Machine Head

I blipped these guitar tuners on Sept 2nd, proudly proclaiming they were the first component in my next project. Well, plans have changed somewhat, and a totally different project has been started instead. Not wishing to waste these tuners, I thought I’d have a go at fitting them to my lockdown project Bass - basically, tuners were the only part I hadn’t upgraded back then. These particular tuners had been recommended on a couple of online forums and were claimed to be a direct swap, with no drilling or new screw holes required.
And thus it proved to be. They were very easy to fit and are definitely an improvement - mainly in looks - over the OE fittings. While the strings were off, I thought I’d also have a go at giving the neck a good clean and seeing if I could remove the slight bit of “stickiness” on the back of the neck that I’d noticed last time I was gigging.
Frets were polished, fingerboard cleaned and then I set about the back with some wet and dry paper - making sure I didn’t let it get too wet. I didn’t go too mad - I only used 1500 grit, followed by a final pass with 2000 grit - because the aim was not to remove all the existing varnish from the neck, just give it a more “silky” feel and change the glossy look to a satin one.
And, for a first attempt, I’m pretty pleased with the end result. It feels and looks great so I’m looking forward to trying it in anger at our next gig. And I’m a lot more confident now about tackling the neck on the new project. Unfortunately, that will have to wait for a bit because the upgraded pickup I wanted is currently out of stock, so the whole project is on hold at the moment. Hopefully it will get done before the end of the year as it would be nice to give it a run out at one of the many gigs we’ve got booked in December.
But, until then, at least I’ve now got the old trusty Bronco as good as it can be.