jay_banjoman - Posted - 03/16/2015:  11:25:28

I have an old kit banjo with Five Star Planet tuners. The 5th string tuner is broken and needs to be replaced. I found these planetary tuners on AliExpress for about $20 for a set of 5 tuners.

aliexpress.com/item/5-Set-Head...4358.html

Have you tried these tuners, and if so, how well do they work?

I know these are not going to be Gotoh tuner quality, but I do not really want to spend $82+ for new tuners for this banjo.

Thanks,

Jay

banjofool469 - Posted - 03/16/2015:  11:48:04

Hey Jay, If all you need is the 5th. string tuner, you can get a five star from stewmac.com for $13.25. Why mess around with an unknown? Cheers. Jim

llrevis - Posted - 03/16/2015:  11:50:44

I have a Chinese made banjo that came with Chinese made planetary tuners. I did not like them and replaced them right away. You get what you pay for. I would replace the fifth string tuner that failed and leave the rest alone. I have a new 5 Star tuner that has never been used. You can have it for $10 and $3 postage.

jay_banjoman - Posted - 03/16/2015:  12:24:15

Hi Larry and Jim,

Thank you for the input..  Larry, I sent you a PM.

Jay

shane_lxi - Posted - 03/16/2015:  13:13:56

Those tuners are horrible. I had some on my Gold Tone for a bit, one stripped pretty quickly. I replaced them with another set of Chinese tuners since I wasn't planning on keeping the banjo that long (the ones on eBay that look like Gotoh planets), they're a bit better but still pretty crappy.

Edited by - shane_lxi on 03/16/2015 13:15:26

Dan Drabek - Posted - 03/16/2015:  13:17:00

Back when I was in high school, Earl Scheib used to advertise that they would paint any car, any color for only $29.95. Of course, even back then, it was clear that in order to repaint a car at that price, they were cutting serious corners. With twenty-dollar-a-set tuners, I'd guess they would have to be using cheap labor and cheap materials. Probably cast pot metal throughout. They won't be smooth, and they may not last very long. But they will probably work for a while. I agree that going with a single, good quality fifth string tuner is wise, if that's what you really need. I used 5-star tuners for decades and never had a problem. 

DD

skip sail - Posted - 03/16/2015:  13:17:35

+1
dont bother with em,they are awful.

G Edward Porgie - Posted - 03/16/2015:  13:58:36

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dan Drabek

Back when I was in high school, Earl Scheib used to advertise that they would paint any car, any color for only $29.95. Of course, even back then, it was clear that in order to repaint a car at that price, they were cutting serious corners. With twenty-dollar-a-set tuners, I'd guess they would have to be using cheap labor and cheap materials. Probably cast pot metal throughout. They won't be smooth, and they may not last very long. But they will probably work for a while. I agree that going with a single, good quality fifth string tuner is wise, if that's what you really need. I used 5-star tuners for decades and never had a problem. 

DD

---

Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but when I was in high school an Earl Scheib paint job was only $19.95. I had a car once that the previous owner had had done there, and it was pretty awful. I'd expect the same low quality on a $20 set of tuners.

Ken LeVan - Posted - 03/16/2015:  14:47:05

What country it was made in means very little nowadays, but it's easy to use that as a determiner of quality.

Bill Rickard makes phenomenal parts is in Canada. Is Canda somehow different than Montana? and in what way? I guess a river runs through both places -been to both places and seen the rivers.  I think Bill's products are as good as they get.

Recently, my wife was shopping for a new sewing machine. We went to a store here in PA that sold sewing machines used by Amish and Mennonites to make quilts (understandable). I won't bore you with the ins-and-outs, but they sold Bernina sewing machines, made in Switzerland and Thailand.  The bonneted salesperson who was showing us the machines pointed out that some were made in Switzerland and some were made in Thailand, and she said "Thailand is a lot like Switzerland". Why? don't ask me - I can't think of any similarity, but there you go.

This will all shake out eventually, I'm sure.

Zachary Hoyt - Posted - 03/16/2015:  14:59:49

I think the similarity may be that they both end in -"land".  This is something they also share with some other places.

Zach

banjonz - Posted - 03/16/2015:  15:25:15

While Asian made tuners are a bit of a lottery quality wise, there are those which have worked extremely well. 

rudy - Posted - 03/16/2015:  19:15:09

I wouldn't begin to label any product's quality based on country of origin, but there are generalizations that you can apply once you become familiar with the marketplace.

I'd be much more likely to make broad statements about quality based on cost.  If you can buy a set of 5 planetary / geared tuners for $20 you can probably assume that's what they are worth.  Twenty dollar tuners might be fine for someone who is flipping instruments, I wouldn't risk my reputation as a builder by supplying tuners procured from eBay on anything I sold.

jay_banjoman - Posted - 03/16/2015:  21:02:56

Ok, I got the picture. 

I bought Larry's unused Five Star 5th string tuner.  Thanks Larry! 

 

Helix - Posted - 03/17/2015:  05:12:03

How much identity theft can you get for $20.

You bought the 5-star tuner, good noggin.

wtalley - Posted - 03/18/2015:  06:47:52

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dan Drabek

Back when I was in high school, Earl Scheib used to advertise that they would paint any car, any color for only $29.95. Of course, even back then, it was clear that in order to repaint a car at that price, they were cutting serious corners. With twenty-dollar-a-set tuners, I'd guess they would have to be using cheap labor and cheap materials. Probably cast pot metal throughout. They won't be smooth, and they may not last very long. But they will probably work for a while. I agree that going with a single, good quality fifth string tuner is wise, if that's what you really need. I used 5-star tuners for decades and never had a problem. 

DD

---

Back in the early 60's my brother had a '49 Plymouth that need a paint job.  He took it to Earl Scheib - it was all he could afford.  The car had some bird dirt on the hood - Earl painted right over it!

Joe Connor - Posted - 03/18/2015:  07:10:16

Well, he isn't Earl Scruggs but then Earl Scruggs probably couldn't paint cars.

I had a car that had been painted by Earl Scheib. Let's just say it wasn't exactly art. It was sort of the splash-and-dash school of painting.

Edited by - Joe Connor on 03/18/2015 07:11:19

Dan Drabek - Posted - 03/18/2015:  07:59:04

No ups. No extras. :->