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How to remove stop-tailpiece bushings?


handen

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Hello,

 

I have the body of an OCR Fender Jaguar JGS-83 that came with the bushings for a (metric) Gotoh TOM stop-tailpiece, but it didn't come with any studs. I recently ordered a pair of black studs and bushings only to find out the studs don't fit the bushings already installed into the body, and that those bushings are stuck as {censored} into the body.

 

Now, I know StewMac sells this Knob and Bushing Puller, but I really don't think I need to spend $40 on a tool I'll only ever use once.

 

Does anyone know of any tricks I can try to get those bushings out? If they're glued in, well then I'll just have to find some black, metric studs, but I haven't yet, so I'm hoping I can just yank these bushings out and set the whole new stud system in place.

 

Thanks.

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They shouldn't be glued in.


I always use a claw hammer.


Unscrew the stud a bit. Cushion the body of the guitar with a magazine and a towel or something, then gently pull it out with the hammer.

 

 

I do this too.. but.. be careful if there is paint over the bushing (as on Gibsons), it will crack and tear..

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I just use a long bolt with the same threads and drive it down until the insert lifts out. It doesn't take much effort to remove them.

 

 

I'm afraid I wouldn't even know where to find a bolt with the same threads at this hour of night in this hell-hole town. :/

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They shouldn't be glued in.


I always use a claw hammer.


Unscrew the stud a bit. Cushion the body of the guitar with a magazine and a towel or something, then gently pull it out with the hammer.

 

 

This is what I did.

 

Be careful though. Even with the cushion, I managed to slightly rub the soft finish on my SG a bit.

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I just use a long bolt with the same threads and drive it down until the insert lifts out. It doesn't take much effort to remove them.

 

 

Do you mean driving it down all the way through until the bolt hits the back of the hole and continuing to turn the bolt so that it drives the insert up like a corkscrew? Seems like that would work great -- IF you can find a bolt with the same threads. IF.

 

I was trying to find a match for a Guitarfetish Wilkinson trem and coming up short at the hardware store, McMaster-Carr, and pretty much everywhere else I looked. I ended up just leaving the bushings in the guitar and living with the fact that I'd drilled the holes about a millimeter too shallow and the bushings weren't flush with the top of the guitar. Dammit. At least I was still able to get the bridge studs low enough in the bushings for correct bridge height and didn't have to shim the neck or anything.

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If you have a drill press, find a bolt with the same threads and cut off the head. Chuck that into the press, and put some kind of padding on the drill press table. Check the height first to make sure it's set close enough and that you won't scratch the finish when you put it on the table.

 

Take a hot soldering iron and heat up the bushing. This will loosen it up. Even if you don't have a drill press, you can probably pull it out with just the bolt. Wear safety glasses so that you don't poke yourself in the eye.

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Here's How. It will cost less to put together than the shipping on the 40 buck thing-a-ma-jig referenced in first post:

# One: Various parts

puller1.jpg

# Two: For the sake of illustration, two rubber grommets on rig. Bolt thread matches thread of bushing. Turn bolt end A into bushing, enough to get a good grab for what you are to do. Hold bolt head B stationary with a wrench. Looking down on guitar from overhead, with another wrench turn the nut C clockwise.

puller2.jpg

# Three: The bushing will be drawn up through the grommets.

puller3.jpg

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Here's How. It will cost less to put together than the shipping on the 40 buck thing-a-ma-jig referenced in first post:

# One: Various parts

puller1.jpg
# Two: For the sake of illustration, two rubber grommets on rig. Bolt thread matches thread of bushing. Turn bolt end A into bushing, enough to get a good grab for what you are to do. Hold bolt head B stationary with a wrench. Looking down on guitar from overhead, with another wrench turn the nut C clockwise.

puller2.jpg
# Three: The bushing will be drawn up through the grommets.

puller3.jpg

 

Excellent!

 

Where have you been all of our lives?

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Unscrew the studs. Get matching thread bolts at your local Ace hardware and 2 small wood dowels that will slip into the tailpiece bushing holes. Drop the wood dowels in the holes, thread the bolts in, tighten with a wrench and the bushings will lift right out.

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They shouldn't be glued in.


I always use a claw hammer.


Unscrew the stud a bit. Cushion the body of the guitar with a magazine and a towel or something, then gently pull it out with the hammer.

 

 

I've done this, works like a charm.

 

One thing I would add, though: Use a sharp X-acto knife and score the finish carefully around the body insert. This should prevent any chipping around the hole.

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  • 2 years later...
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I'm trying to install a TP6 fine-tuning tailpiece off of an Epiphone Lucille onto my Yamaha SA2200. I pulled the posts with a pair of screwdrivers & my checkbook for padding.

 

The post holes are just a little too big for the posts that came with the TP6 tailpiece. Can I get by with some wodden shims & glue, or do I really need to dowel the holes & re-drill? They're barely too big-if I dowel, there'll only be a thin skin of dowel left once i re-drill.

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