My Dilemma

I stopped in at my local acoustic guitar/ukulele shop last week & talked with the technician. He can do the tuner & pickup install. I've ordered Gotoh UPT short tuners in chrome with amber buttons. My KoAloha has a very amber-ish color to it, so I think these will look good. I shopped around for the MiSi pick-up and found the best price & in stock at Mainland. Hopefully I'll have the parts sometime next week. I'll report back when the work is complete & post results & pictures. Thanks to everyone for the advice.
 
I stopped in at my local acoustic guitar/ukulele shop last week & talked with the technician. He can do the tuner & pickup install. I've ordered Gotoh UPT short tuners in chrome with amber buttons. My KoAloha has a very amber-ish color to it, so I think these will look good. I shopped around for the MiSi pick-up and found the best price & in stock at Mainland. Hopefully I'll have the parts sometime next week. I'll report back when the work is complete & post results & pictures. Thanks to everyone for the advice.

Congratulation, you have done the right thing and will be so pleased with the results. Enjoy then "new" instrument for many years
 
I stopped in at my local acoustic guitar/ukulele shop last week & talked with the technician. He can do the tuner & pickup install. I've ordered Gotoh UPT short tuners in chrome with amber buttons. My KoAloha has a very amber-ish color to it, so I think these will look good. I shopped around for the MiSi pick-up and found the best price & in stock at Mainland. Hopefully I'll have the parts sometime next week. I'll report back when the work is complete & post results & pictures. Thanks to everyone for the advice.

Thanks for the info. Our Ubass needs a new pickup, and we haven't been able to find one!
 
I recently had Gotoh UPTL (long) tuners installed on my KoAloha Concert. The size was not a problem; in fact, I'm not sure that the UPT (short) models would be long enough. They look and work great. I did get the amber buttons (tuners purchased from japarts) and although the color is similar to the original KoAloha tuner buttons, they're a little smaller and not quite so bright and garish. I like these tuners a lot and I love the improvement over the original friction tuners.
 
I stopped in at my local acoustic guitar/ukulele shop last week & talked with the technician. He can do the tuner & pickup install. I've ordered Gotoh UPT short tuners in chrome with amber buttons. My KoAloha has a very amber-ish color to it, so I think these will look good. I shopped around for the MiSi pick-up and found the best price & in stock at Mainland. Hopefully I'll have the parts sometime next week. I'll report back when the work is complete & post results & pictures. Thanks to everyone for the advice.

I'm sure you'll like the amber buttons (they're smaller), but FYI, in case you decide you miss the original KoAloha buttons, mine fit on the UPTs.
 
I recently had Gotoh UPTL (long) tuners installed on my KoAloha Concert. The size was not a problem; in fact, I'm not sure that the UPT (short) models would be long enough. They look and work great. I did get the amber buttons (tuners purchased from japarts) and although the color is similar to the original KoAloha tuner buttons, they're a little smaller and not quite so bright and garish. I like these tuners a lot and I love the improvement over the original friction tuners.
I double checked with Joel at HMS about the size. He said regular UPT not the longs. He does this change on KoAloha concerts a lot. He has a video on HMS website on how to do the tuner change. The ukulele he’s using in the video is a KoAloha concert & he’s using regular UPTs on it. Glad to hear that the amber buttons look nice.

I'm sure you'll like the amber buttons (they're smaller), but FYI, in case you decide you miss the original KoAloha buttons, mine fit on the UPTs.
Mine has the old style big white buttons with the logo & large screws.
 
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I was surprised to hear, that UPTs should be lonng enough. I know the dimensions zztush posted, and I measured the heastock of my Koaloha KSM-T2 (soprano with tenor neck) 2016 model, and the headstock has more than 14mm, nearly 14,5, in fact, that’s about 0,56inch. I‘m talking about the thickness here. That is the reason I dropped the idea of having UPTs or even UPTLs installed on it last year.

But I measured it again (still about 14,5mm) and compared iit to my Opio concert, and voilá: the concert‘s head has slightly less than 12mm, so,, of course, the UPTs will be fine. Should have measured before, but I was cconvinced that Koaloha would use the same head on all models. Sorry fofr the confusion!
 
I recently had Gotoh UPTL (long) tuners installed on my KoAloha Concert. The size was not a problem; in fact, I'm not sure that the UPT (short) models would be long enough

I've used the long Gotohs on everything except a Ken Timms, which will require the short ones. (although I never put them on a KoAloha) I'd rather have more post than less, but if HMS says short will work for KoAloha, I won't disagree with them.
 
Hi, flolicks! Thank you for the reply.

I have a guitalele which has a 14mm headstock. I installed UPTLs without washer (See the photo right). If we remove washer, 0.5mm is ok. :)

 
Hi, flolicks! Thank you for the reply.

I have a guitalele which has a 14mm headstock. I installed UPTLs without washer (See the photo right). If we remove washer, 0.5mm is ok. :)


I recall reading an article about someone who recessed a short tuner into the headstock to allow more post to be exposed on the top.
 
I was surprised to hear, that UPTs should be lonng enough. I know the dimensions zztush posted, and I measured the heastock of my Koaloha KSM-T2 (soprano with tenor neck) 2016 model, and the headstock has more than 14mm, nearly 14,5, in fact, that’s about 0,56inch. I‘m talking about the thickness here. That is the reason I dropped the idea of having UPTs or even UPTLs installed on it last year.

But I measured it again (still about 14,5mm) and compared iit to my Opio concert, and voilá: the concert‘s head has slightly less than 12mm, so,, of course, the UPTs will be fine. Should have measured before, but I was cconvinced that Koaloha would use the same head on all models. Sorry fofr the confusion!

I had measured the headstock on my 2006 KoAloha concert (not Opio) and it measures between 11-12mm. Definitely not more than 12mm. After seeing all these posts about using the UPTL on KoAloha ukes, I decided to email Joel at HMS before I ordered them. I figured he does them quite a lot, and his video shows him putting regular UPTs on a KoAloha concert. This was his response "The regular UPT size works best. That gives you the best angle for the strings as they pass over the nut and attach to the tuning posts."
Hopefully I ordered correctly. We shall see.

PS - I have an Opio long neck soprano on order from HMS as we speak & he's putting UPTs on that. My first choice would have been the chrome with amber buttons, or even the chrome with ivory buttons, but they didn't have them in stock when I ordered. I went with all black, but added a note to use one of my other choices if they came in. It will be a surprise when I open the box. Either way, they won't be friction tuners.
 
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