school bass won't hold pitch

[MartyNeilan]

My school has a pretty decent Yamaha 5 string bass guitar. The only problem is some dunderhead before I got there lubed the tuning mechanism with powder graphite (at least that's what it looks like.) Whenever the strings are up to tension, the gears gradually slip and unwind because there is no friction to hold them in place. The bass will drop a half step right after tuning it, and a full step within the course of a song. I have actually watched the gears turn after getting a string up to pitch.

I tried putting some of that thick red Selmer grease on the gears, and that only slowed them slightly; it still looses tuning within a few minutes.

Any ideas??

[Ames0325]

When I was playing viola in orchestra we rubbed our tuning pegs with chalk to keep them from slipping whne they got too loose.

Amy

[Lew]

When I was playing viola in orchestra we rubbed our tuning pegs with chalk to keep them from slipping when they got too loose.

Amy

Wow, I'll remember that for if I ever decide to pick up the cello again.

I used to use rosin on my cello pegs. It was a POS cello and the pegs would never hold, but the rosin kept them in place. Of course nothing should be used on tuning "gears."

[MartyNeilan]

I tried the chalk thing and it helps temporarily

[ArnoldGottlieb]

Yamaha's are notorius for tuning gears. Sometimes they're okay, but for some reason, the older yamaha basses often had bad gears. They're about as hard to replace as taking out all your tuba slides and oiling them, and I would certainly recomend it. Peace. ASG

[MartyNeilan]

Thanks for the insight; the school also has a Fender Squirer that is a few years old; and outside of very so-so electronics plays OK. The Fender is for the middle school kids and the Yamahaha is for the H.S.