But I knew I'd never hit every one of the 35 pin holes in the block dead-center, and that if I didn't I'd have egg-shaped holes in the block. This would obviously be bad; not only would it make it hard to keep in tune, but if the gap was on the bridge side, it would set the stage for the pin pulling forward and breaking out the little piece of wood between it and the next pin, like it did before.

So I filled the pin holes with dowels. I used epoxy for the adhesive, since it fills gaps. Once it was all set up, I leveled them off flush with the block. I figured this way it wouldn't matter (as much, anyway) if I missed the original pin holes in the block by a little with the drill; at least there wouldn't be a void down inside there. I tried a pin in a couple of the melody string holes, and the fit was too loose to suit me. I thought I’d better treat them the same way as well, while I was at it.