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Topic: Collect the "Balls" off Old Strings |
Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 30 Jan 2014 4:21 pm |
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I don't know why they call them balls when in fact they're tiny cylinders with a groove in. There are two types, one a brass casting and the other splined-out brass. It's the first type that are useful.
Collect them, put a spindle through them, and you have a roller nut. It costs you nothing. |
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John Scanlon
From:
Jackson, Mississippi, USA
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Georg Sørtun
From:
Mandal, Agder, Norway
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Posted 30 Jan 2014 5:04 pm
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| I may make a replacement for the solid nut on my GFI out of such balls. Would be an improvement. |
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Bruce Derr
From:
Lee, New Hampshire, USA
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Posted 30 Jan 2014 6:20 pm
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My old GES S-12 uses those for nut rollers.
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Mac Knowles
From:
Almonte,Ontario, Canada
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Posted 30 Jan 2014 6:31 pm
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Get your bass player to give you his old strings. Those "ball ends" are much bigger, and will take a 1/8" shaft.
_________________
Homebuilt SD12 keyless, always several new steels in the works, Custom Gretsch I bought in '59, Regal Dobro, MK acoustic, several other acoustics & electrics, Session 400, Peavey Bandit etc. etc. |
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 31 Jan 2014 6:44 am
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This method could take you years. How often do bass players change their strings? I'm allowed to ask because I used to be one - when I changed mine no-one noticed so I stopped bothering.
_________________
Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 31 Jan 2014 8:07 am
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| Sho~Bud did it that way. |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 31 Jan 2014 12:04 pm
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| Yes they did Erv. Starting around 1963 on the Fingertips. |
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Chris Lucker
From:
Los Angeles, California USA
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Posted 31 Jan 2014 5:17 pm
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Yes, Erv and John, in fact I had a Factory updated Sho-Bud Permanent that was a 1959 D-8 that had its long scale shortened when it was made into a D-10. It now had Fingertip keyheads and Fingertip bellcranks underneath, but the rollers at the keyhead would buzz like crazy. Finally, I replaced the nice rollers with string ball ends, which were wider than the first rollers I had, and the buzzing went away.
So, if you have an early roller nut Sho-Bud with buzzing problems, check and see if switching to primitive roller balls solves your problem.
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Chris Lucker
Red Bellies, Bigsbys and a lot of other guitars. |
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Per Berner
From:
Skovde, Sweden
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Posted 1 Feb 2014 5:41 am
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| They work very well as inlaid fretboard markers when you build your own guitars as well. I have tried this a couple of times with very neat results. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 1 Feb 2014 11:23 am
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| I also use old strings as handrails when building models of buildings and locomotives, so, just like our ancestors of yore used every bit of the cattle, very little gets wasted. The thicker wound strings can be used to make model vacuum pipes or gas pump hoses. |
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Peter Harris
From:
South Australia, Australia
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Posted 3 Feb 2014 3:56 am
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| Alan Brookes wrote: |
| I also use old strings as handrails when building models of buildings and locomotives, so, just like our ancestors of yore used every bit of the cattle, very little gets wasted. The thicker wound strings can be used to make model vacuum pipes or gas pump hoses. |
...and I use them within jewelry & small-scale sculptural objects.. 
_________________
If my wife is reading this, I don't have much stuff....really! |
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 3 Feb 2014 6:22 am
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Thanks, guys - I'm bad enough at throwing stuff away as it is.
_________________
Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs |
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Roger Shackelton
From:
MINNESOTA (deceased)
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Posted 3 Feb 2014 8:52 pm
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A Small, Part Time Steel Guitar Builder in Seattle Was Threatned With A Lawsuit By Sho-Bud If He Didn't Stop Using String Ball Ends For Nut Rollers.  (mid to late 1960s)
Roger |
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Chris Lucker
From:
Los Angeles, California USA
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Posted 3 Feb 2014 9:19 pm
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Nice try
Not true.
Not true then either.
I know the " story". And it lasted a day, and they was a long time before the Internet.
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Chris Lucker
Red Bellies, Bigsbys and a lot of other guitars. |
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Colm Chomicky
From:
Kansas, (Prairie Village)
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Posted 4 Feb 2014 1:42 pm
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Nothing. Our cat prefers ball ends in her cat crown.
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Casey Lowmiller
From:
Kansas
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Posted 25 Feb 2014 6:25 pm
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Sweet Cat Crown...I don't think my fuzzy buddy would wear one for very long 
Casey
_________________
Known Coast to Coast as
"The Man with The Plan" |
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