Tuners question

I bought a KoAloha soprano the other day and have been trouble with finding the right strings. I got some suggestions from you all (thank you) and have some sets on the way to try. I have noticed that the tuners were EXTREMELY tight! I loosened them and would adjust them but then they did not seem to hold. I tried a vriety of tensions but they just seem faulty to me. I really like this uke and think I should upgrade tuners from the stock K tuners. What is an easy swap with these and work good? Any ideas? Thanks.

Difficult to explain how tightly to adjust that screw. Some folks like the friction tuners, many don't, which is why a number of folks here would just go ahead and put these on if you don't like the standard stock tuning machines on your uke:

http://www.g-gotoh.com/international/?p=3230

I've found that the tight tuners on my KoAloha mean it hardly ever gets out of tune, so I don't really ever deal with the problems others have with friction tuners because I hardly need to touch them.

thanks Phil. WHere do you get them? That site looked just like it was giving info, I did not see a place to purchase.

You can get the Gotohs from HMS too. Be aware these are not a drop in, you have to drill or ream the headstock holes larger to accept the Gotohs.

that part scares me! I am going to replace strings and see if that solves the issue. It seems like the strings I have right now drop after every song but I cannot see tuner movement so i am assuming (I know) it's the strings

bigphil said:

You can get the Gotohs from HMS too. Be aware these are not a drop in, you have to drill or ream the headstock holes larger to accept the Gotohs.

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There are no lighter in weight geared tuners than PEGHEDS. No one needs a 16:1 ratio on a ukulele. Four PEGHEDS weigh less than one Gotoh SGH 318. Reaming a hole is not difficult, but it is scary if your first try is on your instrument. It is highly recommended to get a piece of wood the same thickness as the headstock, and something close to as hard as what you will be using for the final fitting. They look like in line wooden pegs, but they are aircraft grade aluminum and tool grade steel. Many of the custom builders use them. www.pegheds.net

I just looked at the Gotoh url from above. In addition to being heavier, they are more expensive and need a BIG bore hole. A 10mm hole is quite large. The Oscar Schmidt OS-OU250 Bell has 10mm holes in it. That's a little bigger than a 3/8 inch hole. That seems like taking away a sizeable amount of wood from a soprano headstock. What was light weight wood will now be replaced with heavier metal.

I'll bet there is nothing wrong with your tuners . They just need to be tightened correctly. New strings will stretch for a while so retuning is just something you have to do with new strings until they are broken in.

the Koaloha friction tuners are some of the best around.Mine are not too tight and they don't slip. Some strings seem to take forever to settle in. I wouldn't use geared on a soprano or concert.

TheCraftedCow said:

There are no lighter in weight geared tuners than PEGHEDS.

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Maybe semantics, but the Gotoh Stealth tuners on my MP are certainly geared and appear to weigh in at 3 grams less than PEGHEDS giving some credence to Gotoh's claim that the Stealths are the lightest geared tuners in the world.

Rather pricey, but they stay in tune quite nicely.

Thank you everybody. I am going to try the string change first and see how fast they settle in. I find it hard to believe the tuners are defective. Been playing for a bit and never ran into that.