Who made these tuners?

[DMcNutt]

Does anyone know the maker of these tuners? I have no idea if they are original to the bass.

Atypically the worm gears are on top of the round gears. Each tuner seems to be a bit different from the others--note the worm gears' different spirals and locking caps.

Any help appreciated.

[Cyoder]

Get it over with and just show us the entire bass already.

[tyb507]

1920's German shop bass.

[Steve Swan]

Kindly old Gipetto with Pinocchio as a helper. Okay, now. Please show us the rest!

[T-Bird]

Hi.

For me as a hobby machinist, the non-relieved straight hobbed wheel and the straight worm are dead giveaways that the parts have been hand-made with manually operated general machinery.

So IMO the maker has been someone with a desire or need to make DB tuners.
Not to mention the machinery and skill necessary to complete the task .

Regards
Sam

[DMcNutt]

Originally Posted by T-Bird

Hi.

For me as a hobby machinist, the non-relieved straight hobbed wheel and the straight worm are dead giveaways that the parts have been hand-made with manually operated general machinery.

So IMO the maker has been someone with a desire or need to make DB tuners.
Not to mention the machinery and skill necessary to complete the task .

Regards
Sam

Thanks for the interesting observations.

[Jake deVilliers]

That's an incredibly beautiful set of handmade tuners on a lovely walnut scroll: its just too bad about the ugly mechanical extension...

[lavmonga]

Originally Posted by Cyoder

Get it over with and just show us the entire bass already.

TB in a nutshell

[Jason Sypher]

Aw McNutt, you're at it again. It is HILARIOUS to me that you don't want to show us your bass. H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S!!!! But, regardless of your hide and seek, peek a boo methods, we are probably going to end up helping you anyway. Something is fishy in your scroll photos. The scroll looks pretty Italian (milanese/viennese) to me but I'm not sure what kind of wood that is. Oddly the scroll itself is finely carved with a distinctive extra quarter turn but the lower sections look unfinished and rather blocky. The absence of varnish is also very strange indeed. The tuners, or at least the sideplates look as if they don't fit the scroll, a curved lower end would usually follow the curve of the wood. It seems odd to have the plates curve like that when the wood does not. So much could be ascertained if we had a complete set of photos of the bass. You don't seem to understand that small features of a bass can be easier identified by seeing them IN CONTEXT. But that's ok, if that's your style. We'll just keep trying to help you with the little tidbits of incomplete information that you give us. So the names McNutt huh?

[drurb]

So, what's the game here, McNutt? You asked about the f-holes so that you can get information regarding the origin of the bass.

Originally Posted by DMcNutt

...My hope is that their particular shape may give some clue as to the general origin of the bass.

Now, you're asking who might have made the tuners. Would you be kind enough to explain why you simply don't show detailed pictures of the entire instrument so that you can gain the information that you claim to seek? Is this really about something else?

[Jason Sypher]

Yeah, that's kind of what I'm beginning to think. Something's fishy here McNutt... This isn't some kind of stolen instrument or something?

[Jason Sypher]

http://dennismcnutt.com/DennisMcNutt/How_It_Works.html

Behold NcNutt's modern Hungarian bass. Perhaps the whole game was to see if we would buy the ruse and tell him it's Italian. I was leaning towards such but the scroll was the give away (made clear to me this morning by a former banned bass maker - Hi Ken!). It's a pleasant copy, classic outline, medium grade workmanship. Now why did mcnutt,who must know what he has (it likely has a label and would also look very new on the inside) bother to play this game?

[drurb]

Originally Posted by Jason Sypher

Now why did mcnutt,who must know what he has (it likely has a label and would also look very new on the inside) bother to play this game?

Apparently, just to screw with people here. I guess all of this reveals that this statement of McNutt's regarding the f-holes was disingenuous:

Originally Posted by DMcNutt

...My hope is that their particular shape may give some clue as to the general origin of the bass.

As usual, the members here can be counted upon to be informative and clever.

[Jason Sypher]

The tuners are older, likely Hungarian as well. Though there are Viennese basses that follow that curvature, the craftsmanship is usually finer and more artistic... Personally I'm not going to cast judgement on why Mr. McNutt posted photos of the ffs, claiming to want info about the general origin of the bass, obscuring the information we might need to help him and then continuing a similar path with the tuners. I've seen his video, he looks like a nice enough guy, too old to be trolling a bass website. I'll wait to hear what this was all about from him...

It's interesting, now that we've been steered in the right direction, how completely Hungarian the scroll looks. If you've been to Hungary, and I have a couple of times, the aesthetic is unmistakeable.

[DMcNutt]

Allow me to explain why in my original posting I simply asked about the identity of the tuners without including detailed photos of the bass:

--Tuners are not necessarily original to a bass.

--I had hoped that one of the many TalkBass members might provide specific identification, or a link to photos of similar tuners. A photo might well be worth more than an opinion.

--I mistakenly thought the tuners might be more easily identifiable than a whole instrument. Even when examined meticulously in person experts sometimes disagree on basses. Online opinions are usually based only on photos of the instrument’s outer surfaces and the vagaries of the digital rendering of the colors.

--I thought that these tuners were different enough that some members might find them interesting.

--By asking only a narrow question I hoped the thread would focus on it and not get diverted.

Apologies to any and all! Thanks to those who have tried to help.

[Jason Sypher]

Well it has led me to look at ff's and tuners (and scrolls) very closely. What I discovered was that the ffs and the scrolls are indeed highly personal and infinite in variety. The tuners can be works of art in themselves but are far less reliable as they were likely not made by the luthier but someone who specializes in metals. Ff's, while personal, do change from one bass to another by the same maker.

[DMcNutt]

Very helpful. Thanks.

[Jason Sypher]

Does this scroll look familiar?

[jnel]

with the greek letter X in a square- could it be a scroll too small and boring for a C extension, thus "the dead C scroll?

just guessin.

[Jason Sypher]

Yeah, I couldn't get it to work.