Hi Everyone
I just read a thread where Ken (Smith) had had trouble converting a bass to 5 strings because of a small pegbox.
I just wanted to share this info regarding a solution that is very common in Berlin.
What you do is that you "invert" the 5th string. By that I mean that you drill a hole somewhere in the pegbox, you run the string through and the ball end will keep it in place. Then you install a single tuner onto the ebony tailpiece. This way you can even keep the 4 string tailpiece, provided it has enough wood and room to install (screw) the single tuner.
Some basses in the Berlin Philharmonic have had this done. The only drawback is that you need to bend over to tune the 5th string, but usually people do most of the tuning with a tuner before rehearsal starts anyway.
I just read a thread where Ken (Smith) had had trouble converting a bass to 5 strings because of a small pegbox.
I just wanted to share this info regarding a solution that is very common in Berlin.
What you do is that you "invert" the 5th string. By that I mean that you drill a hole somewhere in the pegbox, you run the string through and the ball end will keep it in place. Then you install a single tuner onto the ebony tailpiece. This way you can even keep the 4 string tailpiece, provided it has enough wood and room to install (screw) the single tuner.
Some basses in the Berlin Philharmonic have had this done. The only drawback is that you need to bend over to tune the 5th string, but usually people do most of the tuning with a tuner before rehearsal starts anyway.
