Out of tuners

The other day I picked up my expensive Warwick bass guitar and found the A string wouldn't tune up.

As it slipped with each turn of the tuning peg, I expected to the hear the string snap. Instead a piece of plastic fell from the tuning peg.

The tuning peg refuses to tune without this small plastic disc that serves as a kind of washer.

Since then I've looked over my basses and found that five of the six I use have the same style of tuning peg. These basses range from one I bought for $200 to one that I bought secondhand for $1500.

This photo shows a broken plastic disc in my cheap Ashton bass exactly like the one that broke in my expensive Warwick bass.

I've ordered a set of tuning pegs that look to be the same design. They cost $12 including postage from China.

It amazes me that these cheap components seem to dominate in my instruments, regardless of their quality.