Replacing older, (perhaps) less-reliable tuners with new, sealed modern units is a pretty common upgrade. However, sometimes players want to go the other way. Sometimes, they want the look and vibe of a vintage-looking set of tuners. And, I should mention –because the implication is there –these tuners are absolutely fine. There’s no real drawback of installing a quality ‘vintage-style’ set over a set of more ‘modern-looking’ tuners.
However, a major difference in design between these two broad tuner camps can make the change from modern to vintage more tricky.
I’m going to take a look at what’s involved in swapping out a set of newer Fender tuners for ones with a more vintage vibe and I’m going to split this over two parts.
Holes Too Big For Tuning Keys
Modern tuners most often have a post diameter that‘s a little less than ¼” – it’s actually about 6mm. However, the construction of their bodies means they require a much bigger hole in the headstock. Modern tuners need a 10mm hole (0.394”).
So, swapping out those 10mm-hole tuners for hardware that expects an 8.75mm hole isn't going to work. The bushings will rattle around and the tuner shafts will not have anything to bear off under string tension and may deform. Not good.
And, to make matters worse, Fender’s newer tuners use a slightly bigger hole again. These tuners will leave you with a series of 10.5mm (0.413”) holes in the headstock.
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Well, a while back, I talked about how it’s sometimes necessary to completely plug a hole in order to drill a new –smaller –hole in its place. And that’s certainly an option (the only option in some circumstances).
The inside diameter on the bushings is a standard quarter-inch so they are perfect for vintage-style tuners but they’ll fit nicely in a modern tuner hole. There’s a set of conversion bushings for 10mm holes and for 10.5mm holes.
These conversion bushings allow you to install vintage tuners on a guitar that’s had modern units. It saves you have to plug holes and re-drill (which is always nice).
Tuners Not Fitting?
If you’re planning on changing out a set of modern tuners, it’ll be much cheaper/easier to budget for a set of these than it will be to plug holes or pay someone to plug holes. It'll also, probably, be neater and it’s easy to switch tuners back at any point in the future if you want.If you do much of this guitar modifying or upgrading, sooner or later you’re going to need to make a hole bigger.
For example, if you replace some of the vintage-style tuners with more modern ones, there’s a good chance you’ll need to enlarge the tuner post hole in the headstock. This is actually one of the most common reasons for bigger holes. Moving from metric 'import' pots to sturdier CTS or Bourns is another common requirement for larger holes.
Now, you’ll be tempted just to take a drill bit, the size of your new tuner, and jam it in the smaller hole.
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You can’t centre the bit properly, you see. And as soon as the flutes bite into the wood, it’ll generally snag or yank itself in crazy ways. Even if you manage to get all the way through, instead of a nice circular hole, it’ll be shaped like an abstract painting of an egg.
Because it starts with smaller sizes, you can usually find a size to fit your current (smaller) hole well. This helps to keep the bit centred as you drill.
Step drills are mostly intended for sheet metal work so they’re made for thin materials. This means the height of each step increment is sometimes too short to get all the way through thicker pieces of guitar.
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Some bits have larger steps and that might do the trick. Or, sometimes you can drill from each side of the hole and meet in the middle. That’s often enough to do the trick. If not, you’ll be left with a little in the middle that you can file out with a rat-tail file.
Or you can use a reamer to get rid of more of the remaining wood in the centre of the hole and follow that with a file to save a little work.
A reamer is sort of like a continuous step drill. It has cutting flutes like a drill bit. The best ones do not have flutes all the way around —instead, one half of their circumference is smooth and the other half has the cutting edges. This helps keep them centred in the hole (the ones you generally find in the hardware store have cutting edges all around and aren’t as ‘clean’ to use).
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Because they’re tapered, on anything other than thin materials (say an archtop top), you’ll need to work from both ends of the hole and you’ll end up with a similar ‘hump in the middle’. Again, a thin round file will take care of that.
Stew Mac carries good reamers. Their Endpin Jack Reamer for instance is invaluable for enlarging acoustic endpin holes to accept a pickup output jack. They also have some reamers for bridge pins (useful because different pins have different tapers —one instance where you
I’d get some step drills, if I was you. You’ll find them massively useful for this sort of stuff and they’ll cover most bases. Wait to get a reamer until you know you need a reamer (you’ll know).A while back, I wrote about some methods for enlarging holes — for instance, if you wanted to fit larger tuners or a larger control pot into a hole that had housed something smaller.
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Because many guitarists like to replace modern tuners with ones that look a little more vintage, it’s possible to buy tuner bushings to adapt larger peghead holes to accept a more narrow tuner post.
If you have a headstock with a 10mm or a ⅜” hole, you can get a bushing that will fill the hole and comfortably accept a ¼” vintage-style tuner post. Brilliant.
For less common replacements, however, things are a little more complicated. We’re talking about plugging the hole with some wood and re-drilling a smaller hole in that plug.
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Sometimes this is easy. If you’re able to get a dowel of the right size (or close enough to ‘adjust’) you can often use that.
Some cautions on using a dowel, though: Because the grain direction of commercial dowels tends to run along the length of the dowel, when you’ve cut off a ‘plug’ from it, it’s the end-grain that’s exposed along its ‘face’. This can be problematic if you have to put a clear or tinted finish over it because it will look different to the grain around it. Also, drilling into the end grain can sometimes be tricky; causing the bit to wander. All of that said, it’s by far the easiest way to get this done.
Depending on the size of the hole you’ve got to fill, you could use a plug cutter to make a plug. The big advantage is that you can choose a piece of wood with grain to match the plug’s surroundings. And, that grain won’t soak up finish or dye like end-grain can (which can make it look out of place). You can’t always get a plug cutter the size you want, though — or at least, I can’t 😉 —so other means may be called for.
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Another, and more ‘involved’ option is to make your own dowel. Sometimes, I’ll use a wood lathe to actually turn a piece of timber to the right size. That’s not something everyone has the luxury of doing, though.
I’ve frequently (more frequently) done this by hand too —it’s quicker than setting up the lathe if I just need one plug. Cut a piece of wood into a long, square-section a little larger than your intended plug. Then, use a sharp chisel to ‘round’ it off. Take off the four corners, then take off the eight new corners, and so on, successively removing corners until it’s pretty round. Some work with sandpaper will smooth things out towards the end. With a little care, it’s definitely possible to get yourself a pretty good round section for plugging holes.
The plug used in the image above was cut by hand with chisels and sandpaper (you can just see a sliver of the flat section . Incidentally, It’ll be completely covered so I’m not trying to match grain here.
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Make sure there’s no finish on the walls of the hole. If so, try scrape as much off as possible (actually, this is something you should do
You size your plug to fit but for the purposes of writing this article, it works better here —you do it first).
That it squeezes most of the glue out. I’ve done this and learned the hard way. Also, you obviously don’t want gaping gaps between the two. A snug press fit that stays in place is what you’re aiming for.
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To cut before it’s glued or after? That’s the question. You can glue in and return later with a flush-cut saw. For some applications, this would be fine but you’ll often want to clean things up
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