Double Bass Suzhou DB Tuning Machines - where to source?

[travisbrown]

I need new machines on my Kay. I saw that Shen installs individual Suzhou on their basses, and I saw all sorts of references to Suzhou on the forum here. I figured they were probably good enough for the Kay.

But, I can’t seem to find anywhere on the internet that supplies these (or even that they exist except anecdotally). I’m sure some of the generic tuners I see on the Chinese supply sites are probably these, but you never know what you'll get.

Where can I buy these, or can anyone recommend something else good in this range?

Thanks.

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

Those tuners are barely garbage. Have a set of Rubners installed.

 

[travisbrown]

Thanks.

 

[Mark_T]

I love my Rubners. You may be in for a bit of fun, though, because the tuner shafts aren't all necessarily the same diameter, so the holes may need to be filled and re-drilled.

 

[marcox]

Gollihur sells tuners described as fitting "most, if not all, Engelhardt 3/4 size basses (and possibly some later-era Kay basses)." More details here:

Standard Tuning Machines (Keys, Tuners) for Upright Bass

Standard Tuning Machines made in Germany! Available in sets of four single machines, or two to a side on plates.

gollihurmusic.com

 

[Mark_T]

Gollihur sells tuners described as fitting "most, if not all, Engelhardt 3/4 size basses (and possibly some later-era Kay basses)." More details here:

Standard Tuning Machines (Keys, Tuners) for Upright Bass

Standard Tuning Machines made in Germany! Available in sets of four single machines, or two to a side on plates.

gollihurmusic.com

Looks like those are made by Rubner- so probably pretty solid quality too. Nice.

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

What nobody but me tells you ahead of time about installing Rubner machines is that they don’t mount flush. There’s a plate that covers the worm gear and protrudes out about a millimeter, which means they bind badly when mounted flush and tight to the cheeks. You have to Dremel away a tiny bit of wood to make them smooth.

Fitting the shafts is quick work if you have access to a belt sander to remove excess brass from the ends.

 

[eh_train]

What nobody but me tells you ahead of time about installing Rubner machines...

KFS,

What nobody tells you ahead of time about installing any tuning machines is that they seldom are a "drop-in" fit! If you are lucky enough to find the EXACT same tuner as the one(s) you're replacing, no problem. If they're different, be prepared to do any number of tasks to make them work. This can include enlarging the existing holes, bushing (filling) the old holes and re-drilling them, and having to alter the cheeks of the pegbox to accomodate the new gears.

I recently installed some high-end Rubner hatpeg tuners. It took 4 hours of solid work, as all 8 holes had to be bushed and re-drilled, and the cheeks needed alteration. The tuners were about 60% of the $1100 cost to upgrade, the rest was labour cost.

All this to say, replacing tuners might not be a simple DIY proposition. If you consider yourself handy and want a challenge, have at it!

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

Paul,

When I replaced the stock Rubner plates on my Solano I did zero woodworking other than drilling new pilot holes for the new screws. Other than that I trimmed the rollers to length, and then restrung.

 

[eh_train]

Paul,

When I replaced the stock Rubner plates on my Solano I did zero woodworking other than drilling new pilot holes for the new screws. Other than that I trimmed the rollers to length, and then restrung.

That sounds easy! When you switch from metal shafts to wooden, even if it's the same manufacturer, you are dealing with completely different measurements.

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

Oh, to heck with hatpegs. Dealing with them once was too many times. Cool look, but a pain to live with.

 

[Mark_T]

Oh, to heck with hatpegs. Dealing with them once was too many times. Cool look, but a pain to live with.

From skeuomorphism - Wiktionary, the free dictionary:

The incorporation of obsolete or skeuomorphic elements into a design, for familiarity or out of tradition, even though they no longer serve any functional purpose.

Reasonable people can differ in their opinions of the æsthetics, and I can see an argument for the Viennese "Mickey Mouse" tuners because at least on some of them you can disengage the gear and wind a string on at 1:1, but IMHO that's a pretty big price to pay for something that's useful 2x per year but looks ludicrous all of the time.

 

[bass player 53]

FWIW, I have mentioned elsewhere that if you really want information about Chinese things, it helps to have a Chinese friend or acquaintance. I have a WeChat account, but a search on there gave basically nothing. The Chinese typically don’t use Google, but rather Baidu. The tuners you’re talking about are on an old Shen YouTube video, and look very similar to the German ones found at AliExpress and elsewhere. I agree that it’s a crapshoot regarding dimensions. Maybe a Chinese person can investigate further for you.