Gotoh Tom Post Bushings

[SawDust_Junkie]

Can anybody tell me the size of the drill bit needed to drill the holes for the post bushings on a Gotoh Nashville TOM bridge ? I have checked them on a drill gauge that I have and the closest size I could come up with is 7/16" or 11.11 mm. Although the "splines" on the bushings do catch a bit on the sides of the hole it seems a little loose to me. Should these holes be 11 mm ? Is there such a thing as an 11 mm bit ? Or is the 11.11 mm just the metric equivalent of 7/16" and the only size you can find ? The next size down on my drill gauge is 10.72 mm, or 27/64", and that seems too small.

[j. pierce]

I believe I used an 11mm bit when I did mine. (Look to your metric bits for most of the import hardware you get) I ended up testing on a scrap of wood from the guitar, and I would recommend it. They should fit fairly snugly. I pressed mine in with a drill press, they certainly wouldn't go in very easily by hand, and I didn't really want to hammer them in and risk putting a dent in.

[Stolysmaster]

On the Warmoth site, the diagram for the bridge says the bushing is 11.3mm wide. So I would have to agree that 11mm is the correct drill bit size for a bushing with splines like these.

[Mickguard]

The problem I ran into was that my 11 mm drill bit is actually closer to 10.8 mm! Which mean the hole was way too tight to fit the studs.

I measured all of my wood drill bits, and they're all undersized like that. I looked around for an 11.5 mm bit--the undersizing would have made it the perfect fit. But of course, I couldn't find one.

I end up taping a piece of sandpaper around a 10 mm dowel and reaming the holes a bit to get the studs to fit.

For the next guitar I'm thinking of using a set of adapter inserts I found (they're meant to adapt the screws on the end of bed legs for the holes on mattress platforms, if that makes any sense). The inserts are 10 mm, and they seem to fit the TOM posts I have here exactly.

From what I can tell, that's how Gibson used to do it...

[SawDust_Junkie]

Thanks for the replies guys. I will look around for an 11 mm bit. I remember when I bought a bit to drill the holes for my tuners, these particular ones were Schaller Mini M6s, which require a 10 mm hole, the closest thing I could find was a 9.9 mm. It works fine, but I usually have to use a dowel and sandpaper to ream the holes a bit to get the tuners to fit. But, better slightly smaller than too large right ! I could not find a drawing anywhere for the Gotoh TOM I will go look at the Warmouth site.