Don't be afraid of friction tuners!

bazmaz

bazmaz

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Changed tuners on my new Timple today, and it got me thing about how and why many are so down on friction tuners.

To me though, I love them, but only when they are good quality. In my experience a good friction tuner turns smoothly and has no struggles with tuning. Beginners may like this link.

http://www.gotaukulele.com/2012/03/dont-be-afraid-of-friction-tuners.html

I know I may divide opinions, but Koaloha players with friction tuners will attest to how good they can be.
 
Good read.

I'm newish still, I have two ukes with geared, but recently brought a 3rd, and although slightly put off by friction tuners I do much prefer the look of them.

I hope mine aren't the cheap nasty ones, paid enough for my uke to expect decent ones :S
 
I'm a friction tuner fan,
not really difficult to use,
providing of course they're of instrument grade.

Cheers.
 
Personally, I also like friction tuners, on soprano instruments in particular. They balance the instrument better. They work fine, but as mentioned all ready, they should be of good quality.
 
I've shared the link on some other sites too. You'd be amazed, I've had people telling me I'm 110% wrong and talking out my hat...

I don't get that.

The point of the article is this... Good frictions are smooth, reliable, hold tuning and are really no bother to use. I knew one player who avoided buying what I thought was a better uke for a lesser one because the lesser on had gears. What a shame.

Even if the frictions on the other one were rubbish. Changing them would only cost circa $20 and then they are great!
 
Uke_rob - you will know if they are bad ones. They will either stick or slip. In the former the turning will be jagged as they bite / release / bite - good frictions are smooooooooth

If they slip, you can tighten them but on bad frictions that either leads to

A) biting as above, or

B) it not improving

Good frictions are balanced and smooth. Sure, they take far less turning than gears to move, meaning finger pressure needs to be slight, but they work great.
 
Anybody got a mainland soprano with the friction pegs? I'm about to (I think) buy the red cedar/rosewood and I really prefer the look and balance of them on a soprano. Are the mainland ones ok?
 
I've heard the mainlands are half decent, yes
 
UK Paulie said:
Anybody got a mainland soprano with the friction pegs? I'm about to (I think) buy the red cedar/rosewood and I really prefer the look and balance of them on a soprano. Are the mainland ones ok?
Click to expand...

I just got a Mainland Mango Concert with friction. They are pretty sweet. The caveat, this is my first go-round with friction tuners. I talked to Mike at Mainland and he said it was easier to change your uke from friction to gear than gear to friction, so I figured I'd try friction.

I like it for the clean look. I have no complaints about how they function!

Jim
 
...and changing strings is soooo much faster with friction tuners too!

Another hint that helped me... Until you get used to them, you might find it easier to tune a bit sharp at first, and then ease back down to the correct pitch. Once you get used to them friction tuners are not much more difficult to tune then geared tuners.
 
I like my friction tuners on my KoAloha more than I thought I would. I actually get annoyed now when I am tuning my Islander because you have to do so much more work when you are dealing with geared tuners. There are some days when I really just don't want to deal with the frictions, but mostly I would say I prefer them. That could be because of the axe that they are on though. ;)
 
UkueBass23 said:
I like my friction tuners on my KoAloha more than I thought I would. IY actually get annoyed now when I am tuning my Islander because you have to do so much more work when you are dealing with geared tuners. There are some days when I really just don't want to deal with the frictions, but mostly I would say I prefer them. That could be because of the axe that they are on though. ;)
Click to expand...

Shouldn't a ukulele be referred to as a "hatchet", a small axe?
 
allanr said:
Shouldn't a ukulele be referred to as a "hatchet", a small axe?
Click to expand...

As Loudon Wainwright III says in his Ukulele Song, "This Axe is a hatchet, there's magic you can catch it, on your uke you can't lose you just win"
 
Frictions took me a while to get used to. Coming from the guitar world I had an immediate dislike of them. Honestly I think they can be a mixed bag. On a tenor they are no problem since the string length gives you tons of play. Ironically, that is the scale least likely to have frictions. My tenor fluke is a breeze to tune even with friction tuners.
On a soprano however, you need a gentle touch, and as a guitar player, my immediate reaction was to spin those suckers like crazy. I still prefer tuning up with geared tuners, but would never want them on a soprano. There is a simple elegance on a soprano with friction tuners that I feel is lost with geared tuners.

Crappy friction tuners though.. Are a nightmare. I hate the ones on my Kamaka concert. I feel like they wiggle too much before they actually turn. I've fiddled with them tightening and loosening and they always have the wiggle. That is not the case on my Flea soprano where the tuners work flawlessly. If the situation were reversed I'd change the tuners, but alterations on a Kamaka could ruin the value.
 
On my first uke I had friction tuners which were not that great. They were sticky. I threw a set of aquila strings on it and as long as the tuners were tight those strings never seemed to go out of tune.
 
I used geared tuners (only) for 2-3 years and then got a uke with friction tuners. I hated them! About half my uke friends told me to ditch them but I forced myself to use them, it took a month before I felt they were useable and another month before they were nearly as easy to use as geared. Now, three years later, I like the friction tuners better. So my advice is don't give up too quickly on friction.
 
Just bought a new uke. An Ohana SK-20s , a beautiful laminate uke ( looks like an sk38) and the first thing I did was take off the geared tuners and replace them with friction tuners.
The geared tuners made it look like a toy guitar. I really hate to see geared tuners on a soprano. Good friction tuners work fine.
 
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