Installation of UPTs and a MiSi pickup

In spite of putting in about 9 hours on the paying job today I managed to get some stuff done on my ukes, too.

First, I put the UPT tuners that just came in from HMS on my KoAloha longneck. I actually did that this morning before I logged in for my employer, so the tuning should be fairly stable now.

I love the tuners so far. I didn't feel like dragging out my precision reloading scale and finding batteries for it but the postal scale indicated that two of the original KoAloha tuners weighed right at one ounce together...and two of the UPT tuners weighed right at one ounce together! Since my main beef against geared tuners on sopranos (other than the ungainly "ears") is weight (or rather, how that weight affects balance), I'm pretty pleased with these.

I also like low (or high, depending on your viewpoint) ratio - 4:1. Three times better than 12:1 and four times better than 16:1 in my opinion. At ukulele tensions you just really don't need any more than 4:1 and that means you don't have to turn the tuner twenty-eleven times to bring new strings up to pitch.

So, the UPTs are a win-win. One word of warning, though. If you are a bling person you will probably want to order the gold or "black chrome" because the tuners described as "chrome" really aren't. Some of the interior parts appear to be chrome, but most of what is visible, isn't plated. You can see from the attached pictures that it looks more like ordinary unplated hardware. (I didn't take a picture of the front, but the washer and nut are unplated, too.)

This isn't a problem for me, as long as the parts don't corrode over time, but if you're one of those folks who has to have shiny then you will want to order the gold or black.

On the KoAloha I had to ream the holes out larger. Make sure you ream from the back (because the front is fine, it is an interior barrel bolt that will fit fine in the existing hole). Also notice the little sharp "pin" sticking out of the tuner. This digs into the wood to keep the body of the tuner from turning. I point it out mostly because if you just keep reaming until the back part of the tuner fits flush you will have way over-enlarged the hole! Do make sure that you get it large enough that the tuner drops down easily until the pin contacts wood, though. Better to err on the side of slightly oversize because if you tighten a tuner down in an undersize, tapered (from the reamer) hole you have a very good chance of cracking the headstock!




This installation was very easy and took only about 1/2 hour even for old pokey me.

John

The second achievement was installing the MiSi pickup that I won at a raffle in my Pono baritone. The Pono was the one uke (out of 6 or so) that I wasn't really happy with the JJB soundboard pickup that I installed in it. I suspect that one of the two transducers was wonky because the installation was very trebly and brittle with almost no bass. It was either a defective sensor or I managed to put one of the two in exactly the wrong place.

Anyway, I ripped that out and today I put the MiSi in. I figure a linear-tuned baritone is probably the best use for a MiSi anyway since it takes a lot of outboard EQ to EQ out the "thuddies" from a MiSi in a higher voiced instrument. I'm waiting for the new strings to settle in then I'll record a sample. So far all I did was a quick test through a guitar amp to make sure there weren't any obvious problems after I'd installed just one string.

Not much in the way of pictures for this, except that I found a use for the piece of bone saddle blank that I had left over from last weekend's project - I cut off one end at an angle to make a "jig" for drilling the angle holes when installing a wire-style UST. I don't know that I'll be installing any more of these, but if I do I've got the drilling jig all ready (assuming I don't lose it or throw it away).



John

Those UPT tuners look neat. I am tempted to get some for my Bruko rosewood concert. I would almost certainly find a luthier to install them, though. For two reasons; first, I don't have suitable reamer and finding a decent tool shop is as difficult here in the UK as you seem to find it in the US. Plenty of big DIY chain stores but they have, unfortunately driven most of the specialist tool suppliers out of business. Second reason is that I would prefer a professional do the job, providing I can find a decent one rather than risk damaging my favourite uke and I don't want to buy two sets so I can practice on a cheap uke first - doing that probably makes a luthier a cheaper option anyway.

I shall have to think about it.

I'd like to try those tuners, but I think the Koaloha look much better.

strumsilly said:

I'd like to try those tuners, but I think the Koaloha look much better.

Click to expand...

Yeah...the KoAloha are definitely prettier, especially than the "chrome" UPTs. I may eventually move these to another uke and get some gold plated ones for the KoAloha. I'm not really a bling guy but these are pretty plain to put on a $700 uke. LOL

These do have another advantage over the KoAloha tuners, though, at least on a soprano headstock: the buttons are much smaller. The Planet Waves under headstock tuner would not fit between the KoAloha buttons, it will with these...

John