Best acoustic machine heads/tuners

domforr · February 2020

Hi, what is the best, most accurate set of machine heads for an acoustic guitar? I have an old John Hullah guitar which is lovely, but it has some unbranded tuning pegs that I feel could be improved upon to improve the tuning stability. They look like Gotoh (modern) style tuners, rather than the vintage style tuners although I'm not sure of the exact measurements.

Thanks,

Dominic

brucegill · February 2020

Gotoh 510. Super smooth, good gearing for very precise tuning. Have a set on a Lowden F35. Love them. Also have a set of Robson on another lowden, although they look stunning and all hand made open gearing, I prefer the Gotoh at 1/3 of the price.

crunchman · February 2020

I know they aren't normally an acoustic thing, but I'd get some locking Gotohs for ease of string changes.

domforr · February 2020

great, thanks. The locking gotoh's are for electrics but will fit acoustic?

ICBM · February 2020

While it's true that Gotohs are very good tuners, if the existing ones are any type of modern cast-body tuners it's very unlikely that they're the cause of the trouble.

Binding in the nut grooves and poor stringing/tuning methods are the usual causes. Apologies if you'r sure it's not the second one of those...

earwighoney · February 2020

domforr said:

Hi, what is the best, most accurate set of machine heads for an acoustic guitar? I have an old John Hullah guitar which is lovely, but it has some unbranded tuning pegs that I feel could be improved upon to improve the tuning stability. They look like Gotoh (modern) style tuners, rather than the vintage style tuners although I'm not sure of the exact measurements.

Thanks,

Dominic

I'd measure the routing of the existing tuners holes, and see what it is and work from there. If the route is 10mm and you get something smaller or larger, you'd either need to ream out the holes or get conversion bushings.

As for tuning stability, IMO how well the nut is cut will impact the tuning stability as well. I have a cheap Tele that had the worst tuning stability, truly terrible tuners as well and when I replaced the nut the tuning stability was fine afterwards, which isn't to say your tuners aren't working well though.

I'd also try and measure how much your existing tuners weigh, as I've noticed there can be a slight change in the instrument's sound when changing tuners; I'd try to keep as close to the mass of the current ones as possible.

domforr · February 2020

Great advice from all :-). Maybe I should get a guitar tech to check things out first before going ahead with anything as it may be the nut or perhaps the saddle? How easy is it to fix intonation issues if the guitar has no truss rod?

ICBM · February 2020

domforr said:

Great advice from all :-). Maybe I should get a guitar tech to check things out first before going ahead with anything as it may be the nut or perhaps the saddle? How easy is it to fix intonation issues if the guitar has no truss rod?

I would, definitely - if I added up all the money I've lost by not fitting a new set of machineheads when the owner has asked me to "because it won't stay in tune", but solved the problem simply by fixing the nut and any other minor issues, I could probably buy quite a decent guitar...

It's unlikely to be anything to do with the bridge saddle - there's rarely enough distance between it and the string anchor point to allow the string to move far enough to stick.

There are two likely issues with the nut - grooves too tight/wrongly shaped/wrongly angled, which will make the strings stick and the guitar not *stay* in tune - and being too high, which will make the guitar *play* out of tune at the first few frets, which often sounds like the same thing but isn't quite.

The issue with stringing (I hope I'm not insulting your intelligence!) is when the strings are wound onto the posts too loosely -usually by wrapping them round several times then sticking the end through the hole, which also tends to twist the string - crossed over themselves, or just too much string on the post, so the coil of string can slip. Ideally you need the minimum possible number of wraps on the post with the loose end locked in some way - there are a couple of 'patent pending' ways of doing this, both of which work - and to stretch the string firmly as you tune it up, so the wrap tightens onto the post fully.

You should also always tune up to the note, not down to it. If the string is sharp, go below then back up again - that will prevent 'backlash' in the tuner gears (even on really cheap and nasty heads) and most snagging issues at the nut.

After all that, if it *still* won't stay in tune, consider new machineheads... although it's amazing how bad they need to be before tightening and greasing them lightly won't help.

If the guitar has no truss rod it won't cause tuning issues by itself, but it may mean the neck has too much relief and so cause the guitar to *play* out of tune.

domforr · February 2020

Very interesting thank you - always happy to hear good advice from others. I think the string winding is probably okay, so I don't think that's an issue. I've noticed that when I capo up the neck (drop D or DADGAD tuning) the notes become noticeably out, so there seems to be a bit of an intonation issue. I've haven't had this guitar set up since purchasing it a few years back as it's generally been quite stable to my ears. Not sure why it's started to go a bit iffy recently, but this seems to happen to all my guitars. Some days they're great an others it just seems impossible to get them tuned properly. Climatic perhaps? A source of endless frustration though.

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Best acoustic machine heads/tuners

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