kursal Posted December 25, 2008 Share Posted December 25, 2008 Hi everybody, So, I'm almost ready to retire my old Epiphone Les Paul now that the Robot has arrived. It's been with me around 10 years and has been on several tours in that time. It's a bit like an old horse that I want to put out to pasture. Most of the guitar is in good working order. The electrics seam fine and, apart from the odd knock, the finish is still very nice. The Jack Plate is cracked and needs replacing and it's lost the switch cap but it still plays really well. There is one problem with the guitar though. The machine heads have started to come loose. I noticed this a while ago and so switched to my backup guitar (a Yamaha strat copy of all things) some time ago. What's actually happened is that they seam to have warn away at the wood they are mounted on. In fact some of them fall out when a string is not fitted to them. There is nothing for the screws to bite in to. I was wondering what, if anything, could be done about this. Does anyone have any ideas? I was actually going to get rid of it completely but since I'm on here I thought I would ask the forums advice. Can the guitar be fixed? Is it worth going to all that trouble now I have taken the plunge with the Robot? The silly thing is that it still plays well and has a nice tone and stays in tune better than the Yamaha. What are your thoughts? K Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynadude Posted December 25, 2008 Share Posted December 25, 2008 Fill the holes with glued in splinters of wood or toothpicks. Replace the screws. Done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kursal Posted December 25, 2008 Author Share Posted December 25, 2008 Actually I did that once but I don't think we used glue... that might be where we went wrong. Thanks for the post though :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarJunkie Posted December 25, 2008 Share Posted December 25, 2008 When I have a stripped hole, I usually stuff it with steel wool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kursal Posted December 26, 2008 Author Share Posted December 26, 2008 Oh, Steal wool, that's a new one on me. Do you think that holds up better than packing it with wood? Do you use any glue at the same time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thermionik Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 . Hey kursal - last time I had a really bad case of loose tuners, I drilled the holes out to a tight fit for some dowel and glued lengths of dowel in them. Finished the whole thing flat and then re-drilled where I wanted them - like drilling into a new, undrilled headstock. Filled the screw-holes with tooth-pick tips. A job worth doing is worth doing well. Or you could just retire the old girl in my general direction heh heh heh..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Deadhead Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 Fill the holes with glued in splinters of wood or toothpicks. Replace the screws. Done. Carpenters yellow glue and toothpicks works well for stripped screw holes in wood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichCI Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 I don't know jack about carpentry and the other guys have already given you some suggestions but I want to say this: If that guitar has served you well for 10 years worth of tours, I think it's worth fixing even if the cost seems to outweigh the value of the guitar a little. A good guitar is a good guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kursal Posted December 26, 2008 Author Share Posted December 26, 2008 I don't know jack about carpentry and the other guys have already given you some suggestions but I want to say this: If that guitar has served you well for 10 years worth of tours' date=' I think it's worth fixing even if the cost seems to outweigh the value of the guitar a little. A good guitar is a good guitar.[/quote'] Yeah, you know, I think I agree with that. I'm also considering replacing with grovers now (thanks guitarest) and have ordered a replacement jack plate and switch cap. I'm actually getting rather excited about this little project :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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