Tuning Knobs

That's a great idea...but I don't know where you can buy them. Good luck with your search!

 

Terrible idea. All them birds will cause serious neck dive when they go after all the bar rats.

Seriously, I've never seen any like you want. But if you're googling 'tuner knobs" you won't have much luck. Nobody calls them knobs. Try "eagle bass tuners". Good luck.

 

You'll have to have an engraver do it. A trophy shop might be a good place to start.

 

I'm thinking maybe a machinist shop.

 

Are you wanting a 3 dimensional eagle AS the tuning key, or just an engraving?

 

I haven't seen much of anything available in custom keys for bass tuners. Machining up custom metal keys would be a little tricky, and pretty expensive. The best way to do it would to make up some parts that could be attached over an existing flat-type key. For example, you could hand carve a set of eagles from hardwood, and epoxy them onto a set of classic elephant-ear Fender-style tuners. Or you could hand carve one from wood, make up a silicone mold from it, and then cast up a set of four from epoxy. Then epoxy them onto the Fender tuners. That's how I would approach it.

 

Hi.

DIY.

Outsourcing the one-off job would probably cost at least $50/piece.
Then again, You might be OK with that even if I'm not.


Enclosed ones are a bit tricky, but as soon as You finish making the auger, you can make a few dozen if You like.

Clover leafs are easy. Just pop the rivet and/or heat the joint enough to loosen the brazing and You can replace the original with whatever shape of leaf you want (/can make ).

If it's just an engraving You want, then the jewellers shop or a sign shop are your best bets.

Old manually operated GravoGraphs are plentiful (at least over here), so one master would be all that You'd need to engrave as many as you need as well.

Since no-one believes that the enclosed ones are pretty easy to make, here's a couple of new pics of an old job:





A hastily made Firebird button that has been left unfinished for about 20 years now... .
I vividly remember thinking that I'll just quickly see if it'll work and then get it plated...
The auger is "stashed somewhere safe" but I'll be damned if I knew where.
Takes only about an hour to grind and heat treat a new one by hand though, so no great loss should I need one in the future.

Regards
Sam

 

I'd go low budget:

http://www.zazzle.com/american_eagle_sticker-217027350376174269

You can size them to fit, order enough for both sides plus extras, and they're cheap!