Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi, I appreciate that this section is for guitars but I don't see an appropriate section. I need 5 tuners for a tiple (Canary Islands) and the head is very small and 9.5mm thick. I would prefer a high quality planetary banjo tuner but the specs say that the head must be thicker. Is that the case? Maybe those mini guitar tuners would work?

thanks so much,

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John Ray
Granada, Spain
blog: http://www.granadaexpert.com/johnray/

Ukulele tuners. They do a Planetary tuner for Ukes, I think by Gotoh. There are two sizes IIRC. Pegheads do some as well.

These are great... http://www.pegheds.net/

You could customize some mandolin tuners (2x4 on-a-plate); chop off one tuner from one plate and two from the other. For a more elegant sollution, get two sets, and butt the chopped ends together (either the "left" or the "right" side), for a nice looking "5 on-a-side" tuner. Better yet, and use gears etc from mathcing guitar tuners, and make your own custom tuners, like our own Haans Brentrup

http://theunofficialmartinguitarforum.yuku.com/topic/114448#.UxcsGqPKyUk

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

timely thread. i need some as well.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

+1 for Pegheds. Model #743A, specifically. Small and light weight, 4:1 gear ratio, and the taper matches a standard violin reamer.

A couple of possible solutions would be to:
1. Make the peghead thicker by inserting a thin piece of wood between the tuners and peghead.
2. Redrill the string post hole lower down and cut off the excess post length.
I have used both solutions as necessary.

I have also cut down 6 on a plate tuners to make 5 on a plate tuners for 5 course octave mandolins.

The Stew Mac 5 Star dulcimer tuners might work--9.5 mm is about the thickest that they work on. http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Dulcimer_tuners/Five-Star_Dulcimer_Tuning_Pegs.html

Dave

Grover 4n uke open back tuningmachines well made and cheap .I get them from a music wholesaler in naples fla that has ads on the internet. Sorry forgot the name music pros or something like it john.

Very helpful, thank you all.

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John Ray
Granada, Spain
blog: http://www.granadaexpert.com/johnray/

And you can even make your own reamer! And if you're really lucky, it could be as good looking as the one I made...



(Heat up a piece of mild steel [an old file, or as I did, an old chisel] till it's glowing red, hold it there for a bit, then .. well, I quenched it, but apparently it's better to bury it in sand(?) .. and then hacksaw and file/grind to shape. I made a 2 degree template on the computer and stuck it on before hacksawing. I learned this from an OLF user so just thought I'd try to help someone else with it. )

Worked supremely well all things considered.

Thanks for the info on this thread guys. I just took in a no name kid's guitar that needs tuners and everything I have is too long, so this thread is pretty timely for me.

+1 to all,

Bob