Pete Howlett
Well-known member
I wrote to the company asking for a sample tuner. They kindly sent me a set promptly and FOC. This was my reply to them. They don't work for me but I would recommend them to anyone thinking of replacing their tuners. Just make sure you can live with a longer than usual tuner string post.
I expet there will be plenty of negative comments - these are not 'robust' pieces of hardware. I think they are probably best suited for low tension strings on soprano/concert size models.
Hi there
Received ukulele tuners for review in super quick time. Impressed - thanks,
Great in every way (especially price) except for one really important point - the length of the string post.
Most hand made ukulele generally have a headstock between 5/16" and 7/16" thickness. I use a metric system of measurement and my headstocks are generally 10.5mm - 11mm thick which I think close as it gets to being an 'industry standard'. When I tested the tuner against my design with the bush a full 3.5mm or a hair over 1/8" protruded above the top of the bush before it reached the bottom of the relief where the string hole is. On my instruments I want this distance to be 1 - 1.5mm. This then allows the strings to have a decent break angle from the back of the nut.
I am sure you have a good reason for this dimension and as it is now a 'finished' product any change simply on my account is unlikely to be countenanced. However, Gotoh, a competitor with a parallel and popular product offer tuners with two post heights and these are still shorter than the Graphtech ones and seem explicitly designed for ukulele with elegantly thicknessed headstocks..
I know this is probably not a good read for you and may seem unduly harsh or critical. Be assured that I do however love the product, fit and feel and overall aesthetic - no issues there at all. Well done for designing and producing these. I'd love to put these on some of my instruments; however I cannot foresee me doing so with the string post being too high for my headstock thickness.
Kind regards
Pete
I expet there will be plenty of negative comments - these are not 'robust' pieces of hardware. I think they are probably best suited for low tension strings on soprano/concert size models.
Last edited: