I keep coming back to this thread while I so impatiently await my Flea!
You are ALWAYS welcome here! No worries!
So on the pickup thing, I know Booli and Barry (Bazmaz) have installed soundboard pickups in a Flea and Fluke respectively. I plan to install a JJB Electronics pickup in the Flea too.
I've heard good things about JJB, as well as K&K pickups, but if you are looking at their offerings for ukulele in ~$30 range, you are probably getting items that are almost identical in composition and function (
I have not used either brand myself, but from the pictures and specifications, they seem to be very similar). The one thing to remember with soundboard transducers is that your going to pick up lots of surface noise from the instrument, you have to hold very still when you play, otherwise anything and everything that rubs on the top, back and side, as well as if you slide your fretting hand on the strings, will get amplified. Most folks would not want this.
I had to remove the pickup that I built & previously installed, since I have an improved model that I plan to install after I complete a bit more testing. The pickup version that I am testing right now, is such that it has signifcantly less surface or body noise than most other pickups. But I am not ready to share the details yet.
And I must be the only one who doesn't like PegHeds.
I wouldn't say I hate them, they weren't bad at all. I just don't like the feel, how they stick out so much. And I like to install strings by going twice through the hole in the post. PegHeds didn't allow that with a nonwound low G. I like fluoro low G's regardless of fretboard material. Anyway the PegHeds just weren't a good fit for me either time I tried them. Variety is the spice of life, or something like that. So I saved myself the price and ordered plain got friction tuners on the Flea.
When I restring, I too, ALWAYS put the string end twice through the hole in the post, and there is a NEW model of PEGHEDS out now, which I have on my Fluke where the hole is of a wider diameter, specifically for this purpose. (Peaceweaver, you might want to verify if your new Flea has the option for the NEW PEGHEDS with the wider string holes, if it has not shipped yet)
In fact my currently installed Worth Brown Medium Low-g (BM-LG) all the strings are through the hole, around the post half-way and then through the hole again. I've NEVER had a string slip at the peg from installing them this way, not in 30+ yrs on guitars of all types, and not in 11 months with the ukulele.
In fact if the tuner peg hole was not wide enough for me to do this, well then out comes the dremel with the 3/32"(or 1mm) tungsten-carbide drill bit.
The PEGHEDS came with my Fluke, which I bought used. If they were not on there I would have probably either tried the Grover 4B friction tuners, and if did not like those, then the Gotoh UPT-L would be the next choice. I already have the Gotohs, and all that's necessary to install them is to ream the tuner holes in the headstock wider than the existing 8mm diameter to approximately 10mm diameter, and then the Gotoh UPT-L planetary geared tuners with 4:1 ratio will basically screw in tight, and that's it.
The reason I chose the Gotoh (in my head) over the PEGHEDS is because like Peaceweaver3, I thought they stick out too much also, and they kinda looked like Frankenstein's neck bolts to me.
However, once the PEGHEDS are in use, they are SO MUCH better to tune with than the Grover 2B friction tuners. I mean for my Flea to hold, either the friction tuners had to be too tight to be able to turn them to tune, or else they would slip from string tension, there was no middle ground. I'm not going to bother with removing/replacing the PEGHEDS on the Fluke.
When you are playing the Fluke, you do NOT SEE them as you do from the front. I see the neck and the koa top, and both please me, and I forget about the tuners because THEY WORK SO WELL. All the hype about how easy they are to use is true. I'm just glad that I did not have to install them myself (have to buy the proper TAPERED violin peg reamer, if I wanted to do that.)
I have not yet quite got the knack of the push/pull function for adjusting the resistance, and they are a little tight now, but the strings are settled, and for the past 5 days I've not had to adjust them when I pick up the Fluke, since now it stays in tune.
On my Flea I've also been able to successfully modify the stock friction tuners with the addition of several small washers on each side of the wood, in between the metal parts of the tuner assembly, and the wood of the headstock. I looked at lots and lots of photos of the higher end friction tuners, Waverly, Sperzel, and others, and they are all with a fixed metal to the wood, and then the tuner peg ON BOTH SIDES is
metal-to-metal.
The washers I'm describing above are maybe a nickel or 10-cents each, I do not know why they are not made this way in the first place.
This 'upgrade' has both greatly improved the grip at lower screw tension, as well as improving the 'slip' of the tuner when you need to adjust the strings. The improvement is significant enough that I'm now on the fence about replacing them with the Gotoh UPT-L planetary geared tuners.
Q: So HOW, or WHY does this 'upgrade' work?
A: The addition of the washers increases the surface area where the 'friction' takes place, which also make the friction function of metal-to-metal, ALL THE WAY through the mechanism, instead of the default metal-to-wood, where the metal part IN FACT turns against the wood of the headstock and when tight enough to NOT slip, it is chewing a circle cut into the wood like a circular hole saw.
I tried about 25 different iterations of 'assemblies' using washers and such from my parts box, and the addition of these washers now obviates the upgrade to better friction tuners.
If I had to go out to the hardware store and buy a 12-pack of washers in each of the 2 sizes needed, MAYBE it would cost like $3 at the hardware store, if that much, and each tuner takes about 5 mins to remove, modify and reinstall and then retune the strings.
So if you dont want to bother with tools, then get the PEGHEDS upgrade option for $69 when you buy you instrument.
Otherwise, get a proper tapered hand reamer for violin pegs (from StewMac or LMI) for ~$50 and put in the Gotohs - I got my Gotoh UPT-L set of 4 for $59 from that 'H' vendor everybody loves.
Otherwise, you can spend only like $3 at your local hardware store, and add washers to your existing tuners, and not have to modify the headstock at all, and if you already have a #1 Phillips-head screwdriver, you do not need to buy
any tools.
For the record, I also tried out a set of cheapo geared machine heads sold by C.B. Gitty (for cigar box guitars) and held them fixed in place with nylon zip ties for testing, but there was anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 of the turn rotation of 'play' in the tuner when you would turn the button, and this drove me insane, and I was constantly over-tuning beyond the desired pitch. It's like the grooves in the worm gear were cut with poor precision, i.e., too wide a groove for the teeth on the little wheel.
I am glad that I did not screw them in, because that would have blemished the headstock with holes when I removed them, that I would only have to fill later on to make it look nice, and I admit, that I'm lazy and would like to avoid extra work if possible.
The other thing about these and also the classical guitar style tuners that I temporarily fitted to the headstock for testing also with zip ties, is that there's a significantly greater amount of metal showing on the headstock, and it kills the aesthetic of the Fluke/Flea headstock for me, and aside from that, these kinds of tuners are like 3x the weight of the factory friction tuners, and made the concert Flea significantly overweight and unbalance at the headstock, even with a guitar strap tied at the nut and then attached with velcro to the flat bottom.
You could try the Gotoh STEALTH ukulele tuners (which are TINY)
[EDIT: previously I had written that they cost $149 for a SINGLE tuner, which was incorrect as detailed by fellow UU member ScooterD35 in the post below, when in FACT they can be found at LMI which has the ukulele tuners listed at $89 of a full set of four. -Thanks Scooter]
So the standard guitar style tuner machines are just a bad idea all around as far as I'm concerned, and I know first hand why The Magic Fluke company did NOT use them by default: WEIGHT and LOOKS.
You might ask why I bothered with hacking around on the original Grover 2B friction tuners?
Well it took a lot longer than expected to receive the Gotoh UPT-L tuners than I had hoped. In the time span when I was waiting I started thinking about 'what if'...and one night when I could not sleep and my mind was filled with a flurry of ideas, I had to test them out...of course when I actually solved the problem I was very pleased, but then I was both dismayed and surprised to look up and see daylight when I realized that I had been working through the night like a mad scientist, yet again...
But alas, I love a 'project'