OldePhart
Well-known member
I decided to put UPT tuners on the Pineapple Sunday I bought from Glenn. The KoAloha tuners that come on it are wonderful geared tuners but as much as I love this uke it does tend to be a bit headstock-heavy and I decided some UPT tuners were in order to lighten it up some.
The tuners came in today and I installed them. No reaming of the headstock was necessary so the whole job took maybe 15 minutes. Now, if you're the anal sort the original tuners have two large locating pins and there are holes in the back of the headstock for those pins (you can see this in one of the pictures). This doesn't bother me, and I decided not to fill them because if I ever decide to sell the uke (unlikely) it would be nice to be able to restore the original tuners (in fact I'll be keeping them in the accessory compartment in the case so they don't get lost).
The bottom line is the UPTs work great and they save almost half the weight (the set of four stock geared tuners are 4.5 ounces on my postal scale, the UPTs come in at 2.3). A couple of ounces may not seem significant but when you have a tenor-length neck on basically a soprano scale body it does make a definite improvement in balance. In practice it means the difference between my being willing to leave the NS micro headstock tuner (1 oz) in place when playing and being forced to remove it and still not being completely satisfied with the balance.
In the first picture you see the front of the headstock with the new tuners in place. Note that the flash makes the ring where the larger original washer pressed into the finish more noticeable than it is in person. The original tuner washers will work fine with the UPT tuners, BTW (I tested it) but they are a flatter black and I decided I preferred the look of the smaller washers. The rings are not really visible in person unless you are looking for them and even then they are so even that they don't look bad at all.
In the second picture you see the front of the headstock with the new tuners before I clipped the strings. The extra string you see was wound on the original tuner and that brings up a point worth mentioning. The UPT tuners are available with two different shaft lengths, normal and long. I didn't think to ask HMS for the longer shafts so these are the standard. They fit the headstock but barely and they leave only enough room for about 4 turns of string on the capstan. I'm kind of glad about this happy accident because the tuners are lower on the headstock and very proportional to my eye. However, if you use stretchy strings, or are sloppy when replacing strings, the longer shafts would definitely be to your advantage.
Pictures 2 and 3 show the headstock from front and back with two UPT tuners and two stock tuners for comparison. The rear view also shows quite clearly the holes for the locating pins in the original tuners.
Finally, while this is a very easy (and easily reversible) modification if you are considering ordering a new Pineapple Sunday (or other high-end uke) and think that you will want the UPT tuners I'd recommend that you order it that way from HMS. Presumably they will either get one from KoAloha without the big holes in the back for the tuner locating pins or they will fill and refinish the back of the headstock. This might cost a little more money but then you've got professionally installed UPTs and the resale value should reflect that.
John
The tuners came in today and I installed them. No reaming of the headstock was necessary so the whole job took maybe 15 minutes. Now, if you're the anal sort the original tuners have two large locating pins and there are holes in the back of the headstock for those pins (you can see this in one of the pictures). This doesn't bother me, and I decided not to fill them because if I ever decide to sell the uke (unlikely) it would be nice to be able to restore the original tuners (in fact I'll be keeping them in the accessory compartment in the case so they don't get lost).
The bottom line is the UPTs work great and they save almost half the weight (the set of four stock geared tuners are 4.5 ounces on my postal scale, the UPTs come in at 2.3). A couple of ounces may not seem significant but when you have a tenor-length neck on basically a soprano scale body it does make a definite improvement in balance. In practice it means the difference between my being willing to leave the NS micro headstock tuner (1 oz) in place when playing and being forced to remove it and still not being completely satisfied with the balance.
In the first picture you see the front of the headstock with the new tuners in place. Note that the flash makes the ring where the larger original washer pressed into the finish more noticeable than it is in person. The original tuner washers will work fine with the UPT tuners, BTW (I tested it) but they are a flatter black and I decided I preferred the look of the smaller washers. The rings are not really visible in person unless you are looking for them and even then they are so even that they don't look bad at all.
In the second picture you see the front of the headstock with the new tuners before I clipped the strings. The extra string you see was wound on the original tuner and that brings up a point worth mentioning. The UPT tuners are available with two different shaft lengths, normal and long. I didn't think to ask HMS for the longer shafts so these are the standard. They fit the headstock but barely and they leave only enough room for about 4 turns of string on the capstan. I'm kind of glad about this happy accident because the tuners are lower on the headstock and very proportional to my eye. However, if you use stretchy strings, or are sloppy when replacing strings, the longer shafts would definitely be to your advantage.
Pictures 2 and 3 show the headstock from front and back with two UPT tuners and two stock tuners for comparison. The rear view also shows quite clearly the holes for the locating pins in the original tuners.
Finally, while this is a very easy (and easily reversible) modification if you are considering ordering a new Pineapple Sunday (or other high-end uke) and think that you will want the UPT tuners I'd recommend that you order it that way from HMS. Presumably they will either get one from KoAloha without the big holes in the back for the tuner locating pins or they will fill and refinish the back of the headstock. This might cost a little more money but then you've got professionally installed UPTs and the resale value should reflect that.
John
but decided it would be better to lighten it a bit. 
