Vintage ukulele tuners: What if Pings are still too big?

Hi,
Most threads here (like this one) recommend Ping friction tuners as replacements for vintage ukulele tuners. My Pearson banjolele isn't having it-- the Pings are still too thick by quite a bit. I wouldn't even feel comfortable filing them down to the correct gauge.

I'd hate to alter its headstock, but I haven't heard of any exact replacements for the old friction tuners. I think that the metal shaft of the tuners are still ok, but the bakelite keys are all cracked and broken.

Any ideas what I should do? I'm reasonably handy, but these keys were molded. I don't think I could just carve or machine some replacements that would fit well. I'm half-tempted to just make some awful flimsy replacement keys out of Fimo clay just so that I can finally play my banjolele after all these months!

Thanks in advance for any ideas, help or advice.

Aloha Stephanie,
maybe you can return and exchange your ping tuners...and get the right size ones ..measure the shaft and give it to them..if you do not feel comfortable enlarging the hole...at the home depot you can get a hole reamer to do the job too..it is fast and easy...also if you have a popular or rare ukulele, you may not want to enlarge the holes or alter it....with some brands you can change just the knobs of the tuners if the shaft is the same size as the tuning knobs slots.. like my kamaka, I can call them and get repacement knobs only..call elderly Music and ask them...they have qualified people there to help you get the right ones..You cannot make them bacause of the grooves inside them need to match up and be of a strong material..

Thank you for the suggestions, but you've sort of hit on the problem-- all modern tuners and knobs, including the ones sold by Elderly, are too big for my ukulele. And I'd prefer not to drill the headstock. My banjolele was made around 1925, and I'd hate to alter it if there's another solution.

The only thing I can suggest is that you watch eBay for vintage tuners. They do come up. There was a set of "Sharks Tooth" type tuners recently. However, I don't think it is a big deal to enlarge holes if you do it carefully. Given that the old holes only fit tuners which were likely pretty sketchy to begin with you may have a much more playable instrument once you ream out the holes a bit.

As Rick Turner says....Strad violins are all heavily repaired and modified over the many years of their existence. If you want it to be a player, you may do best to install some quality modern tuners. (This written by a guy who LOVES wood peg tuners!)

Have you given any thought to PegHeads. They have that vintage look, but are geared and smooth.
I believe they fit a wider range of holes too.

SailingUke said:

Have you given any thought to PegHeads. They have that vintage look, but are geared and smooth.
I believe they fit a wider range of holes too.

Click to expand...

Do peghead tuners require that holes be tapered?

Thanks for the advice, everyone. It might be time to just give in and ream the holes out.
...Those pegheads do look awesome, wow. I'd never seen them before.

If you have a set of Pings, I would ream it out and then you have a really great playing uke. The Pings I have work as good or better than a set of Grovers I put on a different uke. Good Luck!

RyanMFT said:

Do peghead tuners require that holes be tapered?

Click to expand...

Yep, & its somewhat tricky. But they sure look great on an old uke & work well also. But, I wonder what the poor bloke who finds this uke another 50+ years from now will have to do to find a replacement for a faulty one of those?!? My vote would be the Pings as well or buy a junker uke off eBay w/intact tuners or wait for vintage tuners to show up. Note: sometimes the old tuners go for more than the whole uke would have!