Do End-Pin Bass Wheels Damage Upright Basses?
The end-pin hole on a bass is designed to support the stationary weight of the bass. It is strong enough to support the bass, but it is not designed to handle excess weight, strain, or shocks. This point was driven home to me when a local bass player was playing his bass and the end-pin nut slipped. The bass only slipped down the end-pin about 3 inches, but as the weight of the bass dropped down on the end-pin, the bass was seriously damaged. Again, the end-pin hole is designed to handle the weight of a stationary bass, but not the force of a bass that is being “dropped” or “bounced”. When running some Google searches looking for information about end pin wheels and the risk of damage being caused to the double bass, there were mixed results: • Some bass players do not use bass wheels because of the potential damage risk • A number of other bass players have been able to successfully use bass wheels without damaging their basses One bass player who said that he had been carefully using
