New bass with odd tuning system is turning into a major PITA. Please help.

Next string, try bending a 90' just past the tuner/clamp before tuning.
IME, round-core and flat wound strings should be bent, then wound (on standard type tuners) to keep from slipping.

 

What is the bass? I've used a few different headless/clamp schemes, but don't recognize that one.

 

It may be the flats themselves - I have a Washburn/Status with the same arrangement

I don't play flats but I can see that the way they are made they don't provide the same density as rounds or 1/2 wounds

Flats are a core with the wrapped exterior - I can picture the wrap being crushed by the screw without enough meat behind it to grab - my 0.02

 

I did some looking around. Bogart doesn't use this string clamp thing anymore, but I found somebody else saying it was the source of a lot of frustration. I also found a couple comments saying people had success using a ferrule like insert to distribute pressure on the string a little better. I don't think you are the first to have trouble with the clamping screw causing the string's wrap to come loose and the string to slip.

If you can get to a "happy place" with this issue, it looks like you found a really interesting instrument. Graphite neck. Composite, foam, and soundblock body. Sounds pretty cool to me.

 

I do like Bogart basses!

 

Did you fully back out the clamping screw for the D string to see if the end has a sharp ridge on it?
Maybe you can run a file across the end of the screw to be sure it's smooth and the edges beveled.

 

Bear in mind, I only know what I read on the internet about this.

I don't know where I found the reference to this, but I believe that they basically encased the string in a small length of metal pipe. This way, the screw deforms the pipe and distributes the pressure across the string more evenly, as opposed to the screw just digging into a small section of the string. I would imagine the "ferrule" would have to be disposable; you would replace it when you replace the string.

 

Sounds similar to the clamps on Speakon connectors, if you've ever built a Speakon cable or taken one apart. The stripped ends of the wires are each inserted into small tubes made of soft metal, and the screws tightened against the tubes--which deform slightly as they pinch the wire to make good electrical contact.

In this case, it wouldn't matter if the tubes were conductive, since all you want is a solid grip on the string. Heck, I wonder if a short piece of heat-shrink tubing around the string, under the clamp, might do the trick.

 

Time to have a pro look at it.

 

If you can disassemble the parts, post a hi-res pic or two. What actually stripped: the tuner key itself or the threaded pass-thru on the headstock?

Riis

 

+1

...famous last words

 

If there's a good solution, you can have someone else do it, or do it yourself...
If you find a good fix, it may be worthwhile to mod them all the same way.