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Permalink Reply by Dooder on December 26, 2012 at 12:26pm

I made tuning pegs for a stand up bass recently.  My method was as follows:  I cut the center section of the neck out on the head section.  I used a 3/8 oak dowel that went entirely through the top of the neck, with enough length for an inch on either side sticking out.  On one side, I drilled 3/8 inch holes in the center of 3/4 inch dowels, cut into one inch slices.  I glued these to one of the ends sticking out.  Where the 3/8 dowel went into the wood of the neck-opposite of the 3/4 sections glued on, I drilled 1/8 holes through the neck and dowel.  I also drilled one hole in each 3/8 dowel inside the cutout, staggering them across the pegs, so that these holes were not in line with the one above or below in the neck, this is where I ran my strings through.After fitting the strings, I tensioned them using the 1/8 dowels precut to fit into the holes opposite the wide sections of the pegs.  I have a whole project picture that I can email/post if that would help.  The project was actually much simpler than my explanation.

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Dave on December 26, 2012 at 3:47pm

I would like to see the pictures.  Sounds interesting.

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Permalink Reply by wormil on December 26, 2012 at 4:05pm

Yeah, I would like to see the pics too. I follow most of it but am confused by the 1/8" dowels.

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Permalink Reply by Dooder on December 26, 2012 at 11:43pm

Basically, the 1/8 dowles act as a pawl would in a ratcheting system, preventing reversing of the tuners.

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Permalink Reply by wormil on December 26, 2012 at 4:56pm

Forget that stuff I wrote about string sizes earlier, what I'm trying to figure out is what size string I need to hit a C2 (2 octaves below middle C) note and after playing around on a 6 string earlier, I realized it will have to be a .056 or larger. I'm trying to use a string gauge calculator to figure out if I can do it with a guitar string or if I need bass strings but none of the calculators are really designed to work that way.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on December 26, 2012 at 7:13pm

Wormil,

I think yer gonna need bass strings. Or weed whacker line. Can get colors in that stuff.

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Permalink Reply by wormil on December 26, 2012 at 7:47pm

I thought of using weedwhacker string, I have a roll but wasn't sure how well it would hold tune or if it would be loud enough. Really I don't know much about it.

You can hit a C2 note on a guitar E string tuned loose but I'm not sure if that will still work with the longer scale length.

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Permalink Reply by Dooder on December 26, 2012 at 11:41pm

I used weedwacker line.  there were a few things I learned using it.  Over a 48 inch string length, I got about an inch of stretch over a period of two days.  Going forward, I would try two different things.  I would first hand the precut strings somewhere with weights on them to pull out some of the stretch, and second, as I mounted the strings, I would try heating them with a hair dryer, to add some stretch as they are tensioned, and the "pullback" would take in some of the slack.  In theory, at least.

Attachments:

• 001.JPG, 2.8 MB

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Permalink Reply by wormil on December 27, 2012 at 6:13pm

Ok, thanks. I'll give that weed whacker string a try. 

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Permalink Reply by Dooder on December 26, 2012 at 11:43pm

If you use weedwacker string, make sure it isn't the kind with cutting edges.

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Permalink Reply by Bluesheart on December 27, 2012 at 4:15am

I'd go with weed wacker line. Maybe you can just use tapered wooden tuner pegs, like on a violin or cello. Easy enough to make with a dowel and some sandpaper. Drill a hole in a larger dowel and glue it on as a knob to turn the tuner. Been working for centuries!

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Permalink Reply by wormil on December 27, 2012 at 6:08pm

The tough part is making the tapered hole but I read a tip on using an old pair of scissors to ream it out.

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