Reducing headstock peg holes - help?

[hooky_lowdown]

I'm putting (crudely) a p bass together from parts I have in my parts box for my nephew. However, at the moment there is bad neck dive, so to counter this I have some old Squier Bronco machine heads which are pretty lightweight I want to replace the stock (Chinese) elephant ear ones with. Now, the peg holes in the headstock are 14mm, and the Bronco ferrule's are a little bit smaller. So, is there a quick/cheat way to make the peg holes smaller without having to dowl the holes and redrill new one's?

[b7l4s]

It's a total bodge, but I did once solve the same problem by doing the opposite... and making the ferrules bigger. I found that carefully wrapping them in a length of tape they became a snug fit in the hole, and only added a gram or two to each one in the prcess. It's not much of a solution, but it allowed me to check that the neck dive was reduced, and I did end up leaving them that way for a lot longer than originally intended with no ill effects.

[hooky_lowdown]

1 hour ago, b7l4s said:

It's a total bodge, but I did once solve the same problem by doing the opposite... and making the ferrules bigger. I found that carefully wrapping them in a length of tape they became a snug fit in the hole, and only added a gram or two to each one in the prcess. It's not much of a solution, but it allowed me to check that the neck dive was reduced, and I did end up leaving them that way for a lot longer than originally intended with no ill effects.

Sounds interesting, what sort of tape did you use? I think I have some electrical tape which might work.

[Matt P]

i've seen someone use copper tube to make sleeves to do this on a guitar. As you want to keep weight down you could try thin plastic, maybe a strip of fizzy drink bottle wrapped into a cylinder? it will depend how much space you have to make up. a bit of coke can might work as well if you want something a bit thinner, i've found that when using electrical tape for this kind of thing it always ends up getting bunched up and not fitting properly. ymmv

 

Matt

[b7l4s]

From memory it was insulation tape, but I did spend a few minutes getting it tightly wrapped and neat, and then a bit longer getting just the right amount on there - there was probably only one wrap between a snug fit and not being able to push the ferrule in. I think it would only really be successful if the amount of diameter you are trying to make up is quite small - 1-2mm maybe. Any more and you might be more frustrated than triumphant, but I did get it to work well enough. There is no getting away from the fact that it’s a bodge though!

[Jabba_the_gut]

Possibly try lining the holes with wood veneer. 

[outsider70]

I use the plumbers white ptfe tape for this with great success. 

[3below]

As per Matt, when faced with a similar problem fitting Hipshots to my SG bass I found strips of plastic milk bottle ideal,.  You just need to find the right thickness plastic     

 

 

[3below]

8 hours ago, Matt P said:

i've seen someone use copper tube to make sleeves to do this on a guitar. As you want to keep weight down you could try thin plastic, maybe a strip of fizzy drink bottle wrapped into a cylinder? it will depend how much space you have to make up. a bit of coke can might work as well if you want something a bit thinner, i've found that when using electrical tape for this kind of thing it always ends up getting bunched up and not fitting properly. ymmv

 

Matt

As per Matt P, when faced with a similar problem fitting Hipshots to my SG bass I found strips of plastic milk bottle ideal,.  You just need to find the right thickness plastic    YMMV

[hooky_lowdown]

Thanks everyone, nice to see creativity and ingenuity at work.

[Grahambythesea]

5 hours ago, outsider70 said:

I use the plumbers white ptfe tape for this with great success. 

+1 for ptfe tape.