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Changing machinehead holes


Woodinblack
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I got an 'interesting' bass recently, a 12 string which I assume is of chinese origin.

The previous owner had replaced some of the machineheads with better wilkinson ones, and as the thing was £50,  that seemed pretty good for at the worse case, 12 machineheads, 2 pickups and a 12 string bridge!

The nut (posted on here elsewhere) was useless so I threw that away. Trouble is, I went to move the machineheads around as they are in the wrong order, but the holes are also in the wrong order.

12 strings are just 4 courses of 3 strings, which go small small big, small small big, small small big, small small big. As can be seen from the picture, that is fine on the left where from bottom to top they go small small big, but when you get round the other side, that is a mirror image of the first, so it goes big, small, small.

Is making the hole for the current big ones smaller just a case of throwing a dowel in there, and then drilling it out when the glue has dried?head.thumb.JPG.7df57df1a71830c4c112c92dbe5648b8.JPG

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20 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

I got an 'interesting' bass recently, a 12 string which I assume is of chinese origin.

The previous owner had replaced some of the machineheads with better wilkinson ones, and as the thing was £50,  that seemed pretty good for at the worse case, 12 machineheads, 2 pickups and a 12 string bridge!

The nut (posted on here elsewhere) was useless so I threw that away. Trouble is, I went to move the machineheads around as they are in the wrong order, but the holes are also in the wrong order.

12 strings are just 4 courses of 3 strings, which go small small big, small small big, small small big, small small big. As can be seen from the picture, that is fine on the left where from bottom to top they go small small big, but when you get round the other side, that is a mirror image of the first, so it goes big, small, small.

Is making the hole for the current big ones smaller just a case of throwing a dowel in there, and then drilling it out when the glue has dried?head.thumb.JPG.7df57df1a71830c4c112c92dbe5648b8.JPG

Pretty much....and from the look of it, that will be the least of your problems xD

You certainly like a challenge...

  • Haha 1
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Dowel the holes, drill out the screw holes on the reverse of the headstock and dowel these too, then start over.  Find someone with a drillpress to accurately make the holes.

The shape of the headstock lends itself to being able to take twelve strings (in that it looks as if it narrows), but maybe consider using some kind of string retainer to put less strain on the nut.

Edited by NancyJohnson
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1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said:

Dowel the holes, drill out the screw holes on the reverse of the headstock and dowel these too, then start over.  Find someone with a drillpress to accurately make the holes.

The shape of the headstock lends itself to being able to take twelve strings (in that it looks as if it narrows), but maybe consider using some kind of string retainer to put less strain on the nut.

Pretty much this its also a good idea to cover the area you're drilling into with masking tape as it minimises the finish from splintering and splitting 

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