Custom Kanile'a on the way

Congrats and great choice.....Kanile'a. Voice, looks, sustain, intonation, quality, playability, etc.. are all superb!

Just a short note and comment on the Gotoh "stealth tuners". Gotoh has a disclaimer and warning on their website regarding these with respect to string tension greater than 44 lbs. I believe this would exclude you from using fluorocarbon strings. I have the stealth tuners on my Kanilea "Diamond" model and have gone back to the original aquila strings rather than the Living Waters strings which I had preferred. If any members have additional input on the stealth tuners I would appreciate hearing.

Also, you might want to check out the following website, pinzuk.com, for bridge pins! I switched out all my Kanilea plastic pins for either solid wood or brass with inlays! My Kanilea Diamond has brass with Black MOP inlay and my Kanilea K3TP has brass with abalone inlay! Just my personal preference! Good Luck!
 
^ Interesting info. I had not heard that about the Stealth tuners.
 
I got a call today that my Kanile'a is finished and they are going to ship it! I can't wait to receive it. The wait has been worth it, for sure.
 
Just a short note and comment on the Gotoh "stealth tuners". Gotoh has a disclaimer and warning on their website regarding these with respect to string tension greater than 44 lbs. I believe this would exclude you from using fluorocarbon strings. I have the stealth tuners on my Kanilea "Diamond" model and have gone back to the original aquila strings rather than the Living Waters strings which I had preferred. If any members have additional input on the stealth tuners I would appreciate hearing.


I had Stealth Gotoh tuners on my KoOlau, and I enjoyed them greatly. They do take care in that one cannot let the uke fall over onto the tuners, which are thin (I think it was ukeeku, Tim, who either broke one that way or knows someone who broke one that way). Also, they can "burn out" if spun very quickly with a tuner ratchet/spinny thing/drill end (note: I do not use one, so I have no clue what they are called...lol). RyRod, on UU and youtube, had a failure of Gotoh Stealth which he attributed to unwinding (string winder, that's it) too fast on his Talsma. He has 1-2 videos and some UU posts on the subject. Anyhow, he was distraught because the tuners are not sold individually (and a set of four is expensive, over $100), and the thinness of his (slotted) headstock was such that any other regular tuner (Grover, Waverly, etc) would not fit--they were too wide for his thin (front-to-back) headstock which was made thin for the Gotohs.

On my KoOlau, the headstock was thick, and had I an issue and wanted to install a complete set of other tuners, I could have done so. That said, I never broke one or burned one out. I did have a thread about these tuners and even Andrew chimed in positively on them, and his experience with them, so I will try to link that here. I have no idea about warranty and pounds of pull and such, and I trust Ken's input below on that subject; I did use them on a tenor with Worth FC strings, no issues for me.

Would I order them again on a new uke? Perhaps not, only because they are fragile, and the 12:1 ratio (I think it's something like that, I could be wrong) is unnecessary for me (heck, I love 1:1 friction tuners, so don;t go by me). I'm sure they'll be fine for you, Natalie. --Steve

Okay, here's the thread, with Andrew's respected opinion. Daniel (nongdam) had an unpleasant experience documented here. Note: Ryan Rodriguez, UU member, had a video entitled "Talsma Uke one year later", or something like that (not his NUD video) which he has now deleted; that is the one where he described the Gotoh Stealth's failure. Again, it is now missing from his channel.
http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?97683-Gotoh-Stealth-Tuners-opinions
 
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44 lbs is the maximum tension per tuner, this doesn't apply to ukes.

For a tenor ukulele, the cumulative tension for all 4 strings would be less than the quoted maximum per tuner. Even allowing for variations in tension due to material, the individual string tension would probably not exceed 30% of the maximum. For example, the quoted tension for a D'Addario Nyltech A (the highest tension in the set) is 12.28 lbs

The highest tension I could find was for the G out of a set of heavy flatwound jazz strings at 34 lbs.

My guess is that your uke would fold in half long before you broke a peg.

ps. Surely only a blind person would mount the pegs on the face of the uke. That has to be the ugliest concept I've ever seen.
 
Thank you all for the detailed info about the Stealth tuners! I had looked up uke string tension and figured I'd be ok, plus I trust Joe's luthier expertise so I knew he wouldn't use those tuners if they couldn't handle the string tension. It helps to see this info as well.

I was hoping they'd ship my uke on Friday but I asked them to install a strap button on the neck at the last minute, so that may have delayed them. I *hope* it will be here this week-- I think UPS Ground takes 5 business days from HI to FL. Praying it gets here before the holiday weekend, otherwise that will be a long wait!
 
Hooray, it will be here on Friday! I'm a bit worried I'll miss the delivery, but am planning to go into work super early and leave early so I can make it home before the mailman gets here. I spoke with Kanile'a on the phone yesterday regarding redirecting the package to my post office, but unfortunately it didn't work when either of us contacted USPS. It's ok, though-- I don't want to put out Kanile'a even more by pushing the issue. I'll just make sure I'm home in time on Friday. :D
 
can't wait to see it!
 
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