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Playing Since: 1974
Experience Level: Purty Good
musekatcher has made 988 additions to Flatpicker Hangout 
Interests:
[Jamming]
Occupation: rocket scientist
Gender: Male
Age: 90
My Instruments:
I like old flattops and archtops. My avatar is an early 30's Kalmazoo KG-11, ladder braced, one piece Mahogany back, and labelled by Montgomery Ward as a "Carson J. Robison". I was told by Mike Seeger that these came with Robinson's songbook.
Favorite Bands/Musicians:
The ones I grew up with, festival goers, and a lot of recording artists from past and present.
Profile Info:
Visible to: Public
Created 8/17/2008
Last Visit 3/10/2010
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Friday, February 05, 2010 @8:26:04 PM
We call them pegs, keys, tuners, machines, machine heads, gears, and perhaps some other names. They are the only moving part on a guitar, and other stringed instruments. Most all guitar tuners are the geared type, although Martin and Gibson used planetary tuners in the 20's and 30's on some special models. We often overlook these components, but there's more to them than just a stationary function. They affect the quality of our music.
Pitch perception is the ability to determine if a pitch matches your ideal or intention. Pitch perception can be very complicated to study. If I take the liberty to abreviate a bit, and add my own observations, the human ear is normally very capable of discriminating very fine divisions of pitch. With a little training, most folks can hear when two pitches are off by a few cents, and they can hear the pleasing reinforcement of perfect fifths fourths and thirds, and so on. But, we can also unintentionally corrupt or "brainwash" our perception with bad pitches with excessive exposure to bad tuning or exaspiration. The problem worsens drastically with changing pitches, such as we experience when tuning a guitar string with another pitch or string using intervals. As you tune a string and the pitch goes up or down, your ear and perception try to anticipate the approach of the correct pitch with that of the other string. If we are turning the peg and the pitch doesn't change linearly or predicably, things start going wrong. The tuner may have some slop or the installation allows the tuner to shift, so that turning a button doesn't turn the post at first, but then "catches" and begins to turn the post. Turning the tuner overshoots, then undershoots, and so on. With enough of this non-linear behavior between the pitch, turning of the button, and changing pitches compared with a fixed string or interval, I believe the ear and brain get fatiqued, and eventually lose temporarily the ability to hear good intervals like perfect 5ths and 4ths. We lose the "signature" as we attempt to use our ear to tune, and our perception becomes a moving target. Bad, worn, or primative tuners associated with cheaper instruments and older worn instruments would be the worst offenders. As an aside, bad or worn strings can exhibit a similar shifting pitch. Its in tune, but then its not. This also confuses the ear-brain perception. I believe I've experienced this myself, and I believe I've seen it happen to better musicians as well, typically with older instruments, or the occasional cheaper instrument. Worse, is the student who doesn't know what's happening with his $49 guitar, or his Dad's classic 50's Gibson with original tuners.
So I believe good quality tuners, and good quality installation are more important than first thought, and are paramount in your path to better music.
Some things to think about and look for in good tuners, and tuner installation:
- Individual string tension can aproach 50 pounds of force.
- Modern guitar geared tuners use 14:1 or 18:1 ratios.
- Good tuners, and tight installation transfer more string energy to the guitar.
- Some tuners have spur cut gears
- Better quality have helical cut gears, reducing friction and slop.
- Tuner posts should fit tightly in the peghead holes, or bushings to prevent leaning. Leaning wears the gears excessively, causes irratic friction and tuning behavior.
- The extention of the post above the peghead is important, and shouldn't be too high, creating excessive rotation or torque on the post.
- The plate and screws need to fit securely on the back of the peghead, and not bind the post so that it can turn freely and on-axis.
- Tuners should feel tight, but not too tight.
- Screws securing open gears should be checked regularly, with string tension removed.
- Screws securing the tuner should be checked with string tension removed.
- Damaged or worn tuner screw holes in the peghead can be easily repaired, but shouldn't be neglected too long.
- The cheapest, and most expensive tuners are both open gear designs.
- Some closed back tuners are not just open back tuners with a cover.
- Better tuners will last and keep their tightness for a long time.
- Buttons need to fit tightly with no wobble or slip.
- A good tuner can be nullifed by poor installation.
So, don't hesitate to look at your tuners with a new expectation, just because they look like new, and shiny. Perhaps they need replacing? Or the tuner holes need re-bushing, or the worn screw holes need repair, better fitting buttons, etc. A change just might transform your music.
Recent Forum Posts
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The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful (7 days ago)
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Kalamazoo
Kalamazoo KG-11
Gibson
1949 LG2
Norman
B-20-12
Martin
D16H Early Model
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