Is there a planetary tuner where you don't have to ream out the holes in the peghead? My friction tuners are driving me nuts, but I'm not into carving out the peghead either.
Thanks!
No carving or brute force is required to install Gotoh UPT or UPT-L tuners.
All you need are about a dozen gentle rotations of a tapered reamer until the hole on the back side of the headstock for the tuner shaft is approximately 10-10.5mm wide for about 7mm into the headstock
You usually do NOT need to enlarge the holes on the front-side of the headstock if they are at least 6mm dia. already.
Then the Gotoh tuners just go right in. I went REAL slow, and took maybe 20 mins. I have the Gotoh UPT-L tuners on 3 ukes now and they work well.
One thing also to consider is that the PegHeds, which have a much longer shaft, will stick out from the back of the headstock about 37mm, whereas the Gotoh tuners will only stick out about 24mm.
Why is the length an issue?
When you put the uke in the case, if the headstock area of the case is too shallow, or the neck support not tall enough, then the tuner buttons for the C and E strings may be pressing on the inside of the case, and this puts pressure on the scarf joint on the neck, and as such is an accident waiting to happen whereby the headstock gets snapped clean off.