Double Bass What's going on here?

[Mark_T]

One of the double bassists in this orchestra has something interesting on his scroll and I can't figure out what it is. My best guess is that it's a way of converting a 3-stringer into a 4-stringer - the extra tuner isn't drilled through the scroll but rather attached above it, far enough back to give it some angle over the nut. Anyone seen anything like this before?



If you scroll around a bit, you might find a better shot of it.

 

[GerardSamija]

Looks like the string is wrapped around it, so a tuning shaft for certain. It doesn't look like a 3-string bass, in fact I could almost swear I saw a 4th hole up there, empty... but the glimpses are fleeting, hard to be sure. It could be that the upper pegbox took some sort of damage and to avoid excessive strain a luthier mounted a 4th tuner lower down on the scroll. Another possibility might be that the tension on that string was excessive for tonal reasons, and that by reducing the angle across the nut the tension was reduced... maybe. I've seen a number of orchestral bassists reversing the order of their string locations in the past decade so that seems to be a bit of a fashion, and when asked they say it reduced tension. I once modified a pegbox on an old German 3-string bass for a fellow who had used it as a 4-string for years by bolting in a fixed peg up top and having a small geared tuner on the tailpiece - very awkward to tune, but it worked for a couple of decades.

 

[bengreen]

There's a close up of the right side at 1 minute into the andante (mvt II). Looks like damage to the A string machine (?). Thought at first maybe a 5-string conversion at some point, but only 4 strings now.

 

[Mark_T]

Thanks, @GerardSamija and @bengreen. Interesting!

 

[SAlcott]

Looks like a 3 to 4 conversion.