As I get more basses and learn more about what I like about them, one standout to me is tuning machines. Cheap ones with play have become very annoying to me, and I have come to appreciate the value of a good tuning machine.
It is interesting how all these things that we don’t even know about start to matter as we progress. Happened with sax too. Angles of keys to fingers for sax, etc. Bass body, neck, how it sits on body, pots, pickups, etc.
Overthinking it, maybe.
Completely un-necessary, maybe, but considering how many times you tune a string, it should be as good a system as possible.
Fortunately all my basses, even with budget hardware have been pretty OK, and I have not had to deal with any tuning issues.
Of course, the tuning keys on my Music Man are superior to the Ray4, and the Ray34 is better then the Ray4, but hey have all been great for me.
My LTD’s are a little more then just budget basses, so they are all pretty good as well.
The Ibanez tuners I had (and have on the Mikro) are probably the lowest quality I have had, but again, never had a problem with them.
Schecters, have been great
Squire I had was comparable to the Ray4 and worked well.
The tuners on my Dean are even pretty good.
The Epiphone I have has the worst ones, thank god that bass came free with a nice Gig Bag I paid $50 for.
I would love to add a HipShot Extender / detuner, but I wouldn’t do that without replacing all the tuners to Hipshot, and I can’t justify that purchase for my Ray4 at the moment.
Thats probably the only one I would bother with replacing, if I ever get to it, but I will change them to black, which also means that I will be replacing the bridge, and control plate and knobs also, so a it will cost around $200 to do it all. Maybe some day.
I am not messing with my EBMM hardware, keeping it stock.
The ONE thing I dislike about the Bello bass is the tuners, thus this thread.
They are really quite bad. I do think I will change them one day.
I am in the process of putting Hipshots on the Squire J bass to finish out the ‘blackout’ project, now just waiting for the drop-D peg. Will see how I like them and then decide.
There was nothing wrong at all with the Squire tuners, btw, just the wrong color for what I was doing. That bass stays in tune better than any other I have (and was the cheapest!).
The CS P-bass has ‘vintage’ tuners and they are a PITA, but they come with the territory of being period specific and reliced.
Thats strange, cuz all the LTD basses I have the tuners are just fine.
I wonder if the person that owned is did a bunch of cranking on them or somehow wore them out prematurely?
My Rocco ESP LTD tuners are fine, but they are Grover tuners, not ESP made.
These Bello ones are odd ones with cut outs to save $/material.
They may have cut corners to afford the EMG pickups and the killer body finish, bridge, etc on it.
My slayer bass and other LTD"s are not open gear tuners, they are different, and seem to work just fine. I think those are Open Gear because it is replicating a Jazz (fender) bass. I have not seen those type tuners on other LTD Basses that I am aware of. Maybe that is whey they are not as good?
I dan’t be sure the brand, the cap has ESP engraved on it, but I don’t think they are Branded tuners.
All my LTD’s have EMG pick ups, great body finishes, and awesome detail like cool fret inlays.
IDK, if they don’t work, gotta change them, bummer.
Yeah, I see what you mean, but the newer open gear lightweight tuners (Hipshot and Music Man which are probably HipShot) are shaped completely differently. I get the point you are making, I just had not seen them like that before. Unfortunately, it appears they make the tuners not as good, based on his experience, I can imagine loose tuners driving me crazy. I am used to my basses that pretty much always stay in tune, only ever needing a few cents adjustment. 10 cents is pretty rare for me to need to adjust, usually within 4-5 cents.
