Tapered Peghead

[sunburst]

I decided what I wanted the tuner shafts to look like in their bushings, and tapered the peghead accordingly.

[Paul Hostetter]

Interesting, John.

[P Josey]

I deletd my original post by mistake but was wondering about peghead thickness for a tapered peghead. The plans I have show a non tapered peghead 1/2" thick before veneer. I'm wondering if I should compensate and make the peghead a little thicker for a tapered peghead.

[Chris Baird]

John has it right. You have to make your peghead fit the length of you tuner posts. So, figure out which tuners you will be using and then measure them to find the total peghead thickness. For a tapered peghead you will likely want the top to be about .07 thinner than the bottom (where the tuner base ends). The taper isn't necessary though and complicates things.

[Paul Hostetter]

But it is elegant.

[Chris Baird]

One thing the taper helps with is making the transition from the back of the peghead plane into the neck. It helps keep that curve smooth and also allows for a thicker area in the transition zone which is good for maintaining strength in that area.

[sunburst]

But it is elegant.

I agree. Not only in the way it looks, but in the way it puts extra wood in the weak area near the nut where most peghead breaks occur, and in the way it thins the wide part of the peghead of an F5 so there's less tendency toward neck heaviness. If there's a truss rod pocket, the extra thickness helps with strength in that area.
Anything that moves the center of mass toward the tailpiece and away from the peghead makes an F5 ballance better, and feel better to the player. The tapered peghead does all of that elegantly.

Here are the tuners sticking through the bushings. I wanted the straight part of the shaft to be in the bushing on the ones closest to the nut, so that determined my thickness, and the taper was decided more by asthetics than anything else.

[P Josey]

The picture says it all. Thanks John, great photo...nice lines.

[dunwell]

One thing I find anoying about the idea of the tapered headstock is getting the bushing and their holes true. By definition you are aligning the posts so that they are perpendicular to the back of the HS, but the bushings push in through the face. So you can't just lay the HS face down to drill the holes from the back, it must be drilled from the front with the back of the HS on the the drill press table. OK, that can be done. But now the holes, and therefore the bushings, are slightly off true with the face of the HS. When pushed all the way in and true to the hole, one edge will not be fully seated. Yeah, yeah, I know. Picky, picky.... I suppose you could use undersized bushings and ream them true to the shafts....Naaaaah!

Am I missing something here or is this how folks do it.

Alan D.

[sunburst]

I drill through the back, so the holes are 90 degrees to the face of the peghead, and the bushings go in just fine.
I use the small, "vintage" style bushings, so the holes are fairly small, and they are the same diameter all the way through the peghead. I put the bushings in the holes, drop the tuners in, and punch mark the screw holes where the tuners lie "relaxed". That puts the shafts entering the holes in the back of the peghead off center, but I don't care, the tuner plates cover that up.
BTW, it works with other bushings too, even the long, tight Waverly bushings. There's enough clearance to accept the taper, as long as the holes are drilled accurately.