But there's one thing even more important to tuner functioning and wear than the quality of the tuners themselves: the holes in the headstock for the rollers.  Holes that are too large or small, improperly spaced or not drilled exactly 90� to the headstock plate face will subject even the best tuners to unnecessary stress and shorten their life.  Roller holes on my guitars are drilled with a custom-made machinist-tolerance jig to ensure very high precision.

There are five tuner options available for a Jacobson classical guitar, depending on your aesthetic tastes, your playing or performing requirements...or your guitar budget.

The standard tuners I use on my guitars are Gotoh Deluxe tuners, and I highly recommend them.  I have used these tuners for years and have never had to replace a set.  They have an attractive gold-plated lyre-style plate and surprisingly smooth, durable and reliable gears.  The gear-to-worm interface is not as slack-free as more expensive tuners, but that doesn't matter once the guitar is tuned up to pitch; the tension of the strings pulls the slack out and keeps it out whether tuning up or down, so tuning is effortless and precise.

Tuners made by internationally renowned luthier John Gilbert represent some of the finest engineering ever applied to the classical guitar. They are extraordinarily smooth to operate and have near-zero slack. Because many of the parts are precision injection-molded PPS plastic, they are lighter in weight than most tuners.

In addition to the three-on-a-plate style Gilbert tuners, a customer may choose optionally the individual style Gilbert tuners. A set of these tuners, which offers quality comparable to the three-on-a-plate style, is slightly lighter in weight than any other tuner option available.

Tuners by Irving Sloane are an excellent option, and I recommend them with enthusiasm. They are hand-crafted and have attractive precision-cast plates in the Hauser style. They are available in either bronze finish or gold plated.

The mechanical parts on the Sloane tuners are very high quality and mesh closely for maximum ease of operation and virtually no slack. These tuners are extremely durable and can be expected to last for the life of the guitar. They are very well suited for concert and recital use.

Tuners by David Rodgers tuners are without question the finest available anywhere, at any price. They are custom hand-crafted by David Rodgers of Leicester, England. The plates on the ones which I use on my instruments are of burnished stainless brass and are custom-made from my design to complement the aesthetics of the headstock on a Jacobson guitar. They are hand-engraved by Denis McQuoid, one of England's most distinguished artist-engravers.

Precision meshing of the gears on the Rodgers tuners extends their useful lifetime considerably by reducing wear. This makes them virtually indestructible under normal use. They are also extraordinarily smooth and effortless to operate because of their near-zero slack. This means you can tune either up- or down-pitch with ease and confidence.