Tuners on Mando / Opinions

[Dale Ludewig]

The guitar tuners are not on a plate. They're individual. Completely different machining requirements. And installment requirements, which is another issue that means the manufacturer and installer have to be exactly correct on their part of the bargain. Waverly's are great. I've had great results with tuners that cost less. But the precision in making and installing has to be a handshake on both sides.

[sblock]

Dear Sheephead,

If I were you, I would not get too enamored of Waverly tuners for a mandolin. And I would be loathe to install them on a mandolin in the $5K range. (And yes -- sad, but true -- "high end" for a mandolin equates to something closer to $20K these days than to "merely" $5K: Mike Edgerton was absolutely right about that!!) I have some fancy Waverlys with MOP buttons that came on my Altman F5 (which is in the $8K range), and they are just fine. But they are seriously over-priced, IMO, for what you get!! I also have Schallers on another mandolin, and these operate at least as smoothly (perhaps even more smoothly; the Waverlys are actually pretty tight). And some Gotoh's on another (a Mowry A5; these also work very well). And these days, as several others have already pointed out, the Rubner tuners are really giving Waverly a real run for their money, both mechanically and aesthetically, and they cost significantly less. So NO, I would certainly not rush to substitute Waverly tuners on some mid-range Weber, like the Black Ice model.

My recommendation, though, would first be to see if you can repair or replace your existing tuners, which are likely to be Grovers. I also have a Weber Bitterroot F5, and it came with Grovers. These operate almost flawlessly on my Weber, and certainly no better than the Waverlys do on the Altman. In my experience, button screws are no more easily lost (or kept) on Grover tuners than on Waverlys!! You should be able to obtain a replacement Grover button screw easily enough. Why not just do that?

Of course, it's your mandolin, but IMO it's not worth spending over $400 to fix a $1 problem, with the result being that you are still equally at risk of losing a tuner button in the future! Tuner button screws are best put in with a drop of Loctite, regardless of the brand that you decide to choose.

Or just get some tuners that don't even use tuner button screws, like Schaller.

[Ray(T)]

Even the Schaller ones come off. The solution I used was epoxy and it's not moved in 15 years.