Kala Travel Tenor - changing tuners to Mainland Frictions

[igorthebarbarian]

I recently ordered a set of Deluxe Friction Tuners from Mike at Mainland for $19.95:
http://shop.mainlandukuleles.com/category.sc?categoryId=5
I got the gold ones with amber buttons.

I swapped them out on my Kala Travel Tenor uke tonight. I am definitely not what anyone would call "handy" - very far from it! But it probably took a little over an hour for me to do. It was fairly easy. The hardest part was finding a small enough screwdriver to take out the tiny screws on the back of the old geared tuners. The new ones left, but no biggie.

I think I have the G & C tuners lined up wrong/backwards (see pictures). They tune 'up' toward the headstock correctly, but they don't seem perfectly aligned (hard to explain). For example, my C string is too close to the G tuning peg. But I am sure that is user-error on my part!

These Mainland tuners are nice and look really good on the Kala Travel Tenor. I thought the geared tuners that it came with with super-heavy, and made the headstock top-heavy. That is no longer an issue. The uke still fits in its own Kala case. Mike stated that they may need tightening in the future.

 

[igorthebarbarian]

Original heavy geared tuners - note the tiny little screws on the back - I had to use an eyeglass repair kit!


New tuners from Mainland in the bag:


Removing the old geared tuners. I thought this would be difficult but it really wasn't:


Installing the new friction tuners. This was pretty easy to figure out too. Basically unscrew the new one in the middle, then re-attach, and re-insert screw in the back:


New tuners installed - side view:

 

[igorthebarbarian]

Here is the back view where you can see the tiny little holes. I'm sure you could easily fill them in, but for me, it doesn't matter. I don't generally look at the back of the headstock.


Here is the headstock view - where I think I have the G & C mis-aligned/ off/ backwards. My C string is too close to the G tuning peg. I know it's user-error on my part but I'm not sure how to fix. I confirmed this by unwrapping the G string and going backwards and it wraps properly. If anyone knows how to fix that, please let me know. Thanks!

 

[Olarte]

Nice tuners, and yes g and c are wrong but easy enough to fix. Just wind then the opposite way, so the string is on the inside of the Uke not the outside, like a mirrors I image of e and a. Just compare it to a pic of any other Uke.

 

[PhilUSAFRet]

Nice pics, thanks for sharing

 

[siauke]

Yep -- just looks like you have to wind the g and c the other way and you'll be good. Nice job!

 

[igorthebarbarian]

Thanks guys!
I re-positioned the strings and it looks normal now when viewing from the headstock. I'm pretty happy for my first time doing any major construction.
It feels much better balanced and looks much better.
Well "Worth" the $20 (haha, those are Worth CT's on there).

Headstock:


3/4 view:

 

[Ukulele Jim]

Hey igor... sorry to resurrect a 2-year-old thread, but I just got a Kala Travel Concert uke and want to swap out the tuners with the Mainland friction ones. Did you buy the regular set they have here? http://shop.mainlandukuleles.com/product.sc?productId=18&categoryId=5

The listing says it's for soprano and concert ukes, so I'm concerned about the fit on the tenor. But if these are the exact ones you got, then it would seem they do indeed work. Can you please confirm?

Thanks!

 

[PhilUSAFRet]

I hate sealed gear tuners....ugly and heavy. I wish most of them didn't have the screw ear coming off the body at an angle so I wouldn't have to fill holes to replace them.

 

[UkeStuff]

I hate sealed gear tuners....ugly and heavy. I wish most of them didn't have the screw ear coming off the body at an angle so I wouldn't have to fill holes to replace them.

That is interesting...I thought sealed gears were considered an upgrade on a better ukulele. I have a lot to learn!

 

[igorthebarbarian]

Yep, those look like the same ones.

Hey igor... sorry to resurrect a 2-year-old thread, but I just got a Kala Travel Concert uke and want to swap out the tuners with the Mainland friction ones. Did you buy the regular set they have here? http://shop.mainlandukuleles.com/product.sc?productId=18&categoryId=5

The listing says it's for soprano and concert ukes, so I'm concerned about the fit on the tenor. But if these are the exact ones you got, then it would seem they do indeed work. Can you please confirm?

Thanks!

 

[Dionysis]

That is interesting...I thought sealed gears were considered an upgrade on a better ukulele. I have a lot to learn!

Six years late to the party but I have to say it: one uker’s upgrade is another uker’s trash. Most would call it a downgrade going from geared to friction. But Barry Maz, for example, despises geared tuners on sopranos both as aesthetically displeasing, and as too heavy causing an imbalance.

To me the most important thing about tuners that are already installed is whether they work well and make it reasonably easy to tune.

Second is appearance, this is even more important when contemplating a change of tuners. It is even more and more important if it is a collectible/ vintage/ antique. It it is vintage but has been loved a lot and it shows (scratches, etc), I don’t worry so much about blowing the resale value to kingdom-come. When collectability matters, I try to stay original. If the tuners aren’t working, can I find a working set of the same tuners? If not, can I find similar-looking tuners that won’t require drilling the hole larger or adding another screw hole. Then I hold on to the original tuners and it is an easy swap to restore it to stock.

Third to me is weight, but I use a strap on most ukes, but not on most sopranos. So then though weight may still be my third consideration a tuner that meets one and two but is too heavy will be disqualified.

Personally I would not consider the above swap as an upgrade. But that is solely a matter of preference. I think many would agree mainly because if a friction tuner isn’t kept adjusted properly they can make it hard to tune. Most geared tuners require very little maintanence, assuming they were not defective to start with.

Sometimes I start typing and I can’t stop. But maybe someone will read this and find it helpful. Or maybe it is like dust in the wind. HEY! Someone should write a song about that!