Hipshot Griplock "Upgrade Kit"

[Timmsie95]

For anyone who is a bit intimidated by drilling the screw holes for your tuners, I highly suggest you go with Hipshot's "upgrade kits". You can get them with any tuner buttons you want (because they are removable and they sell them separately) with classic sealed, classic open, griplock sealed, griplock open, vintage sealed, and vintage open (if I'm not mistaken), and they come with a thing they call the UMP (Universal Mounting Plate), which allows you to install them without driling holes in your beautiful new (or reused) neck.

As you can see, there are small tabs along the edge of the UMP that butt up against the casing of the tuner. Since there are multiple anchor points (the tuners through the headstock), and the tabs are right against the casing, the tuners cannot rotate in the holes. All you need to do is tighten the nut on the face of the headstock, and you're good to go! plus, Griplocks are very stable.

Hope this helps you make some decisions!  ccasion14:

 

[stratamania]

I forgot to mention in your other post if you are ordering a neck for griploks the Schaller hole dimension from Warmoth is a good fit.

 

[Timmsie95]

Oh, thanks, haha. I was going to go with either the Schaller holes, or the Planet waves holes. Couldn't tell which would be better, so thanks! ccasion14:

 

[stratamania]

Your welcome.

 

[BigSteve22]

Used the UMP's with a Vintage Upgrade set on a '64 Hagstrom H2. Didn't want to drill new holes in a 50 year old neck.

One thing though, Hipshot only offers the Vintage size tuners in closed back, non-locking, and chrome finish. The only options are standard or staggered posts, and choice of buttons. I used he D08 buttons and they look really nice.

 

[Cagey]

I have a set of those tuners w/ the UMPs to go on a Tele that's in-process, but I'm not going to use the UMPs. I think those are actually designed to hide existing anti-rotation or mounting holes that would be visible without the plate, as you'd likely have in an upgrade situation. If there are no holes to cover up, there's not a lotta point to the plates other than forcing alignment. But, you'd end up with tuners that have anti-rotation screw flanges that won't have any screws in them, leaving it looking somewhat unfinished. Although, I suppose you could bite the shafts off a set of screws and just glue the heads on the tuners so they look complete. Or, you could drill the anti-rotation screw holes in the plates and install the whole screws.

 

[stratamania]

I've also thought of using the UMP as an alignment tool for drilling the mounting holes for the tuners.

My Tele still has the UMP on it but although it is sort of finished there are some tweaks I'd like to do at some point such as shaving the 59 neck down a tad etc.

 

[BigSteve22]

I think those are actually designed to hide existing anti-rotation or mounting holes that would be visible without the plate, as you'd likely have in an upgrade situation. If there are no holes to cover up, there's not a lotta point to the plates other than forcing alignment.

+1 on that. The H2 had holes for the original Van Gent tuners. And although replacements are available from my Swedish dealer, I wasn't doing a restoration and wanted modern tuners. The UMPs cover the old holes and aligned the Hipshots without the need to drill new holes.

I do have a set that I intend to use as alignment templates in the future. Drill holes in the plates where the screws would go, mount the tuners with the plates, and either mark the hole locations, or drill right through the tuner holes for perfect alignment.

Note to the few Hagstrom enthusiasts in the US: There is no better place for Hagstrom parts than Hagstrm Vintage Guitars,  Jan is very helpful. http://www.hagstrom-vintage-guitars.se/

 

[Timmsie95]

Yeah, I understand that the kit was intended for upgrading your tuners and covering the old holes. I was just saying that it's also a good idea for people who are intimidated to drill the holes on a new neck. (I might get a set for my jackson warrior, some day...)  ccasion14: