Changing end pin for optimum sound

[Karl Beck]

A great way to enhance your sound is to change the end pin. If your end pin is metal or wood and metal, IT IS KILLING your sound!!!
Here is a great way to add to your thumpin....

( If you do not know how to work on your bass, please take it to a shop )
A simple way to enhance your sound is purchase a 5/8 end pin,a #2B drumstick, a rubber tip for the end of the peg, and do a little sanding ( a mini lathe works great ) but keep in mind you may need to purchase an end pin reamer for the end pin block, Like I said before if you
don't know what your doing please take it to someone who does and tell them what you want. Remove the metal rod and dry fit the drumstick, it needs to slide in easily and not jam up, but you need to leave some room for summer and winter wood expansion but very little. less than sung will do fine. If it doesn't fit be prepared for a lot of sanding because I will bet the stick you bough is made out of Hickory and that's tough stuff. after you get it to fit you will need to fit the end pin properly. I will take the reamer and go slowly putting slight pressure on the back side to create a 2º angle down away from the pull of the cable, this will prevent the socket collar from breaking out and the pin falling or yanking out in a destructive action, EVERY time you play check your end pin !!! Standard end pin taper is 1;17. You dont want to fit to exact size because over time the shank will pull loose,the end pin doesn't need to go in all the way so leave about an 1/8 of and inch before hitting bottom, after that you can add a cotter pin to the very top if you want so the pin doesn't fall out and remember over time you will need to replace the drum stick depending on how hard you tighten the screw and how much you play...... Anyway I just wanted to share some info...I will attach some photos

[Karl Beck]

I have experimented with various types of end pins and I can tell you that nothing beats a maple or hickory
drumstick. I changed ( on my plywood bass ) a spruce sound post to a oak hard wood sound post and a metal end pin to a wooden ( drum stick ) one and the sound change was incredible....
I also added one to my 1920 carved Juzek ( just the end pin )and it just made it louder....

[Eric Hochberg]

Originally Posted by Karl Beck

If your end pin is metal or wood and metal, IT IS KILLING your sound!!!

Seriously, Karl, kind of a generalization, don't you think? People have their own experiences with different endpin materials. MY sound is best achieved with a steel endpin under most conditions. My carbon Laborie works pretty well, too. Wood pins kill the highs and pizz punch on my basses. Pretty, darker arco, not so great pizz.

[George700DL]

I made a wooden endpin for my bass (and I also use a crutch tip on the end), but I don't buy that this is the optimal thing for every bass, in every case. Based on other people's experiments, it seems that some basses do better with metal pins.

In my case, I started off with an oak dowel, then turned a new one out of walnut (Mr. Chuck Traeger's recommended wood in most cases), and it made exactly 0 difference on my bass.

George

[Paul Warburton]

Originally Posted by Eric Hochberg

Seriously, Karl, kind of a generalization, don't you think? People have their own experiences with different endpin materials. MY sound is best achieved with a steel endpin under most conditions. My carbon Laborie works pretty well, too. Wood pins kill the highs and pizz punch on my basses. Pretty, darker arco, not so great pizz.

+1

[MIKMAN]

Chuck the Great in his second book (Coda etc) says that it depends on each bass if and when a certain endpin improves or kills its sound. He borrows a term from electricity, namely impedance, to describe this inherent capacity of a particular bass. My experience (rather limited i must admit) says that some dark basses become brighter and give better results with steel endpins. My own basses became louder and delivered better pizz sound with the KC Strings endpin, which has a carbon fiber rod and a wooden leg (just like ... Long John Silver's one). Two of them became noticeably better also under the bow, the third one showed no difference.
Mike

[Jack Clark]

On my UG, which uses a 16-inch (40cm) endpin, I went from a hollow schedule-40 PVC pipe to a maple dowel. I swap them back and forth and hear no difference at all. Probably just my odd instrument.

[Bruce Lindfield]

I swapped my metal endpin for a carbon fibre one and it made a noticable improvement in the sound!

[Square Bear]

i practiced for hours a day for years and it made a tremendous improvement in my sound.

[Bruce Lindfield]

One's a sudden change and one's a gradual change though....

[drurb]

Originally Posted by Square Bear

i practiced for hours a day for years and it made a tremendous improvement in my sound.

Bravo!

[George700DL]

Originally Posted by Square Bear

i practiced for hours a day for years and it made a tremendous improvement in my sound.

That's nice.

But if there is something obvious structurally that is holding back the bass's volume, I wanna change it.

It wasn't the endpin in my case - it was the tailgut length.

George

[Cody Sisk]

I've bested you all, my endpin rod is gold plated.

[Bass]

I vote for Atomic Endpins.

[arnoldschnitzer]

Originally Posted by DallasStrings

I've bested you all, my endpin rod is gold plated.

Well, mine is a petrified Mammoth penis. I read in a book that it would make my bass sound more weighty and masculine.

[Sahm]

Originally Posted by arnoldschnitzer

Well, mine is a petrified Mammoth penis.

What's it afraid of, commitment?

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

Originally Posted by DallasStrings

I've bested you all, my endpin rod is gold plated.

So your rod is gold plated and Schnitzel has a mammoth penis. This thread is getting interesting.

[kurt ratering]

i thought mamoth wang was on the CITES list...do you have papers?

[Square Bear]

i love this thread

[Cody Sisk]

Originally Posted by kurt ratering

i thought mamoth wang was on the CITES list...do you have papers?

Schnitzel's rolling papers..