Tuner Hole Repair ?

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Eric Hochberg

After a visit to my luthier yesterday, he discovered that one of the receiving tuner shaft holes had worn away to the point where there is too much play for stability. He suggested filling the extra space with some kind of epoxy and shaping as opposed to plugging the hole with wood and boring. I'm assuming that would be a more costly operation. The bass is a 100 year old shop German.

Any comments on using this technique?

Yes, do it right. Plug and re-bush or if possible, shim with maple slices like veneer. My Mougenot had a worn Tuner hole on the D-string near the gear. I shimmed it with 2 curved layers of maple veneer overlapping each other and glued them in place. When I gave it to Jeff Bollbach to restore I had him look over my temporary repair as the Worm was digging in to the Gear bracket before my repair. Looking at it now, I can't tell if he re-did my repair, just touched it up or let it stand. The Gear works the same now as when I had fixed it before the restoration. No epoxy repairs, please. If you go to a professional, get a professional job done. If this were your shoemaker, I could understand the hobby-shop approach. I think the title 'Luthier' should stand on its own and with integrity.