|
b
When you obtain an old ukulele,very often it will have broken
or missing tuuners. On the less expensive models there will
be small holes through the wood that will not fit any currently
made tuners. If you have this problem, an easy fix can be
accomplished by using the Ping tuners, one of which is shown
above, or Grover 2B tuners which look the same but have black
buttons. These can be obtained inexpensively from ukuleleworld.com.
The first step is to carefully drill out the hole so that
the shaft will just fit the hole. Then the top of the hole
must be tapered as shown above so that the tapered part of
the tuner assembly will fit in the tapered part of the hole,
an operation that can be accomplished using a countersink
mounted in a tapholder or drill chuck as shown below.
After you have drilled out the hole and cut the tapered indention
in the top of the hole, you are ready to install the tuner
which will work much better than the original one. Notice
that this repair can be performed entirely with hand tools
and without placing your ukulele in a vice which might damage
it.
This picture shows the ukulele with the ping tuners installed.
The Ping tuners work much better than most of the older ones.
Of course, if your ukulele is a rare or expensive model, you
should try to keep it as original as possible. A lot of the
old Martin and Kamaka ukes came with tuning pegs which are
similar to the Grover 4W tuners that are still available today
from ukuleleworld.com
and other sources. These tuners have a metal bushing that
must be fitted into the headstock. If your ukulele came with
these tuners, the bushing is usually still in there and all
you have to do is attach the rest of the parts.
This picture shows the bushing that was part of the old Grover
4W tuners with a new Grover tuning peg that fits into it.
If your ukulele has the bushing, all you have to do is put
in the rest off the parts and you are ready to play. If the
bushiing is not there, you may be able to press in the new
bushings without modifying the hole. If this is not the case,
you better head for the repair shop or find parts that fit.
|
