How easy is this alteration?

[Slartibartfarst42]

I've had my Les Paul for a while and I keep toying with changing the pickups but as the stock items plug into a PCB it seems like a lot of work involved and frankly, I really like the mojo this guitar has already so why ruin it? However, I'm not a big fan of the gold covers on the pickups so this is what I want to do:

Remove the covers and replace the slugs with gold screws so I'd end up with open poled black bobbins with a double row of gold screws. The question is, can this be done and if so, how easy is it to replace the slugs with screws and where on earth can I buy the screws from?

[Dave Sloven]

Aren't slugs pressed in??

[Yellowjacket]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it =-p

[Philly Q]

You can get polepiece screws from WD or Allparts - not sure if they're imperial or metric, but it should be fairly easy to find out.

I'm not sure it's a simple swap, though - as Agent Orange says, slugs are pressed in (and may be difficult to remove) whereas screws go through the bobbin, then a spacer and right through the baseplate.  I'm not sure if it's the spacer that's threaded or the baseplate.

On the Gibson 498T/490R pickups the baseplates do have two rows of holes for screws to pass through, but if I remember right one set of holes is 53mm spaced and the other is 50mm spaced, so the same plate can be used for either string spacing.

(Bottom line:  I'd settle for just removing the covers and leaving the slugs as they are.)

[Toe-Knee]

I have had luck in the past removing slugs and replacing them with screws as you can just push them out from the underside.

However you may find that the slugs are already chrome/silver. I have found many funky goings on when removing covers such as red/yellow/cream coils and some with screws instead of slugs etc.

Also replacing the pickups on your guitar is pretty easy you just need to push some tabs in on the pcb connectors and the wires come right out then just replace them with the new ones. That information is redundant though as you are happy with the sound.

It can be quite fun messing with pickups though. Simple little things such as swapping screw material or the magnet can have noticable tonal changes that are sometimes for the better and they're easy too.

[Dave Sloven]

Bottom line:  I'd settle for just removing the covers and leaving the slugs as they are.

+1