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Permalink Reply by Don Thompson on November 22, 2010 at 11:51am

I just measure the distance between two posts that would be close together but not touching and then add that length for the third. Around 1 and 9/16" center to center. I caution against placing the first one closest to the nut TOO close otherwise the string can bind, pop out of it's slot and or just be difficult to tune. Measure from the center of the post to the edge of the tuner then add say 1/8" to that for your edge distance.
Don

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Permalink Reply by Don Thompson on November 22, 2010 at 12:26pm

Indeed, it's a fine way of doing it. I wasn't sure what sort of tuners he was using. Some of the sealed back ones you can't take apart.
Don

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Permalink Reply by ross harper (rustic luthiery) on November 22, 2010 at 8:38pm

After making several CBG's with dowels filling in the holes I drilled in the wrong places,I got a piece of flat packing foam,lined up the tuners and pushed the posts through,giving me a simple template.Though,I was starting to see the dowelled fillers as a sort of trademark.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on November 23, 2010 at 12:56am

I ended up doing the same thing Wes did. I have a piece of 1/8 in luan that is the same dimensions as the headstock. It has 3 (or 4) small holes the size of a nail. I line the template up on the headstock and put the nail through the holes and tap to mark the spots. I found that using the nail to make a "pilot hole" helps keep the drill bit from wandering when I drill into red oak.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on November 26, 2010 at 5:39am

Here is what my template looks like. It has the 3 hole tuner pattern on one end, and a 4 hole tailpiece patter on the other.

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