"Leaning" tuner bushes, is this normal?

JCA2550

Most of my guitars are fitted with the type of tuners that have a nut retaining the bushings, but my Atkin has the "vintage" style push-in bushings so I'm less familiar with what's normal. Should they be leaning like this?

brucegill

Doesn’t look right to me, give Alistair a call at Atkins, he’s always been very helpful when I’ve dealt with him. 

ICBM

No, but they often do if the bushings aren’t a tight enough fit in the holes. It’s not really a problem, although it doesn’t look great...

JCA2550

I think I realise what causes this? The headstock tapers ever so slightly in depth, no doubt by design. So,  when the body of the tuner is flush-mounted to the rear face of the headstock, the bush inserted from the front mounts parallel to the tuner not the face of headstock.

I guess I should ignore it and play on?

Funkfingers

JCA2550 said:

I think I realise what causes this.

String tension causes it.

The pull on the machinehead post squeezes against the inner surface of the bushing. If there is insufficient grip between the bushing splines and the side of the drilled hole, the bushing rides upwards.

poopot

Take the bushes out and wrap some PTFE tape around them... then re seat them.