I just pulled out my twelve year old Sting, which I play alongside my Ray. Lo and behold! The tuners aren't flush! I never noticed. I love the bass, even more since I installed a basslines 1/4 pounder.
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"Sting" bass owners, is this normal?
- Thread starter f.c.geil
- Start date
Jim Carr
Dr. Jim
- Jan 21, 2006
- 16,223
- 7,614
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- Disclosures
- fEARful Kool-Aid dispensing liberal academic card-carrying union member Musicians Local 72-147
Just checked my vintage 1955 P-bass. As I thought, the tuners are installed the same way the Sting bass tuners are installed.
Just checked my Sting as well and the tuners are not all flush. No big deal. Have not played it so long the dang pots are scratchy. 
I put a set of Fender's vintage tuners on my project P-Bass, and it's the same deal here. They don't sit flush because of those protruding knobs on the back of the tuner plate.
Thanks for all the input. It's funny, the consensus here is that it's normal, but on the Fender forum, they are adamant (almost angrily so) that they should be flush. However, this forum agrees with Fender Artist Relations, so I think I'm going stick with this group.
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/early-fender-tuning-key-question-239602/
I asked the same question back in 2006 and didn't get any concrete replies. In addition to the 2006 '51 RI I bought new, the one mentioned in the link above, I've also owned two other '51 RIs and they have all had the tuners mounted the same as your Sting bass.
I asked the same question back in 2006 and didn't get any concrete replies. In addition to the 2006 '51 RI I bought new, the one mentioned in the link above, I've also owned two other '51 RIs and they have all had the tuners mounted the same as your Sting bass.
OP, here's a good visual reference of the larger 'divot' relief holes in the headstock -- the mod Fender did from late '64on to allow for flat installation of the Klusons. Hope this helps.
The holes look to be about 3/8" diameter, drilled just deep enough to create a divot that's the full diameter of the bit.
I have two sets of original Klusons -- one set is off an early CBS-era Precision, while the other set is NOS. Both sets have slightly curved baseplates. This particular style of Kluson was originally designed in the mid-20s, for use on upright basses. There were slight changes through the decades, to gearing, and even baseplate size, but it appears Kluson never felt the need to evolve the bowed baseplate design.
Will
The holes look to be about 3/8" diameter, drilled just deep enough to create a divot that's the full diameter of the bit.
I have two sets of original Klusons -- one set is off an early CBS-era Precision, while the other set is NOS. Both sets have slightly curved baseplates. This particular style of Kluson was originally designed in the mid-20s, for use on upright basses. There were slight changes through the decades, to gearing, and even baseplate size, but it appears Kluson never felt the need to evolve the bowed baseplate design.
Will
My Sting is the same. So is my March '60 P, which has not had any tuning problems for, oh, 54 years now.... ;-)
It's an easy after-dinner project. Remove all mounting screws, take some black sharpie to the little clip tabs, and loosely re-install the tuners. Now the sharpie will imprint a perfect center mark where you need to drill the countersink divots. Get a drill bit of the right diameter (mentioned upthread), and wrap some scotch tape around the bit to denote the correct divot depth (also mentioned upthread). Then carefully drill into the headstock. The divots don't even need to be perfectly straight. Simple.
x1000-bh
x1000-bh
It's simply the way they made them. So yes, it is normal for that model (and others of similar design). It's not like your's is a mistake.
The fact that all of that model are made that way means it's normal for that model. Your's still isn't a mistake. There's no denying that.
Oh, no, Jordan done stepped in a pile of poo!
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/how-could-people-fender-so-clueless-1043782/
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/how-could-people-fender-so-clueless-1043782/
