Upgrading From 14:1 to 18:1 Ball-Bearing Tuners
Nylon strings stretch and react to temperature, so getting a classical guitar in tune can take some fiddling. The guitar I pick up most often had inexpensive tuners that were fine but tight, so I replaced them with Guyker 18:1 classical guitar tuners with ball bearings. There aren’t many tuners in this price range with bearings.
What I cover:
- Unboxing the tuners
- Removing the old hardware
- Installing the new tuners
- Stringing the guitar
- Tuning test and review
I counted the turns on both sets. The old tuners took 14 turns of the button for one turn of the roller, and the Guykers take 18. Those extra turns let you fine-tune much more precisely. Right out of the box the bearings felt smooth, and each side comes with a cup washer and a nylon washer.
The holes for the rollers fit nicely. The two outside screw holes lined up perfectly, but the two inside ones needed new holes. They were far enough from the old holes that I didn’t need to fill anything. I sanded the high spots around the old screw holes with 400-grit paper on a flat block so the plates would sit flat (and dulled the finish a little, so take it easy). Then I marked the new holes with an indent tool and drilled a small pilot hole.
What I don’t like: the supplied screws are much longer than the originals and could almost poke through, so I reused my original screws. They still fit the holes, and the silver heads look fine with the hardware. The tuners sit fairly flush, and I like how the black rollers contrast with the light strings.
The result: this guitar is much easier to get in tune than it was with the old tuners. The black version seems to be very good quality, and they get my thumbs up.
If you’re doing this yourself, you’ll need a screwdriver, some fine sandpaper and a flat block, something to mark the new screw holes, and a small drill bit for pilot holes.
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Products mentioned (affiliate links):
- Guyker Classical Guitar Tuners 18:1 (black) https://amzn.to/44pGo09
- Guyker Classical Guitar Tuners 18:1 (gold) https://amzn.to/3YANtaC