Banjo Bass Tuners for 50’s & early 60’s Gibson Basses……..

[Grog]

A guy on another forum was restoring an early EB-0 bass with banjo tuners. He asked which direction the tuners were supposed to turn to tune up the bass. The replacement tuners he installed all turned counter-clockwise to tune up the strings. There is a treble & bass side tuner, but they all turned the same way. After getting back home, I checked mine with original tuners & they all turned counter-clockwise also. I’ve owned the bass for about 25 years & never noticed that before. Much like all of the years I never notice that the “Elephant Ear” tuners on my ‘67 EB-2 turned backwards to most other tuners, I just tuned it & played it. Maybe I’m the last guy on earth to notice this, but I thought it might be noteworthy to fellow Gibson bass nerds……….

[morrow]

I’ve got some that turn this way , and some that way.
And just gotten used to various basses being different.

[uwe]

I believe that early tuners tended to be counter-clockwise rather than clockwise, especially the banjo ones. I have it on some of my more vintage pieces too. Replacement banjo tuners (the original ones don't withstand the pull for too long) tend to be clockwise though.

[Grog]

The original pearloid knobs that came with this bass were shrunk quite a bit. Replacing them with some nickel knobs that I bought off of a set of vintage Firebird tuners made a world of difference as far as stabilizing the tuner. Not vintage correct but functional.

[uwe]

Those banjo tuners are doomed to replacement eventually if you play (and tune) the bass a lot. There was a reason why they gave up on them fast. Both the reissue EB(-1) and the later EB-2 made the switch to regular tuners. With the LP Junior that only didn't happen because they gave up on the shape so fast and switched to the SG body which then featured regulat tuners right from the start. Since the 70ies, I've never seen anyone playing an old Gibson bass from the banjo tuner era in a professional capacity that actually has kept the banjo tuners. They just don't survive the road.

[eb2]

I used to gig with them quite a bit, but there is an inherent flaw in their design.  The higher the tension, the greater the issue of slippage. The post itself will be incrementally pulled out of contact with the tuning gear with the greater the tension. So if you use a beefy set of flats - most people did back then - tuning will be a serious issue.  Any attempt at using long scale strings cut down will definitely be a nightmare.  If you take one apart - and I took several apart - you can physically create the issue to see how it happens.  A good fresh set of Roto short scales and you will not have much of a problem.  GHS, or such stuff, and you can tune it and have the string go slack in a second.

[amptech]

I used banjo tuners on my explorer bass,  and even with a set of  short skinny TI rounds the A string is slipping.

[uwe]

Perhaps we should surmise that they were not really intended for bass strings?