Hey there guys!
I am brand new to the CBG world and am currently gathering supplies to build my first Cigar Box.
My question for you all is;
Do I want to buy guitar tuning machines?
Will others for a banjo or ukulele work?
Does it even matter?
Thanks guys!
~~Sarah
Replies
Tuning - as in tuning the guitar? Try http://www.proguitartuner.com/guitar-tuner/
I'm brand new to building CBG's. But like everyone I have an opinion and a story.
Go with guitar for guitars. Nothing is as annoying as a stripped tuner and you can only be sure to avoid that with a good set of more expensive brand new "Store Bought" ones. I cannabilized old broken guitars to make my CBG and now I'm having to use a pair of pliers to tune the middle string. Use any cheap tuner that cannot handle the tension and having to use pliers for tuning or worse might happen!
If you can find open gear reversible ones then just buy a stack of them. They will cost about $1 each. To turn a right tuner into a left tuner or vice versa , just remove the center screw, flip the button shaft over, and reassemble. You won't have to plan for 3 string, 4 string, in-line or opposite. One tuner will do it all and you can configure your gat however you want. And try get the ones with the bevel that the string wind sits in rather than the "classical" style ones which don't have that. If I can find a link to them I'll put it here.
That's the ideal for flexibility. But there are heaps of cheap tuners available. Uke tuners won't hold tension. I don't even use them on ukes. If you are a shallow person like me, you'll just choose pretty ones. You'll end up with a bunch of R tuners left over but hey, a gat with 4 in-line tuners all on the bottom side of the headstock would look cool. Hmmm.....
Hey, it works. Fixed a broken tuner by taking the button shaft off a lefty and putting it on a righty! Thanks!!!
Awesome tip Glenn,
I didn’t realise you could swap them around, I've been using closed machine heads on my builds and I don't like the way that every second one looks like a left handed one (I much prefer the headstock to be a 2L + 1R configuration as you look at it from the top), will have to order myself some of them me thinks.
-keep on playing...
banjo and uke tuners (machineheads ) will work, .. although uke tuners may not handle tension well .
old guitar tuners will work too.. but wuth age some skip . rattle .. or bind .
if you are building for yourself fine , use scrap .. if you are selling the guitar .. i would think about buying tuners ..
unless you actually meant a guitar "tuner " like an electronic tunner to help you tune and set up your guitar "in tune " . . ;-)
hi there.
probably does not matter at all
banjo will work for sure, not sure about Uke.
if you have them, use'em and if they don't work THEN worry about it
only rule is no rules
good luck
Jeff H.
You can buy a large variety of tuning machines for a large range of prices. I've used the "economy" tuners from Gitty and had good results so far, but it all depend on what kind of build you are looking at. I've done a couple of canjo builds where I made my own out of bolts and wing nuts. A lot of it depends on how you want to build and what you can afford. I'm on a tight budget being old and retired so that affects my choices so I tend to do a lot of on line comparison shopping before I purchase and have come to find that you can buy the same basic parts for widely different prices. What "matters" is that you are happy with your choices. As the saying goes "there are no rules".
That"s a good question Sarah... I've always used guitar tuners they may be a little bigger and stronger than uke or banjo tuners but prob around the same price, You should get plenty of opinions on this one ...