Installing new tuning machines

[Bajoloco]

O.K. I have a Bob Gollihur Bulgarian 3/4 carved bass. I recently wanted to upgrade my tuning machines with the ebony ones that are on Bob's site. When I got them home I found that the posts were a bit larger than the holes, not more than a mm or two. Can anyone suggest what type of tool I can use to 'open' up the holes a bit? (A reamer perhaps)
Where I live I do not have access to a bass luthier. The man who fixes my bass before is a guitar builder who studied in Italy and had some knowledge on setting up basses, but he lives two hours away. If this is a real specialty job I can take it to him.
Any advice.......anyone?????

[Steve Swan]

You definitely want to find a bass specialist who has the proper reamer for installing thses tuners. You will be very unhappy if somebody does a sloppy job for you.

Good luck!

[Bajoloco]

Thanks, yeah I was thinking the same thing....if I want it done right. There is a place in Athens Greece where there is a bass luthier. The only problem is getting there (by ferry) and the turn around (maybe a week or two). The cost of getting there would probably run more than the actual work on the bass. Thats the only thing about living on an island, all the modern conveniences are far away.

[1st Bass]

I'd surely be considering how to do it myself...it has to be possible to make a tapered dowel and glue sandpaper to the outside, or something...it's not as if you were offering to graft a new scroll on.

Can you have someone copy the taper of the new pegs, on several pieces of dowel? You can glue varying grits of abrasive material to the dowels, and gradually work the holes out until they are right.

In my case, I went ahead and made a steel reamer, but because the tuning machines are of a sort that demand a blind hole, it was less than satisfactory, as each hole was a slightly different depth and thus required a different reamer. Next time I will make a set of reamers, at different depths, but the same taper.

[Bajoloco]

I'd be interested in how you made your own steel reamers?
The only ones I have seen advertised for an instrument are for an endpin, I have seen industrial reamers but I am not sure how that would work.
I think the dowels would be a good idea, it looks like the posts on the tuners are all the same size as are the ones already on the bass.

[arnoldschnitzer]

You can grind the leading edge points down on a spade bit and use it to enlarge the holes. Make the leading edges a little smaller than the bit width, and ramp towards the center. Go a little bit undersize, then finish up with a round file. Be patient.