Ooops!! What have I done??

[Orange Tiger]

Last night I was tinkering (I know, bad idea!!) with my pickup height and while I was lowering and raising my bridge pickup there was a little crack/snap and now the bass side screw won't do anything.....there's also a slight rattling noise coming from that area now. I know I need to take the strings off and pull the pick up out to look, but I wondered if any of you might know what I seem to have broken!!

Cheers!

 

[shinksma]

DON'T PANIC.

I rarely get to use that...

Hmm, if you were lowering the pickup when that happened it, then you were backing out the screw and went too far and it just came out, and it has "released" the pickup mount screw hole. The rattle is possibly the loose spring.

It's an easy fix (although fighting with the spring can be a challenge if it is still very "springy"). Once you take out the pickup you'll see what the other side looks like.

EDIT: here's a good image I found after a quick Google search:

Found on:

http://www.pickuprings.com/installation_

 

[Drew]

^^^^ Yup. You went that one turn too far. PRS screws are rather short, versus the ones that will come with a Dimarzio or other aftermarket PU. So, you need to be careful on the adjustments.

 

[Orange Tiger]

Thanks Guys,

I didn't think i'd done any thing too terrible, but i'm happy to hear from the experts none the less!

I always take it too far!! ;-)

 

[JustRob]

Thanks Guys,

I didn't think i'd done any thing too terrible, but i'm happy to hear from the experts none the less!

I always take it too far!! ;-)

Wait until you try to get that spring back on before you decide how terrible it is. :laugh: I've had some miserable fights.

 

[Orange Tiger]

ha ha, i'll try to remain calm!!

 

[kes7u]

Yes!! Have towels available and keep them between your pickup and guitar finish. I have some residual scratches on my R9 Les Paul from fighting with pickup springs. Be careful!!

Wait until you try to get that spring back on before you decide how terrible it is. :laugh: I've had some miserable fights.

 

[markintime]

Plus it's a real good idea to loosen the strings as much as possible. I had a heckuva time replacing pickup rings which involves dropping the pickups in that way. Would have been better off if I had just taken the strings completely loose or just replaced them. but since they were new I bit the bullet and it took me a while.

 

[alantig]

Yes!! Have towels available and keep them between your pickup and guitar finish. I have some residual scratches on my R9 Les Paul from fighting with pickup springs. Be careful!!

I'll bet he's a hoopy frood.

Even though OT hasn't said how things went, I'm assuming I'm a bit late with this info, but in case anyone else needs the info.... You need a couple towels. One just for general principles and to dry your hands and wipe sweat off your forehead. Another for the finish protection, which is an excellent idea (and one I never do). The third towel is the most important - that's the one you bite on while you're getting the screw seated back in the pickup. It keeps you from gritting your teeth, and more importantly, absorbs all the "technical" words you'll want to scream every time the spring shoots across the room. It may be slightly less important based on the proximity of neighbors, parents, significant others and children. However, if you have teenagers, it may be a good idea to have them in the room - one, to illustrate what aggravation can result from a simple screw; and two, to supply you with additional "technical" words if your vocabulary feels insufficient.

 

[gush]

I have an idea for this that I'm going to try next time. I'm going to put small E clips on the screws to hold spring while getting screw started then simply pull E clips off.

 

[kes7u]

I have an idea for this that I'm going to try next time. I'm going to put small E clips on the screws to hold spring while getting screw started then simply pull E clips off.

Holy crap that sounds like a great idea! If you do it, PLEASE report back on if the e-clip held the spring, and what kind you used. Sounds brilliant! !! Thanks.

 

[JustRob]

I too have created a tool for this purpose. I'll test it tomorrow and let you guys know if it works.

 

[Brad737]

I've swapped pickups so much, I can practically do this in my sleep. But this looks nifty:

http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/Tools_by_Job/Electronics_and_Pickups/Humbucker_Helpers.html

 

[Rachmaninoff]

I've swapped pickups so much, I can practically do this in my sleep.

Same for me. With a bit of practice, it's piece of cake.

 

[kes7u]

I too have created a tool for this purpose. I'll test it tomorrow and let you guys know if it works.

Rob, waiting with baited breath... Did it work??

 

[JustRob]

Rob, waiting with baited breath... Did it work??

Not as well as I had hoped. Tomorrow I'll be able to make improvements. By the time I figure out a simpler way I'll be an expert at it without any tools like Brad. :laugh:

 

[tabl10s]

I'm in the same boat add if two weeks ago. Don't want to "D...- Dance around" with it and will probably take it to my Luthier.

 

[alantig]

This is reminding me of the peg puller that Corey posted a while back. It seems like such an obvious need that it's hard to believe no one has come up with one. Something that could clamp to the screw, but also be used to compress the spring before clamping down - i.e., something like vice grips, but with a two-stage lockdown. Slide it over the screw, compress the spring enough that 2-3 threads are poking out the other side, start the screw in the pup leg and release. Rubber grips to protect the screw, and if you make it tight enough, you won't need the screwdriver to start the screw, you could use the tool. And if it's a two-stage lock, you could always release the second stage to rotate the tool if you needed to turn a bit more.

 

[pac90]

Well....if you want an easy top tip, do yourself a favour and buy a couple of slightly longer screws. I have learned that sometimes for your guitar, depending upon the way your bridge height setup etc (and I have not adjusted mine from when I bought the guitar), the sum of all the tolerances can mean that you are right at the end of travel of the screw to get the required distance from string to pickup (see PRS page for recommended string heights before personal adjustment)

For me at least this meant that I had a perceived too bright bridge pickup, it just needed to be lowered a weeee little bit to get to spec, but each time the wee bugger would drop off the screw and the air would be blue again. I ended up getting replacement screws same thread but slightly longer (and they fit without routing the cavity) and they work great - finally have the slightly more depth I needed for the way the bridge is.

AND I took the tip I read on here somewhere, think PTC?, to take a pair of pliers and to crimp the last threads slightly. Now the wee bugger won't come off even if I go too low. This is only for my bridge pickup, the neck sits at spec string height without ever dropping off the screw thread.

 

[Orange Tiger]

Managed to get it done, but it wasn't as easy as I had assumed it would be!! Fiddly is a good word for it!!