Double Bass Squealing Tuners

[timobee4]

Hi everyone, wonder if someone can tell me what do. I've swapped my brass machines to Rubner Hatpegs (ebony). Because they slightly conical and I needed to enlarge the old holes to accommodate the pegs I used a reamer tool. Everything cut to size beautifully installed. Under no string tension they smoot and quiet. Soon as I put my Spiro Weich set on and tuned it up under the tension, as I'm turning the keys I hear wood against wood squealing and cracking. Gotta be some lubricant other than graphite powder. Some kinda grease perhaps.

 

[turf3]

Try beeswax. Don't use petroleum based grease on wood.

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

Real beeswax, not the petroleum-laced crap sold as wax. But hatpegs will always be noisy and sloppy to tune.

 

[timobee4]

Real beeswax, not the petroleum-laced crap sold as wax. But hatpegs will always be noisy and sloppy to tune.

Thank you. I'll try beeswax for sure, that'll work. I'll put up with the extra noise. Not sure if it's my imagination but my bass sounds different now. If I played blindfolded I'd think it's a different bass.

Try beeswax. Don't use petroleum based grease on wood.

Thanks. Crossed my mind to use aircraft grease. Black from the graphite but petroleum based and stinks. Too close to my nose.

 

[stefaniw80401]

I do not recommend beeswax. It is too sticky. Surfers use it on the top of their board to enhance their barefoot grip in the water. I would suggest Johnson's floor paste wax.

 

[Don Kasper]

I used and suggest using .003" brass shim stock - slick, noiseless, indestructible. It can also be used to eliminate any "slop" of the axle/shaft in the hole.
LIke this...

Good Luck.

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

Parrafin is not sticky. When I still fixed cars, it was my non-toxic stuck-bolt-removal lubricant of choice.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Ok to start, you used a reamer which does not leave a smooth surface, rather a raw scraped surface. With an appropriate sized pin ( the older smaller one would be perfect)
Wrap high grit sandpaper ( 800 -1000 approx) around it and turn a few times with light pressure in one direction. This will smooth the surface and provide a better mating surface.
As has been stated paraffin or my choice carnauba ( Johnson’s) wax will do you fine.
VERY little should be applied.

The squealing is mostly due to the raw surface of the maple.

 

[james condino]

I do not recommend beeswax. It is too sticky. Surfers use it on the top of their board to enhance their barefoot grip in the water. I would suggest Johnson's floor paste wax.

I get my beeswax and propolis for traditional varnish from the hives in my backyard; but for decades, I've always used Sex Wax when I get the chance to go surfing, which has parafin as the primary component. Beeswax can be extremely hard and durable, but only after I heat and clarify it multiple times. The first cooking can often be sticky and dark to greenish colors. Cook it down and filter off multiple times and it comes out a light yellow color and is very tough.

It is reasonable to think that your bass sounds different from changing any of the fittings, as the mass will likely be different. Change the tuners, the bridge, the tailpiece, the soundpost & you could change the overall voice or shift wolftones. Add a C clamp to the scroll and see how that changes things. I made a beautiful extension two years ago and within a week chopped it off because I did not like how the bass responded. I also removed one from a 150 year old bass and it opened up tremendous. Before it had boring, choked long range of notes that felt like something was wrong. After, I had four less notes, but what was there kicked @$$.


A blissfull three minutes before I had to work on one of the hives last year and proceeded to get a brutal @$$ whoopin' from 30,000 pissed off bees who were still very mad that a bear broke into their home earlier that day and found the secret opening in my new suit:

 

[Don Hergert]

... 30,000 pissed off bees ...

That's a nightmare, we unexpectedly found out my wife was allergic to bee stings some years ago at a bluegrass festival. Learned lesson and reminder to all, if you're going to be outside around bees, hornets or wasps, having over the counter Benedryl (H1 blocker) and Pepcid (H2 blocker) or generics, and if possible the common Asthma medication Albuterol handy is a good thing -- a person never knows if or when they'll become allergic. If you get stung and find yourself swelling around the face and throat and especially having difficulty breathing, take the appropriate Benedryl and Pepcid doses, and CHEW THEM -- don't wait for them to go through your gut to help. If available also take one puff of Albuterol. (When my wife got stung, all we had was Benedryl, she swallowed them instead of chewing them, and then we had to watch over her for over an hour ready to do an emergency tracheotomy, which fortunately was not needed.) My wife now carries an EpiPen, Benedryl, Pepcid and Albuterol with her everywhere she goes, if she gets stung we'll call 911, take the EpiPen and Albuterol, chew the Benedryl and Pepcid, and watch carefully. I hope this never happens to any of you!

Back on topic, this thread inspired me -- my Alcoa's D tuner was squeeky, so last night I put the DB on it's back and carefully -- to avoid getting oil on the strings -- oiled all of the tuners... The tuners are brass and the pegbox is all aluminum, so light machine oil will do for now. They are nice and smooth now!

 

[GretschWretch]

I had bad stinging insect allergies up until I was five, when I inadvertently stuck my face into a wasp nest beneath an outdoor workbench. My mom taped several chaws of tobacco to my face to draw out the venom. Ever since, if I get stung, I barely even swell. One of my supervisors on my first job banged an earthmover into a bee tree and got stung 113 times. HE had to go to the hospital

And I know @james condino is going to wallop me for saying this, but I find the image of a bear assaulting James's new suit utterly [ ]. (I can't even think of an appropriate word. Oh, the humor.)

 

[james condino]

Among other things, the town I live in is famous for bears. I don't know what the post hurricane numbers are, but eight weeks ago we had approx. 180 radio collared bears that lived in the city limits. You can pull them up on an app on your phone and see the tracking of where they go. Usually they just follow garbage pickup days, hence my regular Wednesday night visitors. There are a couple that live about 50 yards behind me in the photo. Yesterday I saw big mama and I could tell that a cub had been in the yard during the night- everything was all messed up and out of order, like a little kid had been playing with the lawnmower and knocking tools and bee stuff around and one of my hubcaps was pulled off and drug about 20 feet into the forest. I suspect it had some tasty road salt on it, or who knows what toxic sludge from the flood....