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Two stage D-Tuner not holding middle position

gimmeagig

gimmeagig

Feb 25, 2004
2,891
1,197
Coeur D'Alene,Idaho
#1
I have a Hipshot D Tuner with the two stage lever on my P Bass. Lowest note is C, the middle one is D.
This middle position wouldn't hold. The slightest touch would make it slip out of position down to the C.
I called Hipshot and the only solution they had was to change the brand of strings(which made no sense to me). So since there was no help coming from Hipshot I was forced to try something to make it work. I ended up filing done the lever a bit where it makes contact for the middle note so that the point where the lever comes to rest against the stop piece is flat, not rounded( if that makes any sense).It's a little hard to explain.
Has anybody here had the same problem? Did you find a solution? In case you haven't, I think what I did is definitely helping.
 
#2
Others have complained of this issue as well. Its a poor design, especially when you stop and think about it. What is the real use of the first stop when you can just down tune completely and then fret the note. Incidentally a normal drop tuner will adjust for two full tones as well. I feel the two step drop tuner is a waste of money.
 
#3
sissy kathy said:
Others have complained of this issue as well. Its a poor design, especially when you stop and think about it. What is the real use of the first stop when you can just down tune completely and then fret the note. Incidentally a normal drop tuner will adjust for two full tones as well. I feel the two step drop tuner is a waste of money.
Click to expand...
The low C is useful on some tunes I play, but it requires big jumps on the fingerboard depending on the pattern I play. The D tuning is an easier adjustment to make fingering wise, and sometimes tor the key of Dmin it's great to have the open D string instead of the low E. If that bass could only be tuned to low C I wouldn't be able to play some stuff as easily. So the two stage tune is totally useful to me. BTW I have 3 other basses with the 2 stage lever and on those it works pretty well. A little touchy but not awful. It just didn't work well on the P Bass that I recently built.
But by by filing the contact point on the lever flatter I totally solved the problem. I was surprised that Hipshot did not have a suggestion for me, but after I did it I called them and let them know it worked. They told me that if I would have messed up the lever in the process they would have sent me another one. Pretty good company! And I just wanted to share that here in case someone else had run into the same problem. Oh yeah...and don't lube the contact point if you have a problem with holding the middle position.
 

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