Better tuners for Kanile'a Islander

Hi everyone,

I recently bought a Kanile'a Islander AT-4 and it's great! Apart from the tuners... They are really stiff to turn and very hard to tune accurately. The tuners on my Flight TS35 (which was a fraction of the price!) are so much smoother. I wonder if anyone can recommend some better tuners which might work? I don't want to spend a huge amount if I can help it since it was not a super expensive first instrument or alternatively a way to improve these ones so they actually turn smoothly.

I've attached a picture of the current tuners...

Thanks,
Matt

They look like Grover knockoffs. It's likely that a set of Grover 9NB or 9NW would be a little smoother and fit nicely.

gochugogi said:

They look like Grover knockoffs. It's likely that a set of Grover 9NB or 9NW would be a little smoother and fit nicely.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip! Could you please explain the difference between the 9NW and 9NB? I can't find the difference online

I think the only difference is the colour. 9NW for white and 9NB for black buttons.

Grover tuners would've been my recommendation as well. They're good quality, not that expensive, and the aesthetic is similar to the stock tuners if you prefer that.

Have you tried a drop of thin oil on the OE tuners?

John Colter.

there's a fairly recent thread where someone had the same problem, and mentioned that Islander sent replacement tuners... just sayin'

PEGHEDS ae the lightest weight geared tuner you can get. They are a 4:1 ratio geared internally so they look like an old wooden friction tuner, or the newer model with a chrome shaft and a grip that looks like ivory. They also have a lifetime warranty from the maker....unless of course you beat them with a hammer or run over them with your car or something else like that far from normal use.

TheCraftedCow said:

PEGHEDS ae the lightest weight geared tuner you can get. They are a 4:1 ratio geared internally so they look like an old wooden friction tuner, or the newer model with a chrome shaft and a grip that looks like ivory. They also have a lifetime warranty from the maker....unless of course you beat them with a hammer or run over them with your car or something else like that far from normal use.

Click to expand...

Notoriously difficult to install, I've heard.

TheCraftedCow said:

PEGHEDS ae the lightest weight geared tuner you can get. They are a 4:1 ratio geared internally so they look like an old wooden friction tuner, or the newer model with a chrome shaft and a grip that looks like ivory. They also have a lifetime warranty from the maker....unless of course you beat them with a hammer or run over them with your car or something else like that far from normal use.

Click to expand...

They actually look really cool, but definitely beyond me to install with drilling etc.

Ever since I was at school, trying to do anything with wood always ends in disaster for me!

I have been a West Coast distributor for 6 years, and have sent PEGHEDS all over the world. These are the first two complaints about a difficult installation I have heard. I suggest to people that they get a piece of wood of the same thickness and hardness (not necessarily the same kind) and practice using the taper to reem out the hole. When the hole is too large to start with (which is quite common) get a dowel rod and glue it in place. Then drill a pilot hole and begin to create a tapered hole of the appropriate size for installation of the tuners. *****This should all be done on a practice piece of wood rather than on the instrument.***** When you determine how far in the tapering tool needs to go, you can put a piece of tape around it or a scratch mark so you know when to stop on the other holes. For a 5th string banjo tuner, the tool needs to be cut off from the long skinny taper end once you find out how far in you need to go to get the right depth. Again...find out how deep is the existing 5th string side hole, and make a practice piece of wood to be that thick. When you get the right tapered depth with the tool, what is sticking out the other side needs to be cut off of the tool.

TheCraftedCow said:

the newer model with a chrome shaft and a grip that looks like ivory.

Click to expand...

If you're talking about the nickel/ivoroid ones, which I've only seen on the Pohaku site, I think those might be the best looking planetary tuners I've ever seen. Absolutely beautiful.

TheCraftedCow said:

I have been a West Coast distributor for 6 years, and have sent PEGHEDS all over the world. These are the first two complaints about a difficult installation I have heard. I suggest to people that they get a piece of wood of the same thickness and hardness (not necessarily the same kind) and practice using the taper to reem out the hole. When the hole is too large to start with (which is quite common) get a dowel rod and glue it in place. Then drill a pilot hole and begin to create a tapered hole of the appropriate size for installation of the tuners. *****This should all be done on a practice piece of wood rather than on the instrument.***** When you determine how far in the tapering tool needs to go, you can put a piece of tape around it or a scratch mark so you know when to stop on the other holes. For a 5th string banjo tuner, the tool needs to be cut off from the long skinny taper end once you find out how far in you need to go to get the right depth. Again...find out how deep is the existing 5th string side hole, and make a practice piece of wood to be that thick. When you get the right tapered depth with the tool, what is sticking out the other side needs to be cut off of the tool.

Click to expand...

I'm surprised you've never heard about the worries of upgrading friction to planetary tuners. I think for some people, even just swapping out the tuners without any modification to the wood would be daunting. Maybe there's still a lot of folks who could do that without too much trouble. But the moment you add drilling, reaming, and gluing dowels to your instrument, you make a lot of folks hesitant, and it seems like you might be overestimating the capabilities or at least the confidence of a lot of uke players who aren't necessarily handy or have the requisite tools to do the job.

Peghed difficulties

My suggestion to NOT start with the instrument, but a similar hardness and thickness of random pieces of wood is no different than practicing learning new chord shapes. True, they may not have a drill press so they bore straight holes, or a tapered reamer. Indeed there are some basic tools and skills which are needed to do anything and do it right. On the first one I did, I was drilling too slowly and the bit grabbed and tore out the side of the G hole. I repaired it, painted the sides and back black, and put a thin layer of black vinyl with a pretty grain pattern on the top. People comment about how pretty it looks.

IME, you need at least a medium high level of craftsmanship to install Pegheds, without butchery. The tapered holes need to be perfect on both front and back. Obviously, if they're too small, they won't fit, and you just need to take off a bit more. But if you go too far, the holes are then too big, the posts will stick up too high in the front, or there will be excess space around the shaft in the back. Then you need a fill/re-drill, a big PIA. Plus, the previous tuners' front bushings will probably leave impressions, which can't be hidden, since the Pegheds don't have front bushings. The back will also probably have impressions left in the finish from either the old frictions or geared, as well as screw holes from geared. Screw holes on the back can be filled. Marks on the back don't bother me too much, but pressure rings from the old bushings on the front are unsightly, and would bug me for sure, especially with only the attractive black Peghed posts sticking through. I don't need a halo there. Don't get me wrong, Pegheds look super cool and are great tuners, but the difficulties of installation are considerable, compared to Gotoh UPTs, whose front bushings and round body in back usually hide any impressions left by the previous tuners.

Honestly, unless you absolutely hate the look of geared tuners with ears, I'd just get a set of the higher quality Grover 9W tuners for around 15.00, and be done with it. Even then, the screw holes might not match up perfectly. Plus, you mentioned cost: both Pegheds and UPTs run about $80.00 per set.

ukantor said:

Have you tried a drop of thin oil on the OE tuners?

John Colter.

Click to expand...

Or if you have some graphite try that, if you don't have the powder just use a soft pencil. The suggestion about Gotoh tuners is a reasonable next step. The discussion about peghead and planetary tuners does not apply to this uke.

TheCraftedCow said:

I have been a West Coast distributor for 6 years, and have sent PEGHEDS all over the world. These are the first two complaints about a difficult installation I have heard. I suggest to people that they get a piece of wood of the same thickness and hardness (not necessarily the same kind) and practice using the taper to reem out the hole. When the hole is too large to start with (which is quite common) get a dowel rod and glue it in place. Then drill a pilot hole and begin to create a tapered hole of the appropriate size for installation of the tuners. *****This should all be done on a practice piece of wood rather than on the instrument.***** When you determine how far in the tapering tool needs to go, you can put a piece of tape around it or a scratch mark so you know when to stop on the other holes. For a 5th string banjo tuner, the tool needs to be cut off from the long skinny taper end once you find out how far in you need to go to get the right depth. Again...find out how deep is the existing 5th string side hole, and make a practice piece of wood to be that thick. When you get the right tapered depth with the tool, what is sticking out the other side needs to be cut off of the tool.

Click to expand...

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Thanks for your help everyone, I totally forgot to reply!

In the end I found some lithium grease we had laying around put a tiny bit on the tuners and turned them a few times. Not perfect but much smoother than before so I'll save the money on the Grovers for now.

Again, thanks for the help