That isn’t to say that a guitar with a headstock can’t be ergonomic but its an easier equation when you’re not fighting the lever effect of tuners hanging out at the end of a neck, for example.Īs far as Jeff’s designs, they use conventional guitar strings which are a practical advantage since they are widely available in far greater types than double ball strings will ever be. This has the potential to improve balance, centralize mass and reduce weight. A headless guitar eliminates the headstock and moves the tuners to the body. The choice of headless guitar tuners over conventional tuners isn’t necessarily about simplicity – at least with regards to our site theme of guitar ergonomics. Many thanks to Jeff Turpin for sharing his work with us. I suspect a few of us will now be sneaking off to the workshop in search of our own headless guitar tuner solutions.

(Portuguese guitars have a similar system, well worth checking out).Īnother one of our readers, Michael Preston, shared this great link to an example of a Portuguese guitar or guitarra portuguesa that Jeff references. A thin shim of plastic does the job of ball bearing races. The screws are from electrical supply shops. This holds the ball end and a M4 allen key grub screw clamps the other. Then from brass stock cut blocks, hand drilled and tapped an M3 thread to get the 11mm of movement required to bring the string to pitch. I’ve built 4 headless instruments, each time making the tuners with 35mm long M3 screws, with wood or brass head added. Jeff also shared the following details about making the headless guitar tuners: They use ball bearings but its overkill and adds too much weight but I was after the sustain.

The electric is from ’87 and I used a milling machine and drill press to make the bridge and tuners.

Bass headstock endview