Graph Tech Ratio Tuners

I'm glad this thread came back up, especially with a complaint about the tuners because I played my Fluke today with the GraphTech tuners and they have been working perfectly, in fact, I haven't played it in a few weeks and it's in perfect tune. I certainly can't say that for the Gotohs that it came with.


This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 10 solid body bass ukes, 13 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 37)

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I think I'll hold off on installing any more GraphTechs. Too bad. I have a set I haven't used yet, and I doubt that I will. I haven't had any problems with the GraphTechs I've installed but we've heard about three failures here, right? For a little more than twice the price, I can get Gotohs from HMS.
 
Did you mean Pegheds?

I'm glad this thread came back up, especially with a complaint about the tuners because I played my Fluke today with the GraphTech tuners and they have been been working perfectly, in fact, I haven't played it in a few weeks and it's in perfect tune. I certainly can't say that for the Gotohs that it came with.


This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 10 solid body bass ukes, 13 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 37)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers
 
Nope, from what I see on the Magic Fluke web site, Flukes come with entry level Gotohs, PegHeads are an upgrade.
Flukes - and I think the other ukuleles in their range - are fitted with Grover friction tuners, I believe. Model 2.
 
I think I'll hold off on installing any more GraphTechs. Too bad. I have a set I haven't used yet, and I doubt that I will. I haven't had any problems with the GraphTechs I've installed but we've heard about three failures here, right? For a little more than twice the price, I can get Gotohs from HMS.

Two things. First, I only see two failures listed here...I might be missing one in the thread. Second, Jerry...you have been the evangelist for this product...kind of surprising to see you back away!
 
I was puzzled by the way that tuner broke. The fracture occurred towards the upper part of the hole. The force from the pull of the strings is below the point at which the spindle broke. So why did it break? What force was being exerted on the top of the spindle/shaft?

It must be the way the shaft tapers towards the hole. It was the force from the tightly wound strings trying to creep down the taper (up the shaft) that forced the top of the post to pop off.

So, the top came off like a cork out of a bottle. Easy enough for the manufacturers to modify successfully in future production, but it could mean that all the current stock is flawed.

John Colter
 
Two things. First, I only see two failures listed here...I might be missing one in the thread. Second, Jerry...you have been the evangelist for this product...kind of surprising to see you back away!

Well, two broke, and another one doesn't hold the string tight. When was the last time you heard of a tuner failing? This is a new product, and with thousands of sets now in public use, problems will be revealed - and corrected, hopefully. Does the shaft have to be narrowed where the string attaches? Maybe not. Maintaining the thickness would make it stronger.
 
crap I just bought some today. now thinking of not using it and just but the gotohs.
atleast gotohs will last forever where this will maybe last a year or two.
 
crap I just bought some today. now thinking of not using it and just but the gotohs.
atleast gotohs will last forever where this will maybe last a year or two.

The shaft on the Graphtechs is thin enough that you won't have to enlarge the holes in the uke. It's unlikely that one will break, but if one does, you can replace them with Gotohs. I have Graphtechs on a couple of ukes, and they've been fine.
 
If they redesigned the shaft to be shorter and slightly thicker, it would help against breakage. Plus, the shafts look too long to me, compared to UPT or geared Grover 9b.
 
I put them on my Riptide concert and they fit perfect. The head material is about exactly 1/2 inch. They're very light and I'm very happy with them.

I'd stick with friction tuners before I would pay much more than I did for these.
 
Well, two broke, and another one doesn't hold the string tight. When was the last time you heard of a tuner failing? This is a new product, and with thousands of sets now in public use, problems will be revealed - and corrected, hopefully. Does the shaft have to be narrowed where the string attaches? Maybe not. Maintaining the thickness would make it stronger.


They might not have to change anything on the design. As I understand it, these are injection molded parts. Strange and curious things can happen to the strength of injection molded parts if the temperatures aren't held within fairly narrow ranges and/or the cycle times are shortened to increase production rate.

I've seen it happen that a batch of parts from a previously-working mold was bad because the injection-molder tried to increase the production rate.

So I'd guess that a change in QC acceptance testing would probably be a good start.

I don't think I'd write off the entire concept quite yet.
 
So another of my Graph Tech Ratio Tuners failed today, this time the A string. Same deal as before: tune and it detunes rapidly as if motor driven. Two out of four have failed after only two weeks! Cory at HMS swapped it out again with a new tuner so hopefully they're okay. Seems to me the tuner design wasn't throughly tested and/or QC is wacky.

Now that I've used them a couple weeks—and not considering the QC issues—I find them smoother turning than my Gotoh UPT but less responsive. That is, if I make a small adjustment, nothing happens so I make a bigger one and it skips over the pitch. The UPTs respond to the smallest adjustments quickly and with actual pitch changes. I find the knobs of both tuners a little too small for comfortable use but the Ratios are silly small. Given a choice, I'd greatly prefer a traditional set of 16:1 Schallers or Waverly geared heads over the Ratios and UPTs but, alas, the Ratios came with my Kala Elite Koa.
 
Given a choice, I'd greatly prefer a traditional set of 16:1 Schallers or Waverly geared heads over the Ratios and UPTs but, alas, the Ratios came with my Kala Elite Koa.

Are they standard on the Kala Elite now? Mine both have geared tuners branded by Kala. I don't want to derail the thread, but I'd like to hear how you like the uke, perhaps on a new thread?
 
Yeah, I'd rather have those Kala geared tuners! It's a HMS "custom" Kala Elite Koa. Basically the 1KOA-T model but with an ebony fingerboard, bridge and binding. Oh, and those Ratio tuners. And I do like it but it's only been 2 weeks so I'm still experimenting with strings and messing with the action. I changed the strings 3 times so the tuners got a workout and failed...
 
I'm quite surprised you're having those troubles with the Ratios Tune-a-leles, mine work perfectly. I'm also surprised they came stock on a Kala Elite. Something just doesn't sound right all the way around. I can't find anywhere that Kalas include the Ratio Tune-a-lele tuners., are you sure they're original to your Elite? Could it be that someone added an early version of the Tune-a-leles as a test? Very odd.


This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 10 solid body bass ukes, 13 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 37)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers
 
As I wrote above, it is a custom build exclusive to HMS (1KOA-T with many 3Koa features) and Andrew thought the Ratio tuners would be a good idea. I understand that the head stock holes don't require a special larger bore so maybe they saved a little production and hardware money over Gotoh UPTs.

Yeah, I'd rather have those Kala geared tuners! It's a HMS "custom" Kala Elite Koa. Basically the 1KOA-T model but with an ebony fingerboard, bridge and binding. Oh, and those Ratio tuners. And I do like it but it's only been 2 weeks so I'm still experimenting with strings and messing with the action. I changed the strings 3 times so the tuners got a workout and failed...

This is the model:

https://www.theukulelesite.com/kala-koa-tenor-exclusive-custom-t-26050919.html
 
Ciao. I would love to replace the Grover friction pegs on my loPrinzi concert but replacement geared tuners all have shafts that seem too long for such a thin (9mm) headstock. Any suggestions? Grazie
 
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