Tying On Bags with Grommets

You’re putting on a new pipe bag and see the grooves in the stocks. Where exactly do those go? Should grommets be above or in the groove?

Carl and Andrew explain what the groove is for and how to get the best placement when installing your new bag.

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Video Transcription:

Andrew:
"When installing stocks in synthetic bag, you push the stock until the groove clicks into the grommet and it is pretty well sealed. When installing in a hide bag, how far do you push the stock? Do you have the groove even with the bottom of the grommet hanging into the bag before you put the clamp on?" First of all, that's not really a hide bag.

Carl:
Well, no.

Andrew:
It's got grommets on it.

Carl:
It's a Lee & Sons, I'm assuming.

Andrew:
Okay, got you. It's a hybrid.

Carl:
Yeah. Well, not necessarily. They have grommets on their standard hide bags. At any rate, here's the answer, Lou. No, they should go in the same amount. That little groove is designed to be the point for a tie-in on a normal hide bag. You'd be wrapping the cord around that groove. All you want to stick out below that is the part that's on the bottom, that's it. Just under the groove, that's the only part that should be in the bag. Don't leave it sticking in too far.

Am I positive that would have a bad influence on the bag? No, but I wouldn't want it. It just messes with stuff, so no. It should go all the way in to that same point where that groove just disappears into the inside of that collar, if you will. As we're putting the drone in from the inside of the bag, that collar or that groove needs to disappear completely, but not the stock completely. Does that make sense? Is that clear, Andrew?

Andrew:
That does make sense.

Carl:
Yeah. The groove needs to disappear, Lou, but not the stock, be about an inch.

Andrew:
Yeah. I would just add onto that. Conceptually, I guess you could say the higher the stock is tied in, the lower on the actual stock itself that we have that fulcrum point, theoretically the better the tone will be, right? The further up the stock that there's pressure, the less the drone as an entire unit will be able to vibrate. Does that make sense?

Carl:
Got it. Okay, yeah.

Andrew:
The further up we go, the less the drone itself, as an entire unit, is going to be able to resonate and vibrate. We dampen it the further up we go, which is part of why grommets are not a hundred percent ideal. They're super practical, but for ultimate tone, they're not super ideal because we're grabbing more and more of the drone and dampening it with the grommet. Again, that's a little bit theoretical, but my anecdotal experience is that grommets don't give me the sound that I want. Just food for thought. Don't take anything I say as dogma, because we are anti-dogma here. That's been my experience.