Giving a bit of new life to an older banjo turned out to be just around $35 so far, which bought a new set of strings and tuners. The local shop didn't have machine tuners for a banjo, but these Grover-like guitar tuners fit and work just fine.Removing the set screw from the old friction fit tuners was easy enough, and liberated the tuner shaft and knob. A few gentle taps with a mallet on a screw driver aimed at the edge of the steel inserts slipped those out easily. One note of caution: knocking out one of the inserts unfortunately took out a little splinter of wood from the finished headstock (see bottom photo). I was able to glue it back in, but it's still visible. Sigh. Next time I'd score the finish of the headstock around the insert with an X-acto knife to ensure nothing is stuck together.
To fit the new tuners, a little hole cleansing was needed - achieved with a bit of sandpaper wrapped around a pencil.
The new tuners may affect the sound some, since there is less direct mechanical contact between string and headstock--but for learning on, this will be just fine.Tuning will be much less frustrating than with the old friction fit tuners, which seemed to go out of tune easily and take a lot of tuning time--time I'd rather spend playing!
