I started to pull these together whilst looking at the change in weight on a Martin-style soprano of say 270g ‘excluding tuners’ (or 230-240g for a Hawaiian style with no finger board, excl.tuners)
set of 4 tuners, total weight:
8g – softwood violin peg 1/4 size
11.6g – rosewood violin peg 1/4 size
c.20g – Elton 1960s trapezoidal white plastic/metal friction tuners fitted to Harmony ukuleles (“under 1oz”)
21g – Peghed geared tuners (1:4 ratio)
29.2g – largely plastic friction tuners fitted to 1990s Mahalo – not terribly effective
30g – Gotoh UKA Deluxe (Aluminium construction)
31g – Grover 2b
36.9g – Waverly friction tuners – koa buttons (note: 5.65-6.35mm hole size; new build 5mm hole rec.d)
37.8g – Chinese bought cheap friction tuners
38.1g – Waverly friction tuners – ebony buttons
40g – Gotoh UKB Black or White (as fitted to things like Ohana SK35)
43g – 1920s Mandolin-Banjo geared tuners ‘on a backplate’, cut down to to 2 each side
47.6g – Gotoh Stealth – lightest geared tuners with “ears”
48.2g – Lucy’s Ukulele Vintage Style Coloured friction pegs
54.6g – good Grover set nickel (8mm hole size)
57.5g – KoAloha friction tuners (similar to the ones on my Timms)
64g – ‘Leader’ Deluxe gold finish uke/banjo tuning pegs (sold by Eagle Music, UK; Carnelian or Ivory buttons, steel)
64g – Gotoh UPT Planetary 1:4 ratio
If you have anything worthwhile to add to the list, please leave a message and I’ll include it.
Ukulele 