You're welcome! Thanks so much for letting me know you enjoyed this and it was helpful to you!

Thanks so much for letting me know! Very happy to hear this. I did this one quite a while back and was hoping someone would find it helpful. I also couldn't find any information on this online, or almost nothing, so wanted to test it myself. Thanks again for the comment!

​@@guitar_mdI have a question. Is there no chance of the bolt going through the back of the guitar when removing bushings? That's my biggest hang up. It seems like it'll make more than enough force to Crack the back. I assume the metal bit in the hole somehow keeps that from happening?

@@J.C... The piece dropped into the hole is what the bolt goes against. The bolt spins on top of that metal piece, the metal piece stays in place, and the bushing is slowly lifted out. So all of the force of the bolt is going onto that metal piece -- the bolt never touches the guitar itself, only the bushing, and then the top of that metal piece. The bolt will never go through the guitar for this reason -- it would be impossible. Now, on a thin enough body, cracking the body might be possible, but I would think highly unlikely. I've never had it happen. Since the bolt never touches the actual guitar body, it would be physically impossible for the bolt to exert more downward force on the body than would be required to pull the bushing out. In other words: the downward force is generated *only* by turning the bolt, which is what threads the bolt into the bushing, and lifts the bushing out of the body. Since you're not pushing down on the bolt, but merely threading it into the bushing, in order to crack the body, the force required to crack the body would have to be *less than the force required to lift the bushing out of the body* by threading that bolt into it. This is quite difficult to explain without demonstrating it with a video. Let me know if this makes sense. Key point is: the bolt never touches the bottom of the hole, only *the top of the metal piece dropped into the hole.* The Schatten knob and bushing puller tool is great, and does work very well, and totally eliminates that risk of cracking the body. However, it's much slower. I'd say if a body was going to crack from lifting a bushing out with the quick method, you'd probably be able to tell just by feel -- if you're really having to muscle the bolt into the bushing, like turning it as hard as you can and it's not going -- then I'd probably back off and just use the Schatten tool. However, to date, I haven't had that happen yet. Not saying it *couldn't* happen, but most bushings I've seen come out without much of an issue.

@@J.C... Also, I initially thought you were referring to this video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eppyi7WKmbPTf6M.htmlsi=RE59c6GshPOm7ji7 Let me know if I was able to answer your question or if you meant something else. As for the Schatten tool I used in this video, the bolt also does not ever touch the bottom of the hole. It merely threads into the bushing, and then the tool has a jaw that hooks around the head of the bolt. Then it simply lifts the bolt, which is threaded into the bushing, out of the body. When you tighten the Schatten tool, you're not threading anything into the body, but merely pulling up on the bolt that's threaded into the bushing, and both of them are lifted out of the guitar together.

Thanks! I'll update the description box with some rough equivalents. It would have been ideal to use those woods, but in terms of Janka hardness, we can extrapolate the following: Alder is 590, Ash is around 850-1000, and Honduran (Genuine) Mahogany is 900. The closest equivalent for *Alder* would be *Poplar,* at 540. The closest equivalent for *Ash* and *Mahogany* would be *Oak,* at 1200-1600. Maple of course is used on some guitars, and is much harder than the rest. Exotic hardwoods that are even harder than maple would have been good to test (like Purpleheart), but I think the .011" undersize should be good universally regardless of the hardness of the wood.

So you also use 0.3mm (0.011") undersized! Very good to know. This just reinforces my belief that this is the proper recommendation. Do you use regular or brad point bits? I prefer brad points for the accuracy, but they can be tough to find in super specific sizes.

@Guitar MD I always use brad points to cut through the top cleanly but then switch to a regular drill bit after to get a slightly smaller diameter. I've tried looking forward 9.7mm brad point but couldn't find one.

@@briw4647 Very interesting you go slightly oversized, and then use a smaller diameter regular bit. I've never tried that before. "woodshopbits" on eBay does have a 9.5mm brad point bit. What do you think of using that, and then using the 9.7mm regular bit to drill it oversized? Any take on using a slightly undersized hole as a pilot hole, vs. a slightly oversized hole? I usually go undersized first, but hearing you have good results going oversized first has me curious. Your method seems to be the only real way to deal with this problem (a lack of precisely sized brad point bits), so I'd be curious what you think!

@Guitar MD I use a 10mm brad point on the top to carefully cut through the finish if one applied and get a nice smooth top, i only drill down 1mm or two using the brad point. Most stud pegs are 10mm, so it fits fine. I then drill a 9.7mm hole the depth plus a little bit for the stud itself, thus gives a good tight fit but not too tight to crack the wood. A 9.5 in my view is just a bit too small to be safe. You could use it sure but you would need more force to insert the stud, possibly causing micro fractures in the finish if one applied and stressing the wood.

Oh, and remember to reverse the brad point at the start for a bit to score the top, this helps avoid tear out

Mine is a 15", 12 speed, 1/2 horsepower Craftsman. Below 15" you might have issues fitting a guitar body onto the drill press table. I'd say any 15" or larger drill press should do the job. They say it's not good to use the drill press as an Arbor Press, but for guitar stuff like this where you don't have to press very hard, I think it's fine. Not to mention that a dedicated Arbor press that's big enough to fit a guitar body would be a bit overkill unless you're using it for other things. Mine's also a floor model. A benchtop model should work fine, but I haven't personally tried one, so I can't say. I do get a little nervous recommending a drill press for use outside of its accepted function, but so many people do this, and I personally never ran into any issues with it -- knock on wood!