I don’t regret doing it, I still have the original tuners. Those old school two screw fender tuners with the decoration on the back of the tuner.
Telecasters are notoriously stable as in Keith Richards actually smashed a guy in the face that jumped on stage and finished the song with that guitar and he claims it stayed in tune.
This tele was a bit more finicky and wanted tuned for each session, it should be much more stable now.
I don’t have the cash, or even the interest to buy things as investments. If I buy something, it’s because I want to use it. Having said that, many times, I can’t find the exact thing to buy that I’m dreaming of in my head… so I modify whatever I can find. That makes them work better for me (the only person I care to impress) and I get the satisfaction of having something nobody else has…
Case in point (since this is a gun forum) are my firearms. While I’ve had some good comments made about some of the mods I’ve done to old milsurp rifles, I’ve also gotten a hell of a lot of grief from arrogant, self righteous collectors who think that every singe one of the millions of 75 to 100 year old military rifles should be left as factory issued because they are each, and every one, a precious, irreplaceable piece of history.
I love the hell out of my Lee Enfield No4 Mk1 that was modified “to suit my taste, and use”, but man, oh man does it trigger the collectors…
From my build thread: