Opinions - best tuning gears?

[davidseidel]

I'm just back in Australia after the best part of a year spent in UK and during that time I paid a visit to Martyn Bailey - a very highly experienced maker and repairer who certainly has paid his dues.
I played one of his own instruments and found it very impressive in the English tradition.
Thought his tuners might be of interest - seemed ideal to me FWIW....

http://www.mjbl.co.uk/doubl-bass-machines.html

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by davidseidel

I'm just back in Australia after the best part of a year spent in UK and during that time I paid a visit to Martyn Bailey - a very highly experienced maker and repairer who certainly has paid his dues.
I played one of his own instruments and found it very impressive in the English tradition.
Thought his tuners might be of interest - seemed ideal to me FWIW....

http://www.mjbl.co.uk/doubl-bass-machines.html

With shipping at today's rates, that's close to $550-600 with shipping to the states, estimated. Most Baker gear models work good. Some great and some not so great but they are a tradition.

I have old/original gears on both my Tarr and Panormo school basses. They look great and work good as well. They just don't make 'em like that anymore.



Arnold, send me some of those extra winders you have. I had you put Sloans on one of my Pollmanns before and never got the winder!

[davidseidel]

Yes, Ken, agreed that the old hand made ones are hard to beat but wasn't this thread about finding what's available on the market today?
Sloan's seem have the consensus aside from the slow tuning issue
Just thought members might be interested in Martyn's work anyway aside from the tuners, he's worked for all the big English dealers etc and on cointless rstorations of valuable basses and in addition makes very nice instruments in the English tradition.

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by davidseidel

Yes, Ken, agreed that the old hand made ones are hard to beat but wasn't this thread about finding what's available on the market today?
Sloan's seem have the consensus aside from the slow tuning issue
Just thought members might be interested in Martyn's work anyway aside from the tuners, he's worked for all the big English dealers etc and on cointless rstorations of valuable basses and in addition makes very nice instruments in the English tradition.

Yes, they look nice but quite pricy. If the Dollar was the Pound, then it's a different thing. Arnold put a set of gears from Gallery on the Storioni copy he made for me and I had another set on some other bass that came thru from them as well. I don't know from pictures which are better but I know of Martyn's gears.

[Thomas Erickson]

Maybe a neat option on Sloanes (or any high ratio machine) would be for the key to have a little hex "nub" on it - then you could use a drill or one of those cheapo electric screwdrivers without an extra bit. I don't think it would look odd or anything.

[Geoff Chalmers]

I also wanted to recommend Martyn Baileys machines. They really are beautifully made and work perfectly.

[JoeyNaeger]

Does anyone have any experience with the tuners sold by gallery strings? They have a large selection and most can be used with blind holes.

http://www.gallerystrings.com/access...eads/index.htm