Winter Build Off 2023 Voting - Non-Bass Build

[2groggy]

The jury is still out on that. It's my first headless instrument, so I have to get used to tuning at the bridge. My hand still reaches for the headstock intuitively...I have no other headless systems to compare it to.

These are ABM bell brass tuners and the construction seems good, but they are a little hard to turn under string tension. I don't know if that's normal for headless tuners. When I was working on the nut slots and setup I had to loosen and tighten the strings a number of times, and my fingers still hurt from turning the knobs. I've seen some people put bearings or washers between the bridge and the knobs, I wonder if that would help. However, for normal tuning purposes I think it's fine as it is.

What I liked about the ABM bridges is that they come with unslotted saddles, so I could fine-tune the string spacing by filing the slots myself. By fine-tuning I mean very small offsets, nothing major. With the unslotted saddles the strings had too much sideways play in my opinion.

I don't like that you have to detune them and remove the ball end of the string to adjust the intonation (at least on my set). One could argue that it would be cheaper and easier to use piano tuning pegs and a floating bridge.

 

[Will_White]

I don't like that you have to detune them and remove the ball end of the string to adjust the intonation (at least on my set). One could argue that it would be cheaper and easier to use piano tuning pegs and a floating bridge.

Indeed they are, @michaelwayneharwood experimented with them back in the first WBO 0 Bass Challenge - Nucifera (The Violent Squirrel)

 

[TFM94]

I don't like that you have to detune them and remove the ball end of the string to adjust the intonation (at least on my set).

I didn't have to do that. I just loosened the string a little, and I can access the diagonal set screw without removing the ball end and move the saddle back and forth. Maybe it's a slightly different model?

 

[swink]

"Don't answer that!!" -- the cat.

The logic of time has already rendered this experiment obsolete.
After 88 years, there is no need to open the box to detect the smell of dead cat.

 

[2groggy]

I didn't have to do that. I just loosened the string a little, and I can access the diagonal set screw without removing the ball end and move the saddle back and forth. Maybe it's a slightly different model?

Must be. At the bottom of each tuner, there is a slotted hole. A single tiny button-head machine screw fastens the tuner to a plate. The string needs to be slackened to allow adjustment. Maybe a hex key could be angled in with light guitar strings, but not with bassVI strings. Still, moving the whole tuner instead of just the witness point is a cheap shortcut.

 

[Beej]

Congratulations @TFM94 !

You did it!

 

[Reedt2000]

 

[NedRyerson]

I'm sure the runner-up will be very gracious in the concession speech