Double Bass How to Loosen endpin?

[Steve Freides]

What can I safely do to make it easier to pull out the endpin? It’s hard for me and my student is 10 years old.

thanks.

-S-

 

[CryingBass]

What can I safely do to make it easier to pull out the endpin? It’s hard for me and my student is 10 years old.

thanks.

-S-

Stew Mac makes a "soft grip" pliers ( soft coated grip ). Looks like price went up - what hasn't! I am sure you can find other alternatives. Softly rotate and pull at the same time, I would think.

This may be a stupid suggestion - but at the same time I have never heard that question before

Helping kids is always a good thing. Hope this helps.

Soft Touch Pliers - StewMac

 

[Steve Freides]

Stew Mac makes a "soft grip" pliers ( soft coated grip ). Looks like price went up - what hasn't! I am sure you can find other alternatives. Softly rotate and pull at the same time, I would think.

This may be a stupid suggestion - but at the same time I have never heard that question before

Helping kids is always a good thing. Hope this helps.

Soft Touch Pliers - StewMac

I own those but my student isn’t going to take pliers to school. I need something like an acceptable lube, or to enlarge the hole, or something…

thanks.

-S-

 

[Don Kasper]

I own those but my student isn’t going to take pliers to school. I need something like an acceptable lube, or to enlarge the hole, or something…

thanks.

-S-

Try some powdered graphite as a "lube" inside the hole. Or, have the hole enlarged/re-drilled to the proper size.
Or have a luthier take a look and see if there is something "amiss".
This should be easily diagnosed and solved.
It is not Rocket Surgery.
My $0.03.

 

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

In extreme cases where the rod is very tight I’ll actually drill the socket. I’ll just find a bit slightly larger than the rod and go to town. With the green wood on some student basses the socket can shrink considerably.

 

[Steven Ayres]

Assuming it's a metal-on-metal situation, I second the graphite option, and I'd go over the shaft with steel wool to both clean away any foreign matter and create small scratches to help the graphite cling. Enlarging the receiver hole is not likely to be necessary and is likely to cause rattles.

 

[Steve Freides]

Try some powdered graphite as a "lube" inside the hole.

I have that, will try. Thx.

 

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

Assuming it's a metal-on-metal situation, I second the graphite option, and I'd go over the shaft with steel wool to both clean away any foreign matter and create small scratches to help the graphite cling. Enlarging the receiver hole is not likely to be necessary and is likely to cause rattles.

Did I miss that it is a metal on metal situation?

I repair a lot of school instruments and have occasionally seen cheap Chinese endpins which are 10mm chrome plated rods in ebony sockets, corked at the top. They seem decent enough but after a few years the pins can get very tight. Occasionally, the sockets warp causing the pin to bind up in there. Just yesterday I had one that was almost impossible to remove but it eventually came loose, wasn’t bent or damaged in anyway that I could see. Yes, I drilled it out and it didn’t rattle.

Anyone repairing a lot of school instruments will eventually see issues that people wouldn’t believe, but they exist.

 

[longfinger]

Make sure the pin and shaft are actually paired well. eg. 1/2" vs 12mm, or 3/8" vs 10mm etc.

Could be a mis-match. Try with a more slender rod?

What's the diameter of the current rod?

 

[Steve Freides]

TL;DR

The bass is a 1/4 size I've owned for years and rent out to my students. I take good care of my instruments and, when I got this one, it got a new endpin but honestly I don't know if I ever had occasion to pull out the endpin before my current student on this particular bass. I have several 1/4 size basses. One is even a hybrid!

My student is in the 5th grade and 90% percentile in height. He started playing last Fall. He's been my piano student for several years as well. He's tall enough to play a 1/2 size bass, which I also own, but his hands haven't gotten stronger enough or used to playing the bass enough that I would move him to a larger instrument until he gets better at this one, so we are 3 notches out on the endpin on this one.

The bass is only here during his lessons now, so I am going to ping the Mom and ask that, the next time they're going away for a few days, she leave the bass here and I'll see if some lube solves the problem.

-S-

 

[David Potts]

If the metal rod has notches and is not very thick it may bend slightly and jam in the hole. If you rotate the rod slowly with pliers you may find part of the rotation where the rod binds less, confirming that the rod may be the problem. Also try pushing the rod in and out. If initially it moves freely then binds this may point to a bend. Another possibility is that the constant tension of the tail wire has bent the hole in the wood or pulled the hole slightly out of round so drilling out carefully should help. If all else fails fit a new endpin assembly that should not be expensive. Beware of the tubular end pins because of that little loose brass plug that can fall into the bass !!

 

[turf3]

Well Steve, the first thing you've got to figure out is WHY the pin's binding in the hole. Jumping to corrective actions without knowing the cause of the problem is a good way to bugger up the hardware and still not solve the problem.

- endpin bent
- wooden socket shrunk and/or out of round
- a big burr on the end pin
- contamination on end pin
- etc., etc., etc.