I can vouch for the Nova tuners, I've installed them on 4 basses, all have worked perfectly, the finish is good and they turn easily.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Special Edition Build-off : Tripppler!
- Thread starter BioWeapon
- Start date
Even though we're really starting to get a little off-track on this thread, do you mind me asking what set costs roughly?
I see in my Ebay history it was $140 for a five string set.
I have installed some bad headless hardware that were sourced from Ukraine (mera). They work great once you get the strings installed, but I ruined something like 4 strings before getting all five installed.
That's super reasonable actually, at least compared to other off-the-shelf solutions!
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,024
- 1
- 31,754
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
About those individual tuners:
These tuners you linked to: Metal Single Headless Round Bar Bass Bridge Kit Music Instrument Accessories NEW | eBay, if you check picture #6 of 6, look like they have very coarse threads. Yes there is a ball bearing thrust washer arrangement, but I'm seeing more like 20 thread per inch, which I think will be a serious issue. So I suggest you try one at first. My 2 cents.
I am making a bass with a used Steinberger headless bridge, which I chose after I studied what's available for headless a lot. The common thread in headless designs is that you need like 36-40 threads per inch to make tuning comfortable, smooth and easy. I'm guessing Michael Harwood's version has thread pitch on that scale, because I have not heard any complaints that they're hard to turn.
These tuners you linked to: Metal Single Headless Round Bar Bass Bridge Kit Music Instrument Accessories NEW | eBay, if you check picture #6 of 6, look like they have very coarse threads. Yes there is a ball bearing thrust washer arrangement, but I'm seeing more like 20 thread per inch, which I think will be a serious issue. So I suggest you try one at first. My 2 cents.
As an eBay Associate, TalkBass may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.
Ah, good, a testimonial from a highly respectable actual user (@Jisch, I sub to almost all your builds). Happy to hear that they work well. I withdraw my warning about the coarse threads. Maybe the thrust bearing makes the diff...
Maybe I misunderstood, but just to be sure, the link you posted earlier is not to Nova tuners.
Here's a link to them: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The ones @Jisch is talking about are not the ones in the first eBay link. That link is the Chinese "copies" of the Nova tuners and, if you read the thread I linked a few posts back, apparently don't work very well, as you suspected. The actual Nova headless system as sold by @Passini, by all accounts, works well. I have not had a chance to try them but if I ever manage to tidy up all the miscellaneous instrument work I have and get to start on a headless, multi scale 5 they're what I want to use.
Thanks for chiming in with advice I didn't realize these where knockoffs of the Novas I saw those too on ebay and thought they where the same just rebranded at 3 times the price I'm gonna avoid these now as that's more work then it's worth for me to get them functional. Also I apologize to the Op. I wasn't intending on hijacking this thread I just got excited that we had similar build ideas going on.
No worries, I'm stoked on headless stuff too
An actual project update, ish: I've figured out how I'm going to do my pickup switching and I've found a method with the switches I have to get every possible pickup combination.
I'm going to call the wood store tomorrow, it's been a week and my order *should* be ready by now. They were supposed to call me back... Anyways, once I've got it in hand I'll throw up a photo of what wood I'm going to use for the top!
Aaaand the top/back is here!
I have a 5" wide piece of purpleheart and a 3" wide. I was thinking I'd just do a straight side by side 5"-3"-5" lamination for the top. Undecided on whether I should put some of my maple veneer between layers, like two thin racing stripes. It would seperate the unmatched grain but I'm not certain I'll like it. Anyone have thoughts on that? It does make the glue up a little more tedious...
Edit -- the less colourful strip is new to me and freshly cut from this morning. I expect the color to change to be closer to the larger piece over a few... Hours? Days? Not sure how quick it changes.
I have a 5" wide piece of purpleheart and a 3" wide. I was thinking I'd just do a straight side by side 5"-3"-5" lamination for the top. Undecided on whether I should put some of my maple veneer between layers, like two thin racing stripes. It would seperate the unmatched grain but I'm not certain I'll like it. Anyone have thoughts on that? It does make the glue up a little more tedious...
Edit -- the less colourful strip is new to me and freshly cut from this morning. I expect the color to change to be closer to the larger piece over a few... Hours? Days? Not sure how quick it changes.
Back it with the top now...
It's still -10c up here so I likely won't be in the garage cutting and routing the top and back for a few days unfortunately!
Now I thought initially that the three pickups might be a bit much, but they're growing on me
It's still -10c up here so I likely won't be in the garage cutting and routing the top and back for a few days unfortunately!
Now I thought initially that the three pickups might be a bit much, but they're growing on me
No project can go perfectly I guess... being my third build ever, I expected something to go wrong eventually, but this one might be at the top my shoulda-seen-it-coming list.
My top didn't glue evenly, the middle board decided it would flex upwards instead of ending up flush with the sides. So, naturally I decided to sharpen up my dad's old plane blade and try planing for the first time... on purpleheart... at 10 below
At first it was going well! Some tearing here and there but once I had the hang of it, one side went flat!
... And then I tried the other side...
Oh yeah, THAT'S bad. I've already put glue under it and clamped it down, but that is quite the chunk. The tearout is luckily right on the inside of the treble side cut, so I can likely add a larger bevel than the roundover I planned.
Of course I still have a lot of sanding to do, probably a lot more than if I'd just sanded the raised bits down
My top didn't glue evenly, the middle board decided it would flex upwards instead of ending up flush with the sides. So, naturally I decided to sharpen up my dad's old plane blade and try planing for the first time... on purpleheart... at 10 below
At first it was going well! Some tearing here and there but once I had the hang of it, one side went flat!
... And then I tried the other side...
Oh yeah, THAT'S bad. I've already put glue under it and clamped it down, but that is quite the chunk. The tearout is luckily right on the inside of the treble side cut, so I can likely add a larger bevel than the roundover I planned.
Of course I still have a lot of sanding to do, probably a lot more than if I'd just sanded the raised bits down
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,024
- 1
- 31,754
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
Ugh, I hate that! 
Which side is the damage on? Will it be seen, or under a glue up? I'd probably pull out a full length box-cutter blade and use it as a scraper to run over that tear-out.
I also often use a scraper to flatten any height discrepancies that pop up like that in a glue up. It removes less material and gives a little more control.
Which side is the damage on? Will it be seen, or under a glue up? I'd probably pull out a full length box-cutter blade and use it as a scraper to run over that tear-out. I also often use a scraper to flatten any height discrepancies that pop up like that in a glue up. It removes less material and gives a little more control.
Ugh, I hate that!
I also often use a scraper to flatten any height discrepancies that pop up like that in a glue up. It removes less material and gives a little more control.
No... no that's the top. I unfortunately don't own a scraper but lucky for me, Lee Valley sells them for cheap (I have 35$ worth of scrapers in my cart now) and they're still offering curbside pickup. I was initially tempted to grab my router and 3/4 bit and manually take the whole surface down about ~1mm but I realized after hitting it with the orbital sander that the tearout isn't deep enough to justify not buying myself shiny new tools
In any case, if YouTube can be considered a reliable source, I should have been using a bench plane whereas the only plane laying around here is a block plane. Too bad, it did work really well for about 30% of the surface. I went out to the garage this morning for a sanity check, and I can plane the edge of a piece of oak that was cut with a jigsaw totally smooth.
Is it something to do with grain direction? I don't really know. I'll have to try this again on whatever my next project is.
Here's a pic of the plane in question... any experts wanna chime in and tell me if it's totally the wrong tool for the job? For what it's worth, it did make some nice shavings when it wasnt grabbing
Attachments
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,024
- 1
- 31,754
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
My amateur opinion is that purpleheart is just cranky. 
My amateur opinion is that purpleheart is just cranky.
I agree! Purpleheart and bloodwood don't like me. I haven't tried enough species to know if they all hate me yet...
