TL-1A electronic upgrade question

[McCreed]

I've seen on some threads that when upgrading the pots they had to enlarge the holes for the pots to fit.

If you want to with 24mm pots, the control cavity will require widening. From memory, it's only about 1.5mm (.75mm each side)
but it wants to be done with at least some accuracy to avoid creating a visible gap at the edge of the control plate.

Seems like it'd be a pain to deal with enlarging holes on the metal control panel.

Or would I be better say getting a pair of gotoh pots and a gotoh control panel to avoid the hassle of enlarging the holes?

FWIW, you would only need to enlarge the control plate holes if going to pots with Imperial size bushes (CTS, Bourns). Gotoh pots would have metric bushes, but again, if you want "full size" (24mm) pots, the cavity becomes the issue as mentioned above.

It's completely doable with a variable speed hand drill AND using good sharp drill bits! Dull dodgy drill bits will end badly with this job. This can also be done with a step drill.
Securely holding the plate whilst drilling is important. Don't just hold it down on a table/bench by hand. Whilst it can be done in situ, I prefer doing it off the guitar, but that's just me.

The biggest risk is lifting or chipping the nickel/chrome plating. Drill from the shiny side and don't drill the hole to the full desired diameter all at once. Start with the smallest bit needed and increase by .5mm increments.

Are there mini pots from any of the go to companies like cts, bourns, gotoh, etc. that just fit in the existing holes?

Yes, definitely CTS & Bourns, not sure about Gotoh. Contrary to popular belief, Alpha actually make decent pots for guitar (Taiwan). They also make crap ones like you'll get from Jaycar. You just need to look at the right suppliers to get them, like proper guitar parts supply stores.

edit: Just had a thought - I'm not sure the US mini pots bushes will fit a metric control plate hole. Probably close, but worth looking into.

2nd edit: A quick search revealed the CTS mini pots have 3/8" (9.5mm) bushing, same as the full size pots.