHO friction tuners got a bad name because for a long time they were the only option on cheaply made ukes, so there were a lot of kinda crappy ukes with crappy friction tuners out there. A good set of friction tuners can hold as well as geared. My Mainland soprano has friction by choice and they've been trouble free. I think friction tuners look more uke-ish, too, as opposed to mini-guitarish.
Three of my ukes have geared tuners. Of the rest, only the reso uke's friction tuners are a little cranky. The Polk-a-lay-lee has violin style pegs, as in a peg in a hole. Surprisingly, it holds like a bulldog.
 
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Yes I am always amazed how well a modern friction tuner works. I mostly oder ukes with friction tuners and they are harder to use, but the new ones that aren't bottom of the line are silky smooth.
 
I play Soprano, so friction tuners make the uke a lot lighter and easier to hold.
 
The only friction tuners I've tried are the ones that come with the StewMac soprano kits, and I found them difficult to tune so swapped them out as this was for a young child.
Does anyone know if these are low quality - perhaps I should try better ones?

-Vinnie in Juneau
 
I also like friction tuners better. I've got them on my Mainland concert.

Unfortunately these days, it seems that many of the popular cheapies (Kala, Makala) have geared tuners. Both of my sopranos have geared tuners and I really wish they were friction. I've gotten so used to making small adjustments, and I'm pretty certain that the weight difference would be noticeable.

Jason
 
I like the friction tuners on my Flea and Ohana sk-35G just fine. And, yes I use an electronic tuner and don't play if its not in tune. What I really don't like is changing strings with geared tuners and having to turn the knob forever to get it where its almost in tune. With friction tuners it doesn't take very much time at all. I also agree that if look at a cheaply made uke with crappy friction tuners you won't like them.
 
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I have a love/hate relationship with my frictions. Since I'm used to using geared tuners (guitar, mandolin and my two other ukes have geared tuners), trying to get the tuning on my sopranino juuuuust so is a pain (its small size certainly doesn't help). It's harder for me to judge just how far I have to turn the knobs, especially since they only need minute turns for the strings to go out of tune.

At the same time, the geared tuners on my other ukes sort of put them off balance and they don't really seem fitting aesthetically (they're like giant metal ears) on smaller sizes. For my tenor, the geared tuners are fine, but for my soprano, they're just kind of odd.
 
i loveee friction tuners too! geared tuners just dont do it for me at all
 
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