Finally, we have guitar-style tuning pegs. This is the type of tuner that sticks out of the left and right sides of the ukulele’s headstock, on paddle headstocks, or face backward on slotted style headstocks. These are often the most accurate and easy to use tuners, with 14:1 gear ratio or higher. Top 10 Best Slotted Headstock Ukulele. We use Big Data and AI technology to filter millions of reviews from customer. This will help you choose best product and your shopping save time and money.
From the Spring 2017 issue of Ukulele | BY AARON KEIM
The tuning pegs on your ukulele are a vital piece of equipment. Whether you have a collectible vintage ukulele or a new, factory-made instrument, it’s important to get your strings in-tune quickly and reliably. When your instrument’s tuning pegs won’t cut it, they may need to be replaced or upgraded. But before we get into specifics, first we need to understand a few concepts of how tuning pegs are designed and used. Then we will discuss the different styles and their pros and cons.
The Tune, the Tuning
The first concept is tuning ratio. When you turn the tuner button, the shaft also turns. Old-style friction pegs have a 1:1 ratio, meaning that every turn of the peg turns the shaft one turn. This low tuning-ratio means that your movements must be smaller and it will be harder to fine-tune a string. Modern tuning pegs may have gears that can give them a tuning ratio as high as 14:1, meaning that every turn of the peg makes a much smaller turn of the shaft. (In this case, it takes 14 turns of the tuner button to make the shaft turn once.) As the number goes up, accuracy and ease of use increases.
The second concept to understand is weight. The ukulele is a relatively small and lightweight instrument. The more gears and metal parts your tuning pegs have, the heavier they will be. If you’re not careful, your ukulele will be out of balance and hard to hold, even with a strap. Only in the last few years have manufacturers been willing to design geared tuning pegs for the ukulele market that offer gears at lower weights and smaller sizes.
Slotted Headstock Ukulele
The Simple Machines
The first type of tuning pegs to discuss are friction tuners. These can range from old wooden violin tuners to expensive modern replicas of golden-era designs. Friction tuners are traditionally used on ukuleles because of their lightweight and simple design. The most important thing to understand about these is that they have a 1:1 ratio. This can be problematic for fine adjustment, but if they are well made and installed properly, they can work very well. On the other hand, poorly made friction tuners can make your life miserable! Metal friction tuners usually have a small screw in the button that tightens the assembly, adjusting how easy or hard it is to turn. Too tight and you can’t turn the peg; too loose and the peg slips, making steady tuning very difficult.
If you have a vintage uke that needs old-style friction tuners with small shafts, I like the Waverly and Grover Champion friction pegs available from Stewart-Macdonald. It takes some practice to use friction pegs accurately, and some folks just don’t have the patience. If you’re one of those people, it may be a good idea to replace them with geared pegs.
The first type of geared peg I’ll mention are planetary tuning pegs, which get their name from the tuner’s internal gears, which resemble planets orbiting a sun. Like friction pegs, these tuners stick straight back from the back of the headstock. They are traditionally used on banjos and normally have a 4:1 ratio, which makes them easier to use and more accurate than friction pegs.
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Ping Tuning Machines
Until recently, it was hard to find planetary pegs that were light enough for ukulele, but now there are two good options. Peghed brand tuning pegs look like traditional wooden violin friction pegs, but actually have a 4:1 gear in the metal shaft. Their tension can be adjusted by lightly pushing in or pulling out the button until the tension is just right. They are very lightweight, but require a tapered hole in the headstock, which means you may want professional installation. The new Gotoh UPT planetary pegs are miniature versions of the company’s popular banjo pegs and are another great option. They don’t require a tapered shaft and come with multiple finish and button options to match the aesthetics of your instrument. They are a little heavier than Pegheds, but still appropriate for most ukes, especially tenor and baritones.
Finally, we have guitar-style tuning pegs. This is the type of tuner that sticks out of the left and right sides of the ukulele’s headstock, on paddle headstocks, or face backward on slotted style headstocks. These are often the most accurate and easy to use tuners, with 14:1 gear ratio or higher. In the past, guitar-style tuners were too heavy for ukuleles, but now there are many lightweight versions. My favorite is the old-school Grover open-back tuners, scaled down from the classic guitar design with shorter shafts for ukulele. If you want an even fancier version of this style of tuner, check out the beautiful wooden knobs on the Waverley.
Grover’s Sta-Tite geared tuners.
No matter what you choose for upgrade or replacement, keep in mind that every tuner requires a different size hole in the headstock. Don’t assume that your new pegs will drop right in. If you’re experienced with tools and woodworking, this isn’t a problem. But, if you’re worried about it at all, ask your favorite acoustic music repair shop to handle it.
No matter which quality tuning pegs you choose, it’s worth the cost to keep your ukulele playing in tune!
Aaron Keim is a luthier at Beansprout Musical Instruments (thebeansprout.com) and also a busy educator, historian, writer, and performer. He performs with his wife Nicole in the Quiet American, an old-time folk music duo based in Hood River, Oregon. quietamericanmusic.com
Let's dive right in to the appearance and workmanship of the Mainland and Collings concert ukuleles. Starting from the headstock.
Front of the slotted headstock (w/ghetto sticker)
Guitar Slotted Headstock Tuners
Back of slotted headstockAs far as functionality goes, I feel the headstock contains perhaps the biggest weak point of the ukulele, which are the tuners. These slotted headstock tuners are really cheap. My daughter has one of those $30 Makala dolphin ukes and upon examining the tuners on her ukulele, I'm pretty sure they are from similar sources, if not the same source. These tuners do work, but they feel pretty rough in their operation, and each tuner has a different level of roughness to them. They also look pretty rough, as you can see the machining marks on the 'stem' of the tuning buttons. I certainly don't expect Waverly or Gilbert tuners on these ukes, but I think it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect something of similar quality to Grover tuners that are found on plenty of inexpensive imports. On the plus side, these tuner sets appear to be specifically made for ukuleles as they have two tuners on each mounting plate. I guess the bottom line is that they work and hold the tuning, so that is probably all that should matter for this ukulele. But that doesn't change the fact that these tuners are of pretty low quality.
Here is the tuner on the pink Makala dolphin uke.
Notice the similarity between the Mainland tuner and the Makala tuner.
Besides the tuners, the slots look good but all four strings touch the slot ramps on their way from the nut to the tuner posts. Some luthiers consider this a no-no since the strings are touching part of the headstock and could rub against the finish and either scrape the headstock or damage the strings prematurely. However, this condition exists on my two William King ukuleles that have slotted headstocks. I'm of the opinion that while it is not desirable to have the strings touch the headstock, and my King tenor does have some scrapes near the slot ramps, it isn't a big issue with nylon string instruments and a trade off for not having the slot ramps being too close to the nut, causing possible weakness in the neck. This is, of course, very debatable and not everyone will share this opinion, but it's something that does not bother me personally and I don't anticipate any problems arising from this on the Mainland concert.
The headstock of the Collings is fairly radical. My copy of the UC-1 has what's called a 'haircut' headstock shape. The headstock is formed perfectly and has a rosewood veneer with the Collings logo inlaid with plastic. It also has sharply finished edges like the Mainland, but there's an air of perfection about the work on the edges of this headstock. It's hard to describe in words but it really is perfectly formed like it was made in a precision mold instead of hand carved at the Collings factory (I can't verify this, but as far as I know, Collings has a person that specifically does the haircut headstocks). I find the headstock to be very attractive and unique, and it was a big reason why I bought this uke at the time since future UC-1's after the initial production run has the traditional Martin headstock shape.
Front of Collings headstock
Back of Collings headstock
This headstock features PegHeds tuners that look like violin friction tuners but actually are 4:1 geared tuners. These are some of my favorite tuners because they offer the precision of geared tuners but because of the much closer gear ratio, it doesn't take as long to change strings as a few turns are all that's required to tune it up. PegHeds can look a bit plasticky up close, especially the buttons. But Collings did a nice job in removing the mold lines on those plastic buttons so they really don't appear that much like plastic (I know PegHeds have those mold lines because my Kepasa Gypsy Rose's PegHeds have them). Just be looking at this headstock you can tell how much attention to detail Collings puts into their instruments.
Note the lack of mold line on the plastic tuning button.
Moving down to fretboard, both ukes have a 1-3/8' nut, which is narrower than my preferred 1.5' nut width. However over time I've found that I can manage this nut width just fine. The Mainland has a rosewood fretboard with simulated pearl position dots (I'm guessing that it's not real mother of pearl at this price). The rosewood appears to be of good quality and doesn't seem to be much different than the rosewood used on the Collings. There are no side position dots, which is expected at this price point. However, I can't help but think that it wouldn't take much to have some side dots (the Collings appears to have silver painted-on side dots) and that would really make the Mainland appear more upscale. The fret wires ends are not exposed at the edge of the fretboard, making it something like a pseudo bound fretboard. However, the top edges of the fret wires are not quite finished perfectly, and I can feel a little bit of jaggedness when running my fingers up and down the fretboard. It's not bad, but it's there, and I definitely feel it.
Notice the fret ends are not exposed on the edge
The Collings feature a radiused fretboard. Collings did not advertise the actual radius of the fretboard as far as I know, but I think it's around 16'-18' since it looks about the same as my King concert's radiused fretboard. The radius is supposed to make it easier to fret bar chords by making the fretboard so that it curves with your fingers. I personally like radiused fretboards and believe that it does make a small difference in playability. However, I don't think it's a night and day difference and I can see some people not feeling the effects of the radiused fretboard at all. There are plastic position dots on the fretboard with the dots getting smaller as you go up the frets. There are side markers that appears to be painted silver. These markers are not fancy but are nicely done and do their job. The fretwires are exposed at the edge of the fretboard. However, unlike the Mainland, I do not feel any jaggedness or protrusions whatsoever. This is an exceedingly well finished fretboard.
You can see the side dots and the radius from this view
The neck of the Mainland joins the body at the 14th fret. This makes it a good ukulele for music that requires playing past the 12th fret. Since I enjoy playing a lot of tunes that go past the 12th fret, the Mainland offers better playability in this regard. The neck itself is a two piece construction, with the heel being a 'stacked heel', which means it is made from two pieces of wood glued together and then shaped into the heel. The headstock is one piece, which is pretty rare in this price range. But since this ukulele has a slotted headstock, that pretty much prevents the normal two piece headstocks found in most production ukes. Structurally, I don't think there are any differences between a stacked heel and a one piece heel, but a one piece heel/neck is more high-end since the neck is made out of one piece of wood instead of gluing multiple pieces of wood together. The construction of the neck is decent. The neck has a somewhat flat 'C' profile and feels pretty good in the hand but does not feel perfectly rounded. I can feel the contour of the neck where the curvature changes very slightly as I run my hand up and down the back of the neck. The heel is also not symmetrical on my uke, which probably can be attributed to lower workmanship standards. Despite the things mentioned above, I don't have any issues with the neck of this ukulele. It's very playable and more than sufficient for it's price.
You can see the seam of the stacked heel on the Mainland
The neck of the Collings joins the body at the 12th fret. I believe this is a nod toward the traditional ukulele such as vintage Martins and Kamakas, where they are also joined at the 12th fret, as well as Collings belief that the 12th fret neck-join places the bridge at the sweet spot of the soundboard. I don't have enough knowledge to say whether a 12-fret neck or a 14-fret neck makes a better sounding instrument, but in my experience, I think 14-fret neck joins can make very good sounding instruments. By having the neck join at the 12th fret, it makes the ukulele a little less friendly if you like playing around the 12th fret region as access is more limited compared to the 14-fret join of the Mainland. I would personally have liked the Collings to have a 14-fret neck, as it would make it easier to play some of Jake Shimabukuro's tunes, but I can also respect the belief that a 12-fret join results in a better sounding instrument. The neck itself is of a one piece construction. Given how relatively expensive this ukulele is, I would have expected nothing less. The heel has a fairly low profile, so it does help slightly with higher fret access. The neck is very well carved with a nice 'C' profile. It's smooth up and down the neck and pretty much perfectly rounded. It is comfortable to hold and has a high quality look.
Collings' one piece heel
Well, this post is getting to be pretty monstrous, so I'll end it here and write about the rest of the ukulele's appearance and workmanship in the next post. I think one thing that is becoming clear is that the Collings clearly has the upper hand in terms of workmanship. I doubt this comes as any surprise to anyone, give the big price gap, but it is something to keep in mind as you continue to follow the Ukulele Smackdown.