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Iʻm in the setup phase on an experimental guitar. I wanted a wide neck (2") steel string guitar to use mostly for Hawaiian slack key music. This guitar started life as a StewMac OM kit. Spruce/rosewood, as that seemed like a good choice for Hawaiian music. Florentine cutaway because the music goes way up the neck, and I like the Florentine look. I took the stock StewMac neck blank and widened it with a few stripes to get the width my fat fingers wanted. Wider string band at the nut to go along with the wider neck. I took the general FB curve and thickness from my old Larivee L10 because itʻs an extremely comfortable neck; just not wide enough.

So far this is working out well - comfortable to play, nice sustain, a lot of volume. Iʻm starting to think what Iʻll need for intonation correction, as Iʻm running sharp pretty much on all frets and all strings - but Iʻm just starting to look at whatʻll be needed.

Iʻd appreciate some suggestions on tuners. I believe that the tuners supplied with the guitar are Waverly golden age restoration tuners. I figured that iʻd give them a try - nothing to lose; they look nice and vintage and might work well. But no luck here - small peg heads and stiff action make them hard to turn, some play in the gears, etc. Slack key playing requires a lot of tuning - I probably play regularly in 5 or more tunings.

So - what would you suggest to replace these tuners? I donʻt want to get crazy here; itʻs my first guitar (Iʻm a bowed string builder) so itʻs a learning guitar in terms of building techniques and playability. But I do need tuners that are precise and easy to use because Iʻm constantly retuning - and again - and again, as the guitar settles in to the changed tension from the new tuning. And of course, they have to have a footprint thatʻs compatible with the Waverly tuners.

Hereʻs the guitar - itʻs got a lot of abalone because Iʻve always loved abalone and this was my excuse to play around <g>...

https://ibb.co/cV6wb21

If the holes for the shafts aren’t perfectly aligned, the drag can make a three-on-a-plate tuner quite stiff. If that’s the case (if youi had to force the tuner shafts into the peghead), dowel and redrill the offending holes. The plate and the ferrules will cover the dowel (if the hoes weren’t too far off). The plate makes replacing the tuners with something better difficult. I’ve had very good luck with the Gotoh sealed tuners. They are good quality at a reasonable price. Nice looking guitar.

Hi Bob - Iʻm guessing misalignment isnʻt the problem. Itʻs a StewMac neck with predrilled 1/4" holes. I bought a stepped reamer for the press-fit ferrules and drilled those holes with a drill press. So alignment should have been good. All tuners slid in easily. Theyʻre all pretty stiff - Iʻve been assuming that the stiffness will ease as the tuners break in. One tuner seems to be faulty - much stiffer than the others and thereʻs a lot of slop in the gears. And overall, the small pegheads make tuning more of a physical effort than Iʻd like. So Iʻll keep using them and see how it goes, but I expect that Iʻll change them out sooner or later - if I sit and play for an hour Iʻll probably change tunings 3 or 4 times, so I expect these are going to continue to be less than ideal.

Youʻre thinking of one of the Gotoh sealed tuner models, not the vintage open gear model, right? I was also looking at the upper end Waverly tuners - the old style exposed gears look nice on a Martin type guitar, but Iʻm not sure Iʻd be that much better off, and theyʻre expensive. There are also the Waverly high ratio tuners - looks like a 20-tooth gear instead of 16-tooth. I expect theyʻd be a drop in, with the same ferrules and screw spacing, but theyʻre even more expensive...

I have a set of those golden age restoration tuners (individual, not 3-on-a-plate) and while I haven't installed them on a guitar yet, I do agree with your assessment. Worm shafts too tight, pegheads too small. The string post turns easily though, so the string should be able to pull out the backlash if you reduce the friction on the nut and bushing. Nut slots should flare out toward the tuner posts so the string isn't bent over a sharp edge as it enters the slot, graphite in the slots to help the strings slide more easily, and perhaps a touch of grease between the tuner post and bushing (not enough that it could migrate and contaminate the wood). Top-of-the-line tuner makers like Rodgers use delrin-lined bushings to reduce friction even further without the need for grease. Or you could just shove some 6mm flanged ball bearings into the headstock and have near-zero friction

I haven't actually used any open-gear tuners before, but I also have some Grover ukulele sta-tites that have a bit bigger keys and turn more freely.

My favorite closed-gear tuners are Gotoh 510 mini, but you'd have to drill the holes out to 10mm for that, which would be tricky on a finished guitar. Or maybe you have a violin reamer? I have the fancy TiN-coated one LMI used to sell, which just happens to be 10mm at its large end so it's great for making guitar tuner holes (I prefer doing everything with hand tools as much as possible).

Stewmac sells Gotoh 3-0n-a-plate tuners (covers over the gears, not exactly sealed—the ones that look like old Klusons). I have no experience with these. They still have the small buttons, so I don’t know how much they would improve your tuning ease. Going to the individual sealed tuners will probably require bigger shaft holes and plugging some screw holes, but you will be happier with the performance.

StewMac is usually good about taking things back. If you bought the expensive Waverlys and didn’t like them after you got to see them, they will most likely accept them back.

I have been using Rubner tuners on my Classicals and have been very happy with them. They have a set of 3-on-a-plate tuners for a solid peghead. https://www.rubnertuners.com/hauser-sty ... th5kbgloss

Enjoy the process and good luck.

For open gear tuners, I like using Grover Sta-Tites, as Dennis mentioned. They look traditional, they work well, and they aren’t crazy expensive.

I’ve used most of the tuners out there. As a player my favorites are Shertlers, they work faultlessly IME.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Thanks Steve, thatʻs a new brand to me. As I think about it, Iʻm pretty sure Iʻll want to make the change - it doesnʻt make sense to save a few dollars on tuners when my playing style involves constant tuning.