Gotoh tuners I installed slightly misaligned. Faux pas on my part?

[RunFromThisCity]

I was wondering if any of you out there have your tuning machines on your Strat necks that are slightly off? I might be overly critical of myself here, but I did the best I could and I swear I aligned everything properly and measured twice and everything looked good. When I finally installed the tuners some of them were off maybe by a millimeter or two. It's probably not noticeable to most people, but it is to me as I have a trained eye and went to art school and it is really nagging at me. I guess my only failure is not creating a jig or really taping on the tuners at first when marking the screw holes. I just wanted my first Warmoth build to be absolutely perfect considering the money I put into it. Everything else I drilled perfectly, it's just those darned tuners.

I don't have pictures as I sent my guitar in to get finished up at a local guitar shop today, but can you guys post your necks or show me that I'm not alone here and that Gotoh tuners are allowed to be slightly off?

Is it worth trying to right them in the end or should I let them be if they're off by only a millimeter or two? I'm kind of regretting not getting the vintage Fender style ones that make it nearly impossible to fudge the alignment.

 

[bagman67]

I was a couple degrees off on one or two of these guys.  Drove me crazy for the first few weeks.  Now i hardly ever think of it.  If it's not truly egregious, you'll l likely get over it too.

 

[dmraco]

You will likely forget about it soon. I have had gibsons and fenders with mis aligned tuners. 

I will use a straight edge to get mine lined up.  Tighten the nuts making sure they stay aligned.  The drill the hole for the set screws.

 

[Cagey]

Is it worth trying to right them in the end or should I let them be if they're off by only a millimeter or two? I'm kind of regretting not getting the vintage Fender style ones that make it nearly impossible to fudge the alignment.

We are often our own worst critics. If you never say anything, it's unlikely anyone will ever notice. Repairing the problem would be a major league pain in the shorts, with less than certain results. You'd have to drill out and fill in the holes, then re-drill them. I'd let it go. Call it a lesson, and don't let it happen again lest we call the tuner alignment police.

 

[stubhead]

A learning experience. I take them OFF to mark the holes with a straightedge. Now I do....

 

[RunFromThisCity]

Thanks for the reassurance, guys. Especially you, Bagman. Mine look almost exactly like yours where there are 2 that are mainly slightly off and maybe a 3rd by a millimeter. You guys are right, I don't think people would ever notice. I am a perfectionist though. Those prongs on the inside of the tuners really messed up my aligning them.

Thanks again. I appreciate knowing that I'm not alone  :laughing7:

 

[Cagey]

You should probably be thankful you didn't twist the heads off the itty-bitty anti-rotation screws. That's the more frequent problem you hear about tuner installation. Guys often forget to (or are unaware that they should) wax the threads. That's a nice feature of Sperzel's design - there are no screws. Although, that can present its own set of problems with hole placement.

 

[Cederick]

ALL my tuners on my parts guitars or just modded are misangled, hahaha! It's not a big deal.