LeftyBassist.com

Remember "greater-than-less-than" in grade school mathematics?

Well, as far as shielding is concerned: thick metal control plate or anodized aluminum pickguard > plastic pickguard with shielding foil > plastic pickguard without anything


Radio waves travel in all directions simultaneously at the speed of light... they penetrate almost everything (which is why you can listen to the radio in your basement), but grounded conductive metals surrounding your guitar's electronics work as the best "shield" from unwanted radio waves.

Your body, filled with flesh and bone and various minerals, actually acts as a decent shield. This is why you see lots of guitars and basses with shielding only on the front of the bass like the J-Bass control cavity, and on the backside of the p-bass pickguard, and not in the routing. When wearing a bass, your body does a decent job of shielding the back of the bass from unwanted radio waves, and the guitar builders could save a bit of money by not adding extra shielding.

Obviously, if you're really worried about noise, the best possible thing to do is to shield all the body cavities with copper foil tape (or shielded paint) anywhere there are electronics. The only problem with this is that a lot of the hardcore tone purists believe that shielding is a "tone suck". I'm not sure if it's ever been proven either way... but, even if it is true, the differences would barely be audible.

Another thing to note... I've seen several "do it yourself" shielding jobs where the person never ran a ground lead to their shielding, making it completely ineffective. Forgetting to do this can even make your circuit noisier... so always trace your ground connections!

um, Chris. That's not a crack or split at your E string tuner is it...

Nope.

what I needed to hear.

Here's a couple of more pics I was able to dig up... one blurry one at an upper angle and another of the headstock face.

That line is just darker streak in the grain, which is pretty common for true quartersawn maple... you can see a few more on the headstock face.

yea, I know all about the quartersawn streaks (ala Lakland necks, etc.) but that looked like a crack. Glad its not.

Thank you for sharing all of this info. and especially the last part as I was completely unaware of that possibility.

I'm in the planning ahead stage for a not-so-special build and that helps a lot. I'm not one who has had issues with noise before and do not want to fix something that ain't broke (yet).

And again, thanks!

So happy you posted this. Looks a lot like the bass I had years ago and those tuners are exactly what I had on it and want to put on my new project. I know some players dislike them because they're too vintagey in the way that means heavy/weighty and/or imprecise. Anyway, I know I prefer and must have them.

So what are they exactly?

For a looong time I thought they were "Schaller" but then you mention "Kluson". When I tried researching Kluson I came up with info implying they currently were not making anything like these and that anything with the Kluson name aquired in the US came thru a certain distributor. And that distributor seemed only to offer a very tiny variety of guitar tuners (no bass).

So I abandoned the idea of sourcing them from Kluson even though I'm under the impression Kluson maybe was the "pre-CBS" OEM. Later I got the idea they might actually be Schaller so I examined the listings on their site. They have a lot to choose from. After close examination I discovered they're close but not exactly the same. I now believe the Schallers are like the (mainly 70s) "CBS" tuners and a lot of times are stamped "Fender".

Then there's Gotoh. I had purposely not looked at them b/c I was so sure they were definitely Kluson or Schaller. Well, after some research I now think Gotoh is the company making the above pictured tuner.

Someone somewhere knows all this stuff and thinks I look silly fumbling around trying to figure this out but whatever. My current understanding is they were likely originally made by Kluson. Fender then changed to Schaller. Over time Kluson ceased making their version since Fender was buying elsewhere. Later on Fender "needed" that tuner again and got Gotoh to make it.

This is just a theory.

I'll add some pics soon.

If you called Fender, they might be able to give you part numbers to order the exact ones I have on my bass... it would be whatever the put on the '64 Custom Shop basses.

If you don't want to do that, Hipshot makes a version that probably better as far as construction goes, etc.

Click here: http://store.hipshotproducts.com/cart.p ... etail&p=99

If you go with those, just make sure you order 4 "Treble Side" tuners, as those would be the lefty version.

Thank you.

This Schaller is lefty configured as pictured.

model BMSCL

Item# 10250301

http://bass-machine-heads.com/hp190991/ ... 250301.htm

Here's another from Schaller that they describe as being more of a direct replacement for (certain) Fender basses. As pictured is for righty but description says it's available lefty.

model BMFLSC

Item# 10260301

http://bass-machine-heads.com/hp14487/B ... 260301.htm

For reference here's what I believe to be a Schaller-made Fender stamped tuner. Not sure if these are true vintage or relic'd but I feel like these were used on many "CBS" era basses. Stand to be corrected.

Getting closer:

Here's an offering from Gotoh. My understanding is these have been discontinued. They're pretty slick in that they are able to be oriented left or right with the use of included wrench.

You can see that this is more like the tuners on addison's CS. Longer "stem" and similar baseplate.

And here's one via an ebay listing. Oddly, it uses the same Gotoh part # as the one pictured above with the wrench so who knows exactly what one might receive...

I wasn't planning on adding anything but changed my mind.

Kluson tuners were first used by Fender in the development of Leo's first production...to which we all now know. Because there were no tuners for Fender to use, he purchased Kluson tuners, that were made for upright basses. Because the string post were too long, Fender custom made post to the length needed for his first bass. Kluson tuners are often referred to as reverse winding as they turn in the opposite direction to what we are used to today. This is because when installed on an upright bass, they are upside down which gave the a forward wind on upright basses.

During the 60's, Fender had a supply issue with Kluson and began tuner production of their own. This continued until the late 70's when they contracted Schaller to make them branded tuners. Today Fender uses tuners made by just about everybody.

The tuners you show in the posts are-

#1- Schaller BML modeled after Kluson tuners found on early Gibsons. Forward wind (found on Gibson, Rickenbackers, G&L, Musicman, etc.)

#2- Schaller BMF Fender replacements forward wind also brand Fender

#3- Fender post-Kluson forward wind

#4- Klusone style with reverse wind (Gotoh)

#5- Kluson style with reverse wind (Korea, I think)



The Kluson style tuners will give you that 60's feel. #5 will not allow you to reverse them for a lefty bass. The Gotoh tuners have a clip on the back and this tuner can be reversed. Fender uses both models on their instruments.

Thanks!



Bill