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Looking to replace tuners on one of my guitars but I'll have to fill the old holes first.  It is a natural maple neck.  Any suggestions on wood fillers and any instructions on how to do would be appreciated.  thanks.

Ken

[QUOTE=kente777] Looking to replace tuners on one of my guitars but I'll have to fill the old holes first.  It is a natural maple neck.  Any suggestions on wood fillers and any instructions on how to do would be appreciated.  thanks.Ken
[/QUOTE]

Ken...

Nothing is going to make the old holes "disappear" so I would suggest the use of round toothpicks as a solid medium for filling the tapered holes left from the removed screws. The toothpicks are pretty close to the maple color and can be trimmed to length, glued in, final trimmed to level if needed and touched up with small drops of lacquer. This is also the preferred method of filling stripped out screw holes in old headstocks to give the screw an new, solid purchase when re-installing the old tuners... or new tuners with the same screw pattern(s).

Hope that helps.

_________________
Hank Mauel

Ken,

I am currently refurbishing a '68 Yamaha F-180 that was heavily damaged and needed a ton of work. (father's first guitar)

It had had 3 different sets of tuners in its 38 year old life and looked like a pin cushion when I took the most recent tuners off.  I did "exactly" what Hank mentions above.  I went to the super market and bought a box of round party toothpicks that were light colored and glued them all in the holes with LMI instrument glue.  Next day I sheared them all flush, touched sanded, and voila I had a new solid surface to work with!  Very cheap and easy sol'n although it looks a little ridiculous when you see 24 toothpicks sticking out of your peghead.

Also, make sure your new tuners have the same diameter as the old ones.  If not you can buy conversion bushings from Stew Mac or go to Frank Ford's site for a tutorial on how to fill the 6 tuner holes with dowels. (Great site for repairs)

Ray