Wierdness: reaming of tuner hole holes

[NeoFauve]

Is there any reason why a factory hole for a tuning peg hole should be crazily reamed on the back side of a headstock?

I always assumed that a little reaming might be done to pop the bushings into the face of the headstock.


Sorry, no phtots, but you wouldn't believe the egg-shaped divot behind the G tuner. I'd guess, at its largest it's nearly .125" oversize for the tuner post.

This is an older MIK Epi Casino that I picked up pretty cheap. Fantastic neck, and it plays great, yet as I tinker with it, I find truly odd errors. I really liked the guitar when I first found it, so I bought it. None of the funky flaws were/are visible when it's completely assembled, and I as I've addressed various wierdnesses, it's actually getting better.
So far...
- soundposts under the bridge studs
- replaced total crap version of a tune-o-matic
- glued shims into gap (about the thickness of a nickel) on the bass side of the neck joint

I have more sustain, more acoustic volume, and evened out response across all strings.
This tuner thing is the last of the build issues I have to address.

[cwilliamrose]

If I understand correctly I think it may be OK as is, if a bit sloppy in craftsmanship. The post is supported by the bushing on the top side of the headstock and by the tuner itself on the back side. The hole in the headstock can and should have a little clearance to the post -- or a lot of clearance, it shouldn't matter. Clear is clear.

Are you saying there were NO soundposts under the bridge??.....Bill

[NeoFauve]

There was one in the middle.

I put one under each stud.
I did that based on a Sorrento of roughly the same age, which was a really nice guitar, and had two posts.

BTW- I did some digging on the LPF, regarding soundposts in ES330's.
The consensus was that there were no posts from the factory, in those or Casinos. But many, many people added over the years, due to the top sinking in.

So, aside from replacing the crap tuners, the holes shouldn't be a problem?
That's good to hear. I was ready to fill the voids.
I still may do the hole around the G's bushing. The bushing isn't mating up with very much wood past the black veneer.

I've never seen a hole any larger than the bushing, straight through the headstock- no widening.

Thanks for your insights

[cwilliamrose]

I haven't had a lot of guitars apart but the necks I have here have a ton of clearance between the back side of the hole and the post -- like 1/16" on the diameter. The post is really riding on the frame of the tuner down there so it shouldn't matter how tight the hole is. The bushings are even fairly loose on the cheap Epi tuners I'm measuring from the LP Special neck -- .009" on the diameter. The post has to move a lot to make contact with the bushing but it never gets close to the wood. The Klusons I have in the other neck fit the bushings much tighter........Bill

[NeoFauve]

Figuring in the whatever the OD of the bushing is, 1/16" over the diameter of the shaft seems like it would make sense.
Much more sense than this.
"I'd guess, at its largest it's nearly .125" oversize for the tuner post," was a typo on my part.
It's actually about that much bigger than the bushing.
I can stick my pinky in this hole.
And you'd have to be pretty charitable to call it "round."

It's hard to picture what kind of tool might have been used to do this.
Maybe something like this, not very well controlled

It does taper down so that it holds the bushing in the front. But, like I said it's not snugged into very much wood. The tuner post being clear is one thing, but you don't want the bushing to be clear.
So, I think I will fill this one hole.

These are Kluson style tuners, with an Epi "E" on the back. Some of them are quite loosey goosey.

[cwilliamrose]

The Klusons I'm using for my arch-top project are these;



They're heavy compared to the econo tuners Epi uses on the LP Specials but they nice and tight, no slop. And very smooth.

Yeah, you don't want the bushing to be loose but only the area where it sits is really important. The rest is hidden by the tuner. It almost sounds like someone wallowed out the hole with a drill or reamer, or maybe it slipped while they were drilling the holes?? Strange.........Bill

[NeoFauve]

Those are pretty slick.
The underside is nice and flat, countersunk holes for the mounting screws.

My Epi tuners are very different, to say the least.

Thanks again-
Bill

[cwilliamrose]

These are the tuners from the Epi LPSpecial. They're on the other end of the quality scale.