Best machine heads?

[Owen]

I have always thought that a machine head was a machine head. My ACG has some Hipshot Ultra Lite jobbies on it. Wow, it looks like a machine head is not just a machine head. The mechanical action is massively pleasing and the tuning accuracy is fabulous.

 

What should I have on my shopping list?

[Beedster]

Gotoh nickel lollipops are my faves by a long way, Hipshot are good however 

[Owen]

The gearing, or whatever, on the Hipshots is just lovely.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I have two favourites:

 

The hipshot HB7 lollipops on my vintera & JMJ mustangs look great and work exactly as a tuner should.

 

 

The Gotoh res-o-lite GB640s sets I put on my Thunderbird vintage pros not only look great and work perfectly, they are also ultra light and are the only ones I know of in this vintage 50s/60s style that turn the same way as the tuners on all of my other basses.

 

[Jono Bolton]

On 16/12/2022 at 19:58, Beedster said:

Gotoh nickel lollipops are my faves by a long way, Hipshot are good however 

Gotoh is my go-to whenever I'm looking for new tuners (no pun intended)

[BigRedX]

Gotoh, Graphtec, Hipshot and Schaller all make machine heads worth considering.

 

Which you chose will depend on features are important to you. Gotoh used to be the most versatile because they offered a service where you could assemble a set of machine heads from all the various options they had. This unfortunately no longer appears to be available, so you have to make do with the preset options instead.

[lidl e]

Personally, im a big fan of the Schaller open backs with the chubby keys

 

[BlueMoon]

Gotoh for me. Hipshot also very good.

[neepheid]

On 20/12/2022 at 10:18, lidl e said:

Personally, im a big fan of the Schaller open backs with the chubby keys

 

 

Yes, I do enjoy me some M4S action.  The Grover Titans are similar but less elegant because they use visible mounting screws instead of built in pins on the underside.

[fretmeister]

Hipshot Ultralites for me too.

 

My Sandbergs have their new super light tuners too - like for like (Clover keys) they are actually lighter than the Hipshots. They are available to buy to be fitted to other basses.

Y key Hipshots are still the lightest of all though.

[Owen]

It is the Y key Hipshots which I have. Super light is lovely, obv, but the accuracy is a beautiful thing.

[Woodinblack]

Hipshot ultralights here too. A large number of my basses have the Gotoh lightweight tuners, but one of them I replaced with ultralights as I needed the very slight reduction in weight.

[3below]

Hipshot ultralights are my favourite. Having experienced both USA and licenced versions on various basses I am highly impressed with the licenced ones.  A standout bargain are these : https://retrovibe.co.uk/product/premium-quality-bass-tuning-machine-heads-201-retrovibe-tuners-2l2r-4l-4r/ . I used a set on a bass build, really smooth tuning feel and at 59g each are not heavy weights.  For comparison a Schaller M4 light is 52g.