Tuners for a tap guitar

[Consul]

Somehow, the bigger tap guitar makers are able to find smaller-sized (i.e., guitar-sized) tuners that can handle both guitar and bass strings. Is this something they have special-made, or is there something out there I can buy? Stewmac were unable to help me. I tried calling them first.

I'm planning a tap guitar build. We'll see how well it turns out.

 

[pucho812]

you mean like a chapman stick?

 

[Consul]

Chapman Stick or Warr Guitar, or the Megatar, or...

Yeah, like those. I have my own design ideas to try out.

 

[pucho812]

cool man.

here is a pic of a string box for  a 10 string chapman stick

at .091 being the biggest string gauge  think you need just find tuners that fit that.

 

[Consul]

That's not really a spec given for tuner machines on anyone's web site, but I guess it gives me an idea of what to avoid.

It seems the number-one different between guitar and bass tuners, besides size, is that bass tuners are slotted instead of drilled. Maybe someone makes slotted guitar tuners as well...

 

[joaquins]

I guess some fender are slotted... But couldn't you do some machining on them if they are big enoght?

JS

 

[Consul]

I'd given that some thought, but any machining that I can do would likely ruin the finish.

I have a feeling that tap guitar manufacturers get their tuners custom-made.

 

[joaquins]

But if there is a factory making those they would be on some store... maybe a tap guitar manufacturer could sell them separetly...

JS

 

[Scodiddly]

Maybe you could mix big guitar and small bass tuners, and make your own knobs.

 

[Consul]

I'm actually wondering if I can engineer my own solution. My thought right now is to do a headless design with bridge tuners. I need to custom-make the bridge for this design anyway (non-standard string spacing), so what's one more bit of customization?

Although Scodiddly's idea sounds pretty workable.

 

[joaquins]

I suppoused you'd already discarded this option because of aesthetics... mixed bridge sound nice... there are some individual bridge around for headless instuments so you don't to work so hard...

http://www.bass-parts.com/epages/61038859.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61038859/Products/ETS-TFSH/SubProducts/ETS-TFSH-0007

And one from Strandbergs

JS

 

[Consul]

The problem with those is that I need a 9mm center-to-center string spacing. Well, okay, I don't need that, per se, but that is my design decision, and is very typical of tap guitars.

 

[tchgtr]

Warr Guitars get theirs from Sperzel. They are very nice, because they lock.
The bass tuners are a different size from the guitar ones.
Don't know if they will sell to private parties, but they are nice folks who would probably answer a phone call.
Photos when done, please.