Official Luthiers Forum!

Just wondering if any of the builders have real preferences over tuners. It's a bit early thinking about tuners as i haven't even closed the box on my first, but what the heck. It's gonna snow again so i am drifitng off with warmer thoughts.

Do you have a favorite for any reason you can express? 14:1? 18:1 ? Locking?? Not even sure what that is! I've only ever had my one guitar that i bought back in HS so i don't have much experience. Set it and forget it. I imagine they all do a great job, so any other reasons?

I am wishy washy between black or gold color. Does either lose it's coating?

I figure between the wood and the classes i've sunk enough money into this so I'm not going to skimp. Not really interested in budget unles they do the job and they look sharp.

Thnx for your input.

Rob

So far I'm only an electric builder, so I have no experience with Waverly. But I will be building an acoustic this year, and will likely go with the same thing I use on my electrics; Gotoh enclosed tuners. Around $35, and all the tuner I really need. If I feel the need to splurge, Schaller is my second choice.
Having said that, if I were building high end acoustics for a high end price, I'd probably go with the Gotoh 510s on a more modern type build, and Waverlys on anything vintage-looking.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Grover Sta-Tites for Martin style guitars. Affordable and excellent quality. Gotoh 510 Mini's for my zouks. Kind of expensive but I like the look and superb quality.

grover sta tites. i like the 18:1 ratio. until i get around to making my own that is.

I'm a fan of grovers also, usually the keystones.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

I've tried them all and find them to be comparable. Personally I don't like the big ratio gear tuners, too much twisting.

Ping tuners...
used by both Fender and Taylor. Excellent quality for around 10 bucks a set. Retail even!
Yes is true!
Me no lead you down the garden path.

Try Kayman at http://www.kmcmusicorp.com/ but ya gotta order a shift load of them.

The only problem is programming...

Yup...yer brain cells been programed to think any thing under $30 a set is garbage...well dudes me has installed a lot of $30-40 pieces of junk only to end up replacing them down the road with the lowly Ping brand. Been using Pings for 14 years now and not one single problem on over 400 necks. NOT ONE!

Role that up and smoke it!

But thats ok...you go and spend your money on a name and packaging and advertising, that way you feel gooder when they fall apart cuz they were the better name quality buy....ya right!


Blessings
Padma

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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I think Padma has a point. I've never seen why tuners need to be expensive. They are not complex machines and the task they need to perform is simple.

Pat

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There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

I tried Padma's link a few times, and got frozen screens.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Link works fine for me, but it sends me to a 700+ page catalog, and the table of contents isn't very helpful at finding the tuners. Don't plan to go through 700 plus pages.
As for the Ping tuners, all of them I've had on guitars I've owned worked just fine, so they are an option.
But around here they cost at least $35 at any retail outlet available(the local music store). I"m sure, and Padma intimates, that you need to buy, as he says, "A shiftload" to get the $10 price. But I'm willing to bet if you were willing to buy a "shiftload" of the Gotoh enclosed tuners you could get a pretty decent price, too. 6 of one, half dozen of the other/
The Gotohs are reasonably priced, I've never had a problem with them, and I've used a "shiftload" of them on everything I've built or owned where tuners were needed.
The only reason I can see for going with high dollar tuners is as I said before. If I were building high end instruments and selling them to high end customers at a high end price, customers like that tend to expect high dollar hardware/tuners. So you give 'em what they ask for, and charge accordingly.
But for my builds, in the foreseeable future, the Gotoh enclosed is all the tuner I need. And Pings would work just as well.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.