Got some of these for my '73 Tele. They don't fit. They are probably better gears than the originals, but kinda like a Rolex knockoff, nobody would ever mistake them for the real thing. Stamping is weak, the overall outside diameter of both the tuner sleeve and the bushing won't fit without drilling. Now debating whether to drill the headstock for these, put different tuners alltogether and drill small mounting holes, or try to score some real originals somewhere. Does anyone know the exact drill dimension for the new ones. Not going to do this trial and error.
Thanks

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fender-70s-F-Lo ... _944wt_952

Don't deface your beautiful guitar. Send em back if they don't work.

Also, never buy from China.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Those are exactly the ones I have. Explanation seems to be that these are designed for '70's reissue guitars, not real '70's guitars... hmmm. Anyone have luck rebuilding originals. Finally got one apart and the grease was dry and caked. Thinking a little solvent and some silicon grease might just do the trick.

Be sure to take every piece off and clean it thoroughly. I just took apart some rusty hexbacks and cleaned em up nice. They still have that patina from being an original mid 80s-90s piece, but work almost perfectly.

Good luck!

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

You do not redrill the holes for those tuners, what you need is a reamer, you can get one at any good woodworking tools shop.
A reamer enlarges the tuner hole but it is much better than a drill bit since the Reamers cutting shaft is V shaped meaning that you will enlarge the hole on the side where the tuner shaft is inserted but the side which those ferrules are inserted will remain at the same diameter unless they also need to be enlarged slightly.

The idea is to enlarge the hole ever so slightly so that the tuners fit in snugly not loose.
loose tuners will negatively affect the strings resonance..

It sounds to me like you would be better off letting a tech handle this, there is more to installing tuners than just drilling a hole or two....

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

Thanks to all. Got them all apart, cleaned up, shafts straightened, addded a little lithium grease, and they are fine. Was very surprised at how little wear there was on the tuners. I've had others that were full of shavings. These were packed with dried grease that was gluing the casings together.
I guess my major point was that "'70's reissue" doesn't mean 70's compatible. The new tuners go back and I start trolling the old time guitar shops for spares to stash.