Double Bass Bass guitar tuners for BSO?

[jayscheuerle]

I've got a little BSO project in the works and I want to avoid the high price of upright tuners. What are the problems/downsides with using Bass guitar tuners for a venture like this?

Thanks for any insight on how I can get this to work. - j

 

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Some BSO's, especially the newer CCB's, come with separate "BG" tuners.

I haven't used BG tuners on a BD, but here's a few potholes to IMHO watch out for.

A DB tuner shaft is supported, or at least should be, on both ends. That distributes the string load more evenly onto the peg-box.

For that same reason, some of the peg-boxes I have seen, have oversized holes on the gear side, so the shaf is supported at ends. That can pose a problem if the holes aren't plugged and re-drilled for BG tuners.


DB strings, especially guts, weedwackers, etc. are REALLY thick compared with regular BG strings, the hole or the slot in a BG tuner may not be big enough.

Asthetics could be one pothole as well, without veneering the peg-box it'll look like crap with the the old (assumed) single plate outline and its holes, dents and all.

That all said, as far as I can Google, Low cost DB tuners are out there, costing not more than a decent quality BG tuners.

Just an example, there's others as well: Invalid Link Removed

I have absolutely no idea about the quality of those tuners though, perhaps someone who has used 'em can shed some light onto it.

Regards
Sam

 

[George700DL]

I've got a little BSO project in the works and I want to avoid the high price of upright tuners. What are the problems/downsides with using Bass guitar tuners for a venture like this?

Thanks for any insight on how I can get this to work. - j

I put bass guitar tuners on my double bass after I built it, because I just wanted to get the thing strung up and playing. They cost me about $50 for a set of 4. I turned my own shafts for those tuners out of hardwood to replace the short steel ones. It worked perfectly fine and it was very smooth. The only issue was looks. I am now sporting nice old hatpegs on my bass, courtesy of Mr. Warburton. This is how cool they look now

George

 

[Paul Warburton]

+1.

 

[jayscheuerle]

Thanks for the tips. This is a "from scratch" project, so I can work with the looks (not going classical). I was wondering primarily if 1) I should build up the shafts so that the thicker strings aren't stressed to much turning around the thinner ones (hate to have one break!), and 2) if the gearing was going to be fine enough to adjust and strong enough to hold.

Took a chance and ordered a few. - j

 

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Did You order open ("Fender" style) or closed tuners?

If it's the former, the shaft is most likely thick enough, but the < 10mm shaft on the majority of the closed ones are smaller than I for one would like with an expensive DB string.

If You have an access to a lathe, do what George above did and turn new shafts out of the material of Your choice.

The gearing ratio will be fine, as well as the structural integrity, the "Fender" style tuner shares a lot of similaities with the DB tuner. I wonder why is it so?

Regards
Sam

 

[robobass]

Hi.

Did You order open ("Fender" style) or closed tuners?

If it's the former, the shaft is most likely thick enough, but the < 10mm shaft on the majority of the closed ones are smaller than I for one would like with an expensive DB string.

If You have an access to a lathe, do what George above did and turn new shafts out of the material of Your choice.

The gearing ratio will be fine, as well as the structural integrity, the "Fender" style tuner shares a lot of similaities with the DB tuner. I wonder why is it so?

Regards
Sam

+1. I've seen the "closed" style tuners fail on a friend's EUB.

 

[jayscheuerle]

I'm pretty sure I can up the shaft diameter with an oak dowel that I've drilled a hole in, along with a pin that goes through the slot in the original shaft. Toss some epoxy in there as well for shitzngiggle's sake.

 

[George700DL]

I'm pretty sure I can up the shaft diameter with an oak dowel that I've drilled a hole in, along with a pin that goes through the slot in the original shaft. Toss some epoxy in there as well for shitzngiggle's sake.

Yeah that should work. I didn't even do that. I replaced the metal ones with pearwood ones on the set of Grovers I used. Your solution seems sturdier.