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Vintage reverse tuners... Why God why!
- Thread starter WillyW
- Start date
Pardon my inexcusable ignorance of all things upright. Those wonderful classic instruments have been around for over 400 years. Plenty time for the tuning peg rotation to become standard and accepted. No doubt Leo looked very carefully at these before creating the prototype Precision. I am wondering on a DB which way do they turn in order to tighten?
Actually vintage tuners are correct and modern are reversed from the normal "righty tighty, lefty loosey"
Ha! I’ve been playing a bass with reverse tuners for the last year and I played my P (with regular tuners) this past weekend... that was a mental task...
Certain botanical substance may have played at role in it.
Certain botanical substance may have played at role in it.
okcrum
in your chest
I couldn't tell you if the tuners on any of my instruments are reverse. I turn them tighter to raise pitch and looser to lower. It's pretty easy to feel which is which.
i like the "what's going on?" every time I tune. Put them on a Squier 50s, just because they belong there. Did any pre CBS basses have what we now consider to be normal, or did Leo change his mind? I'm pretty sure all of Leo's basses were "reverse"
Once you get used to these - - or other tuners - - it's not so bad. For the record, my favorite bass tuners are the Warwick angled keys. They are easy to re-string, they stay in tune and they're easy to adjust.
You're all set, the reversed tuners are all reversed now, w.s. it's reversed reverse on all gear.You woke me up to ask about reverse tuners!?!?.......
The tuners changed to the forward turning during summer '65, CBS's first year of ownership.
Oh, look, another thread indexed by google that perpetuates the whole "Bass players are neanderthals" thing.
I have an old double-bass who's tuning machines actually tune the wrong way to work. I also know a few people who had to get creative with their double-basses using some brands of strings and now have tuning keys which do not all turn in the same direction on the same bass. Serenity Now!!!
I have an old double-bass who's tuning machines actually tune the wrong way to work. I also know a few people who had to get creative with their double-basses using some brands of strings and now have tuning keys which do not all turn in the same direction on the same bass. Serenity Now!!!
Ric5
Inactive
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
Ya … I had a 60s 4001 with grungy looking reverse tuners … AARRGGGHH! I hated them things,
I am 100% pro truss rod spoke wheel access. None of my basses have them but a MM Bongo I once owned did.
I don’t see reverse tuners as a problem. They’re just different.
My ‘77 P has reversed tuners.. except for the d-tuner - it goes the other way!
More intuitive to me. Righty tighty lefty loosey. Played guitar or bass since the late 70s. Just came across my first bass with reverse tuners. They came on a 50s classic neck I picked up here. Love them. No problem bouncing between basses. I am in the process of replacing the neck on my other P. Rather than swapping over otherwise good hardware, I bought a set of the same Ghoto reverse tuners. They just feel right to me.
Why not stacked tuners, with the one on the bottom reverse, the one on top non-reverse? I'm sure it could be done, and would be the ultimate in confusion. 
