Vintage reverse tuners... Why God why!

[Bassamatic]

It only seems weird because the others are different.

My 60's Hagstroms all have the reverse tuners, and I CRINGE when I see ignorant people stringing them the wrong way with the strings slanting across the headstock, about to break the nut.

 

[zoikzz]

I can supply Schaller non-reverse tuner plates that will fit your reverse tuner neck holes with no adjustment to wood.I take the correct screw pattern and super impose that onto new plates. Cosmetically the new screw position nearly hides the old unused hole. WA-LA no confusion at tune time. Last time I ordered was about $90.00 per set. Machine time is free to my bass brothers. [email protected] pics available on request

 

[Lowendtech]

I had a Fender CS LTD Dusty Hill Goldtop for a few years. Reverse headstock and tuners. The furthest away tuner was for the E string and the closest was for G. And the tuners worked in reverse. I lost count of how many times I grabbed the wrong tuner and proceeded to turn it in the wrong direction without looking at what I was doing. It got quite comical, trying to tune it up and only making it worse. I guess I’d spent 30 odd years of all my basses doing things the same way and my brain didn’t want to get re-wired. Lol. Sold it and don’t miss it. Looked cool as hell though, but the slab body with binding always bugged my right arm and the left one was too stuck in its ways to endear to the tuning faux pas.

 

[AboutSweetSue]

It was a conspiracy to get people to break strings so they’d have to buy more, flatwounds and all.

 

[Ekulati]

Twister

Not worse than his decision to make it hard to access the truss rod.

Yeah I always figured this was because he probably thought after initial setup, no one would have any reason at all to adjust it for maybe, I dunno, 20 years or so. Kinda like changing strings...who on earth would want to do that?

 

[JimmyM]

Put a big sticker on your bass that says, "WARNING: This bass has reverse tuners."

Fixed.

 

[gelinas666]

Replace them with Non Reverse.. Did that on Fender Marcus Miller MIJ and my '51 Fender P Bass reissue. Never looked back,or up at the tuners again.

 

[2112]

Here's my tuning game: if the little light is moving farther away from top-dead-center, I turn the machine... wait for it... the other way!

 

[74hc]

For me ignorance is bliss. I’ve never thought about it but just accepted it was the way are.

 

[InnerBass]

Inexplicably, reverse tuners feel more ergonomically correct to me.

 

[Chad Michael]

Try running a Massey Ferguson crawler tractor with a de-cellerator pedal. Yes, you step on it to slow down..

 

[PWRL]

I'm fine with them, because I remember which of my basses has them and which do not.

 

[Smooth_bass88]

I actually prefer vintage style reverse tuners.

 

[king_biscuit]

Replace them with Non Reverse.. Did that on Fender Marcus Miller MIJ and my '51 Fender P Bass reissue. Never looked back,or up at the tuners again.

Did the Marcus model come with reverse tuners? That would not have been period correct.

Edit: Just looked up the specs and it did apparently come with reverse tuners. I've played a few of them but either didn't notice or didn't remember. Marcus's actual 77 Jazz would have been factory equipped with "standard" turn Fender branded Schallers.

 

[gelinas666]

Did the Marcus model come with reverse tuners? That would not have been period correct.

Edit: Just looked up the specs and it did apparently come with reverse tuners. I've played a few of them but either didn't notice or didn't remember. Marcus's actual 77 Jazz would have been factory equipped with "standard" turn Fender branded Schallers.

 

[iiipopes]

There’s a reason why they were changed.

To be consistent with guitar tuning machines.

 

[gelinas666]

Did the Marcus model come with reverse tuners? That would not have been period correct.

Edit: Just looked up the specs and it did apparently come with reverse tuners. I've played a few of them but either didn't notice or didn't remember. Marcus's actual 77 Jazz would have been factory equipped with "standard" turn Fender branded Schallers.

You are correct. I used to own a USA Fender 77 Jazz and they came with Non Reverse tuners.. That's another reason I changed them..

 

[FunkHead]

Not worse than his decision to make it hard to access the truss rod.

I like this decision because it can(sometimes) help keep unqualified people from messing with them.

 

[bobyoung53]

I've got a 4001 with reverse tuners, also have a RI 62 J with them, had to get a new neck for it but am thinking of putting the reverse on the new neck except that the tuner holes are in a different place. I like them, always have they're easier to turn than normal tuners, for me anyway, something to do with pulling downward with the thumb (clockwise) to go up in tone. I find myself wishing all my basses had reverse tuners.

 

[W_R]

Ha, this is funny. I have some non-reverse Gotoh lightweight tuners on on bass, which is great because the non-reverse is the same as my other basses. Now that I am looking at a Hipshot Xtender, I found that the model that matches only comes in reverse. I was looking at options to rectify this, but I wonder if I should just have the reverse “E string” and leave the others as-is with non-reverse, and just acknowledge it as a harmless quirk of this particular bass. Who else has this?

A separate possible project, dealing with the above, I am looking at how Hipshot basically attaches a normal tuner onto their mechanism with rivets. I wonder if it’s possible graft on a tuner I have to match everything. I am exploring home-novice versions of re-riveting—I wonder if it’s doable with a Dremel and patience, and whatever I’d need to install new small rivets.