Having a custom mandolin made. Are Waverly tuners worth the extra money?
Having a custom mandolin made. Are Waverly tuners worth the extra money?
How much are you spending on the custom mandolin?
I have Waverly, Rubner and other less expensive tuners. Never had any problem with any of them , cheap or expensive !
Here’s some Alessi tuners in the classified ads: https://www.mandolincafe.com/ads/154310#154310
I'd say so. What's the builder recommend?
'20 Ellis A5 Tradition, '09 Gilchrist Model 1, “July 9” Red Diamond F-5, '12 Duff F-5, '19 Collings MT2, ’24 A2-Z, ’24 F-2, '13 Collings mandola, '82 D-35, Gibson Keb Mo. http://www.bucktownrevue.com
$2,400 for the mandolin and $500 for tuners??? Not me. Plenty of decent tuning machines out there.
Shaun Garrity
http://www.youtube.com/user/spgokc78
I have Waverly on one mandolin it came with them. My other mandolins have decent less expensive tuners and I agree with those above. You won't really impress anyone with fancy tuners. Rubners or Schallers or Grovers would do the trick for me.
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
As far as I know my Eastmans have Schaller tuners, they all work perfectly.
Dave H
Eastman 615 mandola
2011 Weber Bitteroot A5
2012 Weber Bitteroot F5
Eastman MD 915V
Gibson F9
2016 Capek ' Bob ' standard scale tenor banjo
Ibanez Artist 5 string
2001 Paul Shippey oval hole
Thank you all for the recommendations. I will stay with the Grover tuners.
people seem to like these .. Schaller Grandtune
https://www.allparts.com/collections...-mandolin-keys
Will give kudos to Stew Mac for customer service.. If you ever have any Trouble with the Waverly tuners, they will be there for you..
writing about music
is like dancing,
about architecture
I have Waverly tuners on both of my F mandos, and they are nice tuners. Can't say they are X times better than other brands, but I don't regret buying them. I have a set of Rubners on my oval, and they are very nice as well, and look great. I also heard great things about the Shallers, mentioned above.
But to look at it another way, you said the mando is going to cost $2,400. I assume that would have some sort of tuners on there. If your builder had $100 budgeted for tuners, would the Waverlys be worth another $400? If I were building a mando in that price range, I'd probably go with the Shallers from what I know an have read. You'd get a really nice set of tuners without spending an unreasonable amount.
A quarter tone flat and a half a beat behind.
Have to go with what others have said above. I have guitars and mandolins with Grover, Shaller, Rubner, Waverly, Kluson and even Five-stars on a dulcimer. The only ones that I have ever had trouble with are the cheap four on a plate tuners that are on an old Harmony mandolin from the 1970s. And, with a little work and lubrication, they work OK.
Waverly tuners are nice, no doubt about it. Are they worth the price? Honestly, I don't think they are worth the incremental price. But, if an instrument comes with them (like my Huss & Dalton guitars), I'm not going to say "take them off." Not to say that cheap no-name tuners are just as good, but if you stick with known quality brands, they all seem to work pretty well and hold tuning.
Kit
Guitars, Mandos, Violins, Dulcimers, Cats
I have Waverly, Rubner, Grover and some unknown brands on mandolins. It’s hard for me to say that the first three are significantly different. The Waverly tuners ARE better, but not amazingly so. And the Rubners are maybe just a bit better than the Grovers but the Rubners have more choices for appearance. After using all three, I’d probably just be fine with Grover or Rubners.
Last edited by Doug Brock; May-05-2020 at 1:49pm.
Doug Brock
2018 Kimble 2 point (#259), Eastman MD315, Eastman MDA315, some guitars, banjos, and fiddles
here is an idea...Talk to your builder and if you decide to go with less expensive tuners, ask for a brand that is an exact fit for the waverly (I think stew-mac are). That way, if you feel the need to upgrade in the future or find a used set of waverlys super cheap, they can be dropped in the exact holes as the originals. SOme other brand would require a re-cut of the holes in order to add waverlys. BTW- I have had various brands and agree all have worked well enough. Waverlys are clearly higher quality and usually smoother if installed correctly, but you would likely not miss. My currrent mandos have them and they are nice.
Duff F5 #200
Kimble A5 #143
Preston Thompson DMA - 2016
Gibson RB4 - Greg Rich era
The stew-mac golden age are exact replacements for say the waverly tuners, and are actually very nice and well built-waverly now are all done by cnc, the back plates are wider and thinner than say the hand engraved waverly's from say mid 2005ish-i remeber as i had a set i bought in 2001 that were all hand engraved back plates but worn out around 2005-6 and was bummed when they sent me a brand new replacement set for free as i was in their records of being the original buyer of the set and they were covered for life with original buyer-don't know if thats still the case? But yeah was bummed as the cnc wern't as nice as the hand engraved sets-but i have to say they've held up better over the years-maybe because with cnc its more precision?
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