Bridges and tuners

[KingRazor]

So when looking around on Ebay I can often find tuners for around $15 or so. Most sites like Stewmac and Allparts charge a lot more.

When I see an $80 price tag on a set of tuners I have to wonder if that's really worth it. But I don't want to just settle for crappy ones either. I often see people upgrading the tuners on cheaper basses because they don't work very well. Plus I like the idea of using the hipshot ultralight tuners to help keep the neck and body in balance (assuming the body is light).

With bridges it's a little different, you can get a Gotoh for around $25 and most people consider it a great upgrade bridge. But at the same time you can find "like new" Fender style bridges on the bay for like $5.

So what I'm trying to figure out is how whether or not the cheap stuff is worth getting at all or if I should just save up and get some quality parts.

I'm not spending $80 on tuners, though, light-weight or not.

[Labi]

You should search more. Here are a couple of links for some really good and really cheap tuners. They're in Europe tho'
http://www.thomann.de/gb/kluson_mkbrc.htm
http://www.thomann.de/gb/warwick_tuning_machines.html
As for the bridge, at the price tag of $25 for a Gotoh how much more could you save? Buying cheaper for a no name bridge isn't worth it.

[KingRazor]

Originally Posted by Labi

You should search more. Here are a couple of links for some really good and really cheap tuners. They're in Europe tho'
http://www.thomann.de/gb/kluson_mkbrc.htm
http://www.thomann.de/gb/warwick_tuning_machines.html
As for the bridge, at the price tag of $25 for a Gotoh how much more could you save? Buying cheaper for a no name bridge isn't worth it.

These appear to be Gotoh style tuners, which tend to be cheaper in general anyway. They look fine on a lot of basses but this is going to be a Fender-style build so I'm going with the standard Fender-style tuning keys.

Yeah, at $25 I really should just get the Gotoh bridge.

As far as tuners, the Sandberg adjustable tension tuners look pretty good. About $30.

[tangentmusic]

Try Al's Music source on ebay (alsmusicsource).
They are not too far from you (Sacramento)
I have gotten some nice Wilkenson tuners from them for $36. They also offer hi-mass bridges for $21. Lots of other cool bass parts too.
Good guys to buy from

[Burlington]

I've always found that you get what you pay for when it comes to hardware.

[KingRazor]

Anyone here have experience with the Sandberg adjustable tension tuners?

[darkstorm]

While some low price hardware is good qaulity, aka gotoh bass bridge. A lot of the cheaper stuff isnt worth the time it takes to install em imo. I really cant imagine a decent qaulity set of bass tuners under $25 unless its buying used ones from someone who upgraded the stock tuners on their genreally good qaulity import for asthetics (color change). I'd much rather spend $100-$200 for nice bridge and tuners rather then go cheap and not get an improvement or reliability cause of that.

[KingRazor]

Originally Posted by darkstorm

While some low price hardware is good qaulity, aka gotoh bass bridge. A lot of the cheaper stuff isnt worth the time it takes to install em imo. I really cant imagine a decent qaulity set of bass tuners under $25 unless its buying used ones from someone who upgraded the stock tuners on their genreally good qaulity import for asthetics (color change). I'd much rather spend $100-$200 for nice bridge and tuners rather then go cheap and not get an improvement or reliability cause of that.

Yeah it'd still be under $60 even if I went with the Stewmac stuff. So I guess I shouldn't really be worrying.

The Sandberg adjustable tension tuners look pretty affordable at $30 for a full set. I don't know how the "adjustable tension" works exactly on them but that sounds like a convenient feature.

The Hipshot Ultralites would be nice, I hear nothing but good things about them, but they're a whopping $80. That just seems like a lot of money for tuning gears.