Official Luthiers Forum!

With Grover and Waverly tuners for slotted headstocks, the tuner is 1/4 inch,
but the bushing is 11/32.
Do most of you just drill 11/32 holes al the way or do you drill 1/4 inch hole
and enlarge it for the bushing to fit.
The Stew Mac web page recommends drilling both sizes for the waverly
tuners, but 11/32 for the grovers, even though they are idential in size.
Thanks

Andy

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

My mistake. I was referring to SOLID pegheads, not slotted.
Andy

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

I drill the 1/4" hole, then use a piloted reamer (11/32" reamer with a 1/4" pilot) to cut the hole for the bushing. The resulting "stepped" cavity supports the shaft while making the bushing a nice press fit. The reamers are available from various suppliers like MSC, etc. I use various sizes, most with the 1/4" pilot, for many of the holes needed for guitar construction. The reamer leaves a much cleaner hole than just a drill.

[QUOTE=HankMauel] I drill the 1/4" hole, then use a piloted reamer (11/32" reamer with a 1/4" pilot) to cut the hole for the bushing. The resulting "stepped" cavity supports the shaft while making the bushing a nice press fit. The reamers are available from various suppliers like MSC, etc. I use various sizes, most with the 1/4" pilot, for many of the holes needed for guitar construction. The reamer leaves a much cleaner hole than just a drill.
[/QUOTE]

For the good of the order, here is a "better" description that I just PM'd to Andy:



Well, they are really called " Interchangeable Pilot Type Counterbores". In my 2003-04 MSC catalog, they are in Section 1, towards the end.

An example:
11/32" in Cobalt is item #08815227. It has a 3/32" center hole to take the pilot (found on following pages)

The 1/4" "Interchangeable Pilot" is Item #08901167. It has the 3/32" shank to go into the counterbore (ie: reamer in layman's language)which is secured by a tiny Allen set screw (you may be able to see the set screw in the picture of the Counterbore).

This combo would set you up for the press fit bushings for either Waverly or Gotoh open back tuners.

There is an endless combination of counterbores and pilots, but I have a few, all set with 1/4" pilots to do all the peghead holes needed for Gotoh, Schaller, Waverly and Grover tuners. Also a 15/32" counterbore with a drill bit instead of the pilot to do end jack hole in one operation.

Hope that helps.

StewMac sells such a reamer, which I recently purchased. It works great.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I use the stew-mac reamer too, but I have a thought that Hank got his cheaper from MSC. <G>

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

[QUOTE=Mark Swanson] I use the stew-mac reamer too, but I have a thought that Hank got his cheaper from MSC. <G> [/QUOTE]

Yup! About 5 years ago...I got the HSS since this isn't a high use item, and it cost about $10 complete.