I just picked up a set of Hipshot HB7s to upgrade an old Fender Jazz that has one slightly bent machine head - measured multiple times to ensure they were the right tuners, supposedly a drop-in replacement. Of course, now they've arrived it's clear that the holes don't - quite - match up. The two on the small side are perfect but the other two are a fraction off. Swapping out the old bushings to the new Hipshot ones makes negligible difference (although without the bushings in I can sort of finesse the hole line-up to the point where the deviation for each hole is minuscule, but what help is that?).
My question is, since I can see some of the hole, should I just brute force these?? The temptation to do so is enormous. Filling and re drilling is exactly what I'd hoped to avoid by sourcing the (quite expensive) Hipshots.
Tips, tricks, advice, cautionary tales and horror stories all gratefully received.