Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Tech => Topic started by: Spengler on February 24, 2009, 01:00:38 PM

Title: Is it ok to snip the back of pole screws?
Post by: Spengler on February 24, 2009, 01:00:38 PM
Fitting a Nailbomb into my Ibanez and the pole screws protrude beyond the screw plate at the back. Rather than route the pickup hole would I be ok just to snip the ends of the pole screws so it fits in or would this knacker the pickup/affect the tone?

Cheers!
Title: Re: Is it ok to snip the back of pole screws?
Post by: ToneMonkey on February 24, 2009, 01:16:38 PM
I think you'd proably be alright but I couldn't tell you for definate on this one.  Personally I'd get the info for this straight from the horses mouth and give Tim at BKP a call.  He might even have some smaller ones, either way he's a very helpful bloke.

Welcome to the forums  :D
Title: Re: Is it ok to snip the back of pole screws?
Post by: HTH AMPS on February 27, 2009, 11:07:53 PM
DON'T SNIP THE EXCESS ON THE POLEPIECES  PDT_023

Doing so changes the tone, it was a common mod a couple of years back to 'open up' the tone of pickups, though I'd imagine it wasn't that great of a mod since it doesn't appear to have caught on in a big way.

Title: Re: Is it ok to snip the back of pole screws?
Post by: jibidy on February 27, 2009, 11:13:59 PM
Once snipped you wouldn't be able to go back. I PM'd Tim a while back about pole-pieces and he was more than helpful.

A little bit of routing can be to bad can it?
Title: Re: Is it ok to snip the back of pole screws?
Post by: WezV on February 28, 2009, 12:52:27 AM
Quote
Once snipped you wouldn't be able to go back

although obviously you can still replace the polepieces alltogether if you need to so 'going back' is quite possible

the ideal solution is to make the guitar route right for the pickup but in some cases it makes sense to make the pickup fit the guitar

it will have an affect on the sound but everything does - balance it out with proper set-up
Title: Re: Is it ok to snip the back of pole screws?
Post by: jibidy on March 01, 2009, 09:30:50 PM
Ummmm... Yer well still routing seems the best option :)  :lol:
Title: Re: Is it ok to snip the back of pole screws?
Post by: WezV on March 01, 2009, 10:02:16 PM
depends on the guitar really... there are many guitars where i would rather snip the back off a screw than make any permenant alterations to the guitar!!
Title: Re: Is it ok to snip the back of pole screws?
Post by: jibidy on March 04, 2009, 12:26:41 AM
Just raise everything and play slide man......
Title: Re: Is it ok to snip the back of pole screws?
Post by: Fikealox on March 15, 2009, 05:08:53 AM
My understanding was that snipping the excess off the polepieces will result in less of the magnetic field being directed away from the strings, so you'll get slightly more output and a more focussed sound (as opposed to opening it up). I'd go for it. You might actually prefer the slightly different tone; and it'd cost you all of a few dollars to replace the screws if you regret the mod.
Title: Re: Is it ok to snip the back of pole screws?
Post by: Jaekae on March 16, 2009, 08:30:56 AM
i have the same problem, i cant fit mine in my ibanez rga321, its a very expensive guitar so its pretty bad to drill big holes on the body...
Title: Re: Is it ok to snip the back of pole screws?
Post by: FELINEGUITARS on March 16, 2009, 11:48:26 AM
It is a problem - especially on guitars where they have direct mounted pickups (and those pickups were Dimarzios before)
On some guitars you just don't want to rout a channel for the row of screws (guitar is too precious or there is a risk of going through to the tremolo spring cavity.

We had to do this last week on an really posh J Custom Ibanez
There was no way we wanted to cut into the guitar.
We actually marked the new length on the screw itself & took the screws out to grind on a belt sander/grinding wheel
However we did re-wax-dip the pickup once all he screws were back in to make it all solid again

It will decrease a bit of low end perhaps but not that much as the screws still go through the plate
I would order another set of screws to keep safe, and carefully trim the existing screws to length if you dont want to cut into the guitar
Title: Re: Is it ok to snip the back of pole screws?
Post by: nfe on March 17, 2009, 10:58:20 PM
I just drilled holes to accomodate on my Fly freehand with a power drill. Bugger it.  :lol:
Title: Re: Is it ok to snip the back of pole screws?
Post by: Tim on August 26, 2010, 08:02:35 AM
So long as we know at point of order we can fit shorter pole screws.