BIG Problem while fitting pickups..........

[Brow]

Hey guys.

I have my Bareknuckles wired up in my Gordon Smith guitar, but what I didn't notice is that the legs of the pickups are a fair bit longer than those of the pickups I had in the guitar before. The mounting screws don't appear to be long enough for me to lower the pickup height in the mounting ring.

It appears that the pickup cavity is also not routed deeply enough to accept these 'longer leg' pickups, although I'm not 100% sure on this.

Does anyone have any advice at all about what I could do?

I paid to have the pups fitted so I'd hate to have thrown my money away by taking them out again  :(

Craig

[Brow]

Things I've had suggested to me as of yet are:

Routing the cavity so it's deep enough to fit the pickups into

Change the baseplate for 1 with shorter legs (Is this a suitable idea Tim?)

Cutting out a section of the leg and then super gluing the screw mounting section back onto the shortened leg.

Which of these would be most suitable?

[HJM]

You need flat foots as the feet of the base plate hit the floor of teh pickup cavity....I had the same thing on my Gordon Smith, so I broke out the router. If you've got access to a Dremel type tool, just remove enough wood so teh legs have room to move when teh pup height is adjusted.

There's always something that makes you stop and puzzle while working on guitars.....

[Tim]

Post them back to me and I'll swap the baseplates over to short leg.

It's worth noting that it's always worth checking the depth of pickup cavities-we make 2 types of nickel silver basplate, long leg which is great for the majority of guitars and short leg which is suitable for pickguard mounted or shallower bodied guitars. PRS neck pickups for instance are alwyas better with short leg.

[Brow]

You need flat foots as the feet of the base plate hit the floor of teh pickup cavity....I had the same thing on my Gordon Smith, so I broke out the router. If you've got access to a Dremel type tool, just remove enough wood so teh legs have room to move when teh pup height is adjusted.

There's always something that makes you stop and puzzle while working on guitars.....

Thanx for the reply HJM.

I don't have a Dremel myself, so I'll ask around to see if anyone I know has one I could use  :)

Post them back to me and I'll swap the baseplates over to short leg.

It's worth noting that it's always worth checking the depth of pickup cavities-we make 2 types of nickel silver basplate, long leg which is great for the majority of guitars and short leg which is suitable for pickguard mounted or shallower bodied guitars. PRS neck pickups for instance are alwyas better with short leg.

Thanx for the reply Tim.

I got the pickups off Ebay, so does that make any difference to your offer of changing the baseplate for a short leg version? I understand if it does change things.

Thanx for your help.

Craig

[Tim]

:( I'm afraid there would be a small charge as you didn't buy them from us.
Give me a call and I'll talk you through the options.
We warranty all our pickups for life to the original, registered user.

This is the problem buying things of ebay-bargians are to be had but sometimes you can come unstuck.
I always check with customers when they buy from us to make sure if they need long or short leg-if I make a mistake then I rectify it. In this instance it's not our fault but I'll willingly do the swap-it does involve taking the pickup apart and reassembling on the new basplate which is why I'd have to charge for it as it's quite time consumming.

The alternative as Yngwie says is to route out a little timber where the mounting legs go although if you've never attempted this kind of thing before I'd advise getting a professional repairman to do the job.

Anyway give me a call and I'm sure we can get you sorted out - 01598 763666.

[R/2e]

Tim, I thought you were getting personal about my being vertically challenged when you asked about short leg.....................

You'll have to do an Ernie Wise model with short fat hairy legs.

[Brow]

I gace John Smith at Gordon Smith Guitars a ring yesterday, and he said that what I'm experiencing is quite a common problem on his guitars.

He told me to drill around with a 1/2 inch dril until it fits  :D  So I'll get my friend that's been on a luthiery course to do it for me. That was it won't get messed up  :D

Then if I have no luck with this, Tim has very kindly offered to change the baseplate for me if I send him the pickups.

Craig

[HJM]

Use a hand cranked drill, not an electric one and you'll be fine.

Good luck!!

[Brow]

Use a hand cranked drill, not an electric one and you'll be fine.

Good luck!!

Thanx for the tip  :D

I'll be sure to let you all know how I like the pups when I get it all finished.

Craig

[Brow]

My good buddy Ben (Twilight Odyssey) has just bought to my attention the fact that BK pickups use longer magnets than other pickup manufacturers.

I've drilled the pickup leg holes deeper and it's making little (if any) difference. So now I'm wondering if it could be the longer magnets sticking out from under the pickups that could be the cause of the pickups not fitting in my guitar?

If it is the longer screws from underneath the pickup that are causing the problem, could I shorten the screws so that they fit, or would that in some way damage the pup?

Any opinions on this would be very useful.

Craig

[HJM]

Double check the size of the cavity. It could be catching on the sides of the baseplate - mine did I think around the corners.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Double check the size of the cavity. It could be catching on the sides of the baseplate - mine did I think around the corners.

That's what I said!!

[Brow]

Hey guys.

Thanx for the new replies HJM and TO.

I drilled the holes for the magnet screws slightly deeper and Bam, the bridge pickup fits fine and isn't at an angle  :D

I've worked out that the neck pickup won't fit due to the fact that the cavity is slightly too shallow for the body of the pickup to sit in.

As I mentioned before, I have a friend that's been to Luthier college so hopefully he should be able to remove the bit of wood and everything should be fine  :D

Craig

[Hayden]

Have you tried poking it with a stick yet?  :shock: