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I've bought an Epiphone TP6 tailpiece (fine tuner, off a BB King Lucille), and I'm trying to install it on my blonde Yamaha SA2200. I always wanted a 335, and the Yamaha seems to be a completely worthy substitute. Great guitar!

The post spacing is correct, but the threads & top of the posts are considerably bigger on the TP6. I pulled the metal bushings from my Yamaha, but the bushings that came with the TP6 are slightly smaller in diameter.

If I dowel the holes & re-drill, there will only be a thin skin of dowel left after drilling. The guitar is currently assembled, using card stock as shims, and I simply pushed the bushings into place with my thumb. It's held together for 3 days now under string tension, but I notice a slight loss of low end. I don't know if it's the card stock shims or the new tailpiece causing this.

The way I see it, I have 3 options:
1. dowel & redrill the post holes.
2. shim with either thin strips of wood or veneer & glue.
3. drill & retap threads in the old Yamaha bushings.

I'm leaning toward option #2. I have a friend who's a machinist, and I'm sure he'd have the right taps to re-thread the old Yamaha bushings. Thing is, I'd like to keep them original, and have the option of putting it all back stock if the new tailpiece doesn't suit me. Someone even suggested stiffening the card stock with Super Glue & just using that.

Also, the gold finish doesn't match the rest of the guitar-What's on the guitar is worn enough that it's now light gold with almost-chrome or nickel peeking thru in the worn spots. The tailpiece is a much darker gold color.Any tips on how to make the new tailpiece match a little closer (other than another 15-20 years of wear)?

So...suggestions? Warnings? Snide comments? I'll take what I can get at this point! Thanks for tolerating the newbie!

I would dowel and redrill. Even though there'll be just a thin amount of wood left after redrilling, if you use titebond or similar wood glue, the bond will be as strong as the wood itself. You'll be fine. IMHO this is far better than shims.

_________________
Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

After much deliberation, I have done the following:

1. I have left the card stock shims in place, actually added an additional one, added a VERY little wood glue, and pressed the inserts that came with the tailpiece into place as a temporary measure, so I can use the guitar for now. The added shim & glue seems to have restored the low end loss I originally reported.

2. My LONG TERM plan is to order new metal inserts from Yamaha, and have them drilled & threads tapped in to match the new posts that came with the tailpiece. Then naturally pull the shims & inserts that are in now, installing the new, retapped Yamaha parts when I get them.

My reasoning? The finish on this guitar is still really nice & slick for a guitar from the late 70's, and I feared having to do a re-finish if I dowled & re-drilled (& messed up doing it). This way seemed much less invasive, much closer to the stock set up, and easiest to restore to 100% stock if I decide to later. Other than that, I think the advice to dowel & re drill was spot on.

So far, I'm really liking the TP6 tailpiece. Not that there was anything wrong with the way it tuned before, but it does seem to make it easier to dial that last semi tone in without overshooting it.

So, any suggestions on making the dark gold Gibson finish on the new tailpiece more closely match the existing worn light gold Yamaha finish on the rest of the hardware?

I'm not sure I'd want to go there, although i imagine you could hit it with some polishing compound and REALLY FINE steel wool and see where that takes you. I have polished customers gold hardware that was tarnished and had a slight bit of rust on it(hence the steel wool) in this manner and the results were good, but it did lighten the gold finish slightly. I would not ordinarily recommend steel wool on plated hardware, but it was necessary in this instance because of the rust. If the rust had been more than slight, I would have recommended replacement instead. As it was it turned out fine, and the customer was more than satisfied.
However, be careful, and you do this at your own risk.

_________________
Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.