Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi all,

I'm building a dreadnaught and the headstock is currently 12mm thick. The Grover tuners I have reach their minimum depth before clamping the headstock. Is 12mm structurally sufficient it should I add a veneer to thicken her up a bit?

The other option is filing down the machine head collets a mm to get them to tighten sufficiently.

Hey Bosco!

Your tuners are telling you the answer to your question. If your headstock is too thin for commercially available tuners it needs to be thickened up. Modifying the tuners is addressing the symptom and not the root cause.

The concept of "serviceability" is super important for builders because if it comes to pass that you sell this instrument or pass it on in time to a loved one do you want them to have to deal with the issue that standards tuners cannot be used without modification when the tuners fail?

Didn't think so....

I don't recall what I made my headstocks to in terms of thickness and I am sure that someone else will come along with a good number for you. Either a headstock overlay or a back side over lay or both are options to thicken that puppy up.

My interest is in promoting the concept of serviceability so that you good work and good will can keep on providing real value to someone as long as possible.

As far as structure go, 12mm is adequate however you're not doing yourself any favours by not making it correct. Modifying your tuners is a bad idea for all the reasons Hesh mentioned.

You'll want to make your overall thickness at least 9/16" (14mm) which is what I'd consider a minimum thickness, but you can go as thick as 5/8" (16mm) and be on the safe side without being too thick.

It's all based on the tuners and most tuner makers will make their tuners for a "standard" headstock thickness which seems to be around the 14-15mm range.

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Yep. 15mm is was I shoot for, so if it comes out a little thicker or thinner it's no problem.

Hi guys, thanks so much. Yes, I think you are all 100% correct. The headstock has had to undergo surgery having been made too narrow and I found that it somehow veered to one side. Long and the short is that I trimmed it straight, planed the original veneer off, glued on some wings, and re-veneered. I the process I obviously lost too much stock. I have some nice cooba that I can glue on to the back of the headstock. It's just a bit of an arse because it angles into the neck 4/5ths of the way down the headstock. It's doable though and will ultimately make the guitar more serviceable and conform with standards as you all said.