Pickup tilt

[Mr. Air]

It seems like the neck pickup in my LP have a little tilt towards the bridge. What can cause this? Is it bad springs or a bad mounting ring? It's quite wobbly if you push down on it, but only in the rear end (towards the bridge).

[Philly Q]

If the pickup has long legs, there's sometimes not enough spring tension, especially since the neck pickup tends to sit a bit lower in its ring than the bridge does.

You could try longer springs, or even a bit of foam in the bottom of the cavity to stabilise the pickup.

(Worst case..... if it's a covered pickup - so slightly bigger than an uncovered one - they sometimes actually touch the wood at the side of the cavity.  Then you might need to remove a little bit of wood to get it to sit properly.)

[Mr. Air]

You could try longer springs

I actually wanted to use some longer springs at first, but man they were a hassle to get inbetween pickup and mounting ring. I couldn't do it so I went for the shorter ones. Any good technique for mounting pickups with long springs?

[Philly Q]

Any good technique for mounting pickups with long springs?

Here are a couple of threads on that very subject:

http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=17062.0

http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=12452.0

[Mr. Air]

Thnaks Philly. You're a real gent!  :D

[HTH AMPS]

As Philly suggested, the foam you get in the box with pickups is great for this very purpose - I've used it plenty of times to cure this very problem.

[Mr. Air]

(Worst case..... if it's a covered pickup - so slightly bigger than an uncovered one - they sometimes actually touch the wood at the side of the cavity.  Then you might need to remove a little bit of wood to get it to sit properly.)

Maybe the pickup is touching the cavity towards the bridge because it can't move in that direction contrary bridge direction were it wobbles if I push down on it. By the way, Philly, did you mean the front of the cavity when you said side, or did you mean the side side? Get my point?)

I've put fom in the bottom of the cavity with no result and switched to the loger springs as well. They're definitely better, but don't cure the tilt.

By the way. I found a neat way of dealing with the long springs. I removed one screw and spring first and then it was soooooo easy to put in the longer spring while the ring and pickup wa kept together by the other screw with short spring.

[ToneMonkey]

There's a small possability that it could be the sire from the pup to the electrics cavity.  If you've been fiddling in there, it could be that thisihas been pulled and has moved the pup.  Might be worth having a bit of a fiddle (always try the cheap/fee thigs first  :D)

Some pups are designed to tilt (albeit the other direction), so you could just leave it and say it some special tone feature  :lol:

[Philly Q]

Maybe the pickup is touching the cavity towards the bridge because it can't move in that direction contrary bridge direction were it wobbles if I push down on it. By the way, Philly, did you mean the front of the cavity when you said side, or did you mean the side side? Get my point?)

Yeah, I meant the "long" sides of the cavity, parallel with the frets and the bridge (not the "short" sides parallel with the strings).

To see if the pickup is touching the cavity side(s), try tapping quite firmly with your fingers on the front or back edge of the pickup, so it tilts sharply.  You should feel/hear a little "clonk" as the pickup hits the wood.  If it doesn't move at all, then it probably is wedged up against the side!

[hunter]

I have the opposite issue: My pickups are straight, means parallel to the SG scratch plate, which is logical. But because of the neck tilt, there is a significant difference to the string angle. Anyone tilted their pickups so they become parallel with the Strings, and how do it?

[Twinfan]

MartinW tried to fix your problem using various techinques Hunter - I think he failed and gave up!

[ToneMonkey]

There's a few things I can think of to fix that problem, but the most logical would be to have a couple of small pieces stuck to the bottom of the cavity which the screws could fit into.  They could be free to rotate so that they keep the screw vertical.  Gonna be fiddly but could work.

Or you could hold the pup straight and fill the cavity with builders foam  :lol:

[hunter]

Would bending the pickup legs to the opposite side work?

[AndyR]

I have the opposite issue: My pickups are straight, means parallel to the SG scratch plate, which is logical. But because of the neck tilt, there is a significant difference to the string angle. Anyone tilted their pickups so they become parallel with the Strings, and how do it?

I had that on my new SG Hunter - there's a load of BKP foam in there at the moment, but not quite enough yet. The neck pickup is now almost parallel to the strings, the bridge needs a bit of work yet.

I've temporarily raised the bridge polepieces to compensate (not sure whether this has actually done me any good :lol: - someone might be able to advise me on that?).

Next restring I'll have the scratch-plate off and will be stuffing more foam in there...

[hunter]

I don't like the foam stuffing idea. Apart from the fact that it's a bit messy, somehow I fear that will kill resonance vibrating through the pickups. Didn't evh screw his pickups into the body for better tone?