GFS conversion bushings - 10mm?

howea'

i have a MII squier standard tele, and i want to use these GFS tuners http://yhst-50206111187217.stores.yahoo.net/wiklstnitusi.html

i know that the vintage style tuners have smaller bushings than the modern ones, and i think my tele has 10mm holes, though i haven't checked it myself

do i just need a set of the GFS conversion bushings?

thanks in advance for any replys (Y)

yes. I just bought two necks, both with 10mm holes. I then bought two new GFS tuner sets, waited a week and a half for them to get here. Now I have to wait another week and a half for the 10mm bushings.

Do yourself a favour. Get them now.

i have a MII squier standard tele,


You have 10.5 MM bore holes on that Surabaya guitar. This applies to the vast majority of all Asian source necks. 10 MM conversions are for USA and MIM guitars.

You need the 10.5 MM conversions that Stewart MacDonald sells, together with the Gotoh split shaft tuners SM sell. The GFS bushings have proven to be sloppy loose - but they'll let you order them anyway. Don't do it.

My apologies. Thanks Boris, I thought there was only two sizes of bore holes. I stand happily corrected.

Oh, thanks, but I'm afraid I'm on a tight budget, and since i live in Ireland i wanted to get all my parts from one source to cut down on shipping costs.

Is there any way of making the 10mm bushings fit the 10.5 mm holes? tape?

I would assume you could make them fit, I mean it's only .5 mm, thats' only .25mm each side. So you could use tape, you could glue it, depends how permanent you want it.

But I'm not an authority on this (see above) so take all my thoughts with a grain of salt!

I would assume you could make them fit, I mean it's only .5 mm, thats' only .25mm each side. So you could use tape, you could glue it, depends how permanent you want it.

But I'm not an authority on this (see above) so take all my thoughts with a grain of salt!

That's a logical approach. But, I submit, an imperfect one.

Over at the Squier 51 Modder's Forum, we tried cloth tape, shrink wrap; various soft things. The guitars sounded muffled and didn't resonate or sustain much.

I did dozens of Squiers that way, but they sounded less than optimal.

I started using brass tubing from K + S metals (Chicago) size #s 137 and 138 I think. Drive the stock bush inside the tubing and cut the tubing to length. Tore out the soft stuff on every single Squier and was happy to do it.

But the new larger size product is much smarter than that. It took a long time to get really good at getting the sleeving in there right - I'd never do that today.

You see, at the time I did all 39 of those guitars in brass sleeving, the 10.5 mm bush simply did not exist yet. Such a bushing still doesn't exist for the GFS tuners. Jay buys and offers what he can find.

Here's what I see. These inexpensive-labor guitars are seen by the suits as "cheap" because they cost $ 30-50 dollars to make them and ship them stateside. But sometimes bits of wood and metal refuse to sound bad, once you pump some well aimed TLC into them. I can get the best tuners on the planet for $ 25 a set and I don't mind one bit sticking them on a sweet guitar that cost me under $ 100. GFS has an "almost acceptable" tuner for very nearly the same retail price - Most anybody like me is gonna bypass GFS and go straight for the best, when the best is also the best bang for the buck.

That's why, now that a perfect 10.5 mm bush for a Gotoh exists, no-one is gonna bother and make a 10.5 mm bush for a knockoff of the Gotoh.

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Here's an exercise that will wake you up: If you have a good sounding guitar with vintage press in tuner bushes and a few spare minutes, take the strings off and then the tuners and bushes. Leave the bushes off, but reinstall the tuner bodies and the strings and tune that baby back up. Play it for a while.

Sounds like garbage, doesn't it? Don't underestimate the task a tuner bush must do to make the guitar sound great.

That's a logical approach. But, I submit, an imperfect one.


That's why, now that a perfect 10.5 mm bush for a Gotoh exists, no-one is gonna bother and make a 10.5 mm bush for a knockoff of the Gotoh.

Well put....If you want it done correctly, get the Gotohs and the 10.5mm bushings...you asked for advice, and you got it......:wink:

wait, all is well, i took out the bushing and the tuners, and measured the bushings with a screw-gauge and the holes and they're 10mm, so its all good :)

thanks for all the suggestions, this forum kicks ass (Y)