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A few months ago I bought a set of 'economy' tuners from Stew-Mac and a few days ago set to preparing my headstock to accept them. These tuners are the stiffest-turning tuners I ever bought, also rough-feeling when turning. They haven't responded to lubrication or filing the bearing surfaces and I've given up on them. I also bought a set of slothead tuners for another project from another source, same price, and these turn easily and smoothly, albeit a different configuration for a different installation.

My question: Anyone have a positive experience with cheapskate open-backed tuners?

Thanks!

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Peter Havriluk

How much were they?

My understanding is that Waverlys can also be stiff if the installation isn’t flawless, meaning the tuner to bush alignment.

I’m using GOTOH SXN510-06M-N for my budget open back option. They are about $75US and install just like the modern looking GOTOH 510 minis I use on most of my builds. They both have a threaded bush so the alignment is perfect every time.

M

Peter, you bought these, correct? - https://www.stewmac.com/parts-and-hardw ... -33-tuners

I actually used these on a recent ukulele because the overall footprint of the tuner helped me to work around what has a mistake drilling of the holes in the peghead. They don't seem particularly stiff to me, but you can tell the mechanism is cheap. Like $20 for 6 of them cheap.

If you find something better quality in this price range please share with the group.

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Thanks for the responses. Yes, the tuners that were linked are the ones I bought. And I would be delighted if someone could point me to a similarly-inexpensive set of tuners that take minor force to move. I appreciate the suggestions so far, but my arm doesn't reach that far into my pocket. So far the least expensive tuners I've found are (1) Wilkinson's and (2) Grover Stay-Tites.

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Peter Havriluk

I bought a set of 12 string open back roller tuners to turn into a pseudo Stauffer tuner. Amazon? I don't remember. Cheap Chinese things. Maybe $30? They seem exactly like the Grover Uke tuners I put on my Arch top. Same design; feel the same. Strings stay in tune. Maybe they are floppier? I don't think so. If the holes are the right size for the posts, they won't flop. I have no idea how much the Grovers were. They work fine on the Arch top. I think I bought them because they were smaller than the guitar ones. I bought 3 packs to do 2 guitars.
It seems like once the tuners are screwed in, they would be strong no matter what. I only planned on using nylons on the Arch top, but they work fine with the steel ones on it now.

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Why be normal?

I used a set of S-M low-end tuners on the 'challenge' harp guitar I made back in '09. They cost $10 then and worked fine out of the box. The gears and worms were fine, but I'm sure the bearings would not have held up for long, and I swapped them out for Waverlys as soon as the contest was over. I suspect the machining of the gears is automated, but there's some luck involved in getting the tabs for the bearings bent right, so they may not mesh well sometimes.

There is not an inexpensive tuner out there that does not perform and feel like...... an inexpensive tuner. My low end were Grovers and I was never thrilled with them and there was a flaw in the journals too back around 2007ish and Grover was replacing bad ones and I had three go bad.... Not confidence inspiring.

Waverlys are always kind of stiff new in the box and my 17 year old set on my personal OM are still very stiff.

Another problem with not using decent tuners is if one craps out your client or you will have to buy 6. We see people every week that lose a cheap tuner on their guitar and they are rather upset to learn that they have to buy a complete set. Ain't life great....

I've only used one set of that kind, but apparently I got lucky because they feel great to me.

There are a bunch of Chinese tuners on ebay in the $10-20 range that I've been tempted to try, but I suspect I'll get what I pay for on that one

I've never been quite satisfied with expensive tuners either though. Always some amount of backlash. I wonder if I could make a strain wave gear that small...

The "bearing tabs" are the Achille's heel of the inexpensive tuners. This is the part of the tuner that wears and allows the gears to not mesh properly. The one saving grace of this construction is that they are easy to tighten up by tapping them with a small hammer to take out the slop.

Dennis,
My experience with the Cheap Chinese tuners, is that they use thinner plates and so the " bearing tabs" are thinner and have less bearing surface, wear a bit quicker, and require more maintenance. For cheap and cheerful instruments they work O.K., and if you use those that have standard spacings they can be swapped out for something better later.

A good source of cheap tuners that don’t suck are midrange asian guitars that have ended up on skid row due to some insoluble issue like neck angle etc. when I come across these poor souls at yard sales, junk stores etc I offer $20 to $30 if they have decent looking tuners … maybe a working under saddle transducer too that can be salvaged. Tuner-wise, usually you get stuff in the Grover/Gotoh ballpark.