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Author
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Topic: Pickup Springs---Secrets & Tips?
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Jon Light
Member From: Brooklyn, NY
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posted 22 September 2006 07:25 AM
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As I'm changing out a PSG pickup and chasing the little compression spring around the room, over & over again----there MUST be a simple way to put a spring on the mounting screw/bolt and have it stay in place as you line up the four screws. What am I missing?! My cats are hiding under the bed--they know the mood I'm in.   [This message was edited by Jon Light on 22 September 2006 at 07:28 AM.] |
Ken Fox
Member From: Ray City, GA USA
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posted 22 September 2006 08:09 AM
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My Bill Lawrence and Fender pickups use small rubber tubing (surgical tubing, I think). I can see why now! On the B.L. Tele lead they are glued to the pickup base for ease of installation. [This message was edited by Ken Fox on 22 September 2006 at 08:10 AM.]
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Olli Haavisto
Member From: Jarvenpaa,Finland
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posted 22 September 2006 08:27 AM
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Rubber or silicone tubing will also carry less mechanical noise from the guitar to pick up. Recommended !------------------
Olli Haavisto,
Finland
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Jerry Roller
Member From: Van Buren, Arkansas USA
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posted 22 September 2006 08:33 AM
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Jon, you might try using toothpicks. Get one spring in place and drop a toothpick thru the pickup, spring and mounting hole, leave the toothpick there and go to the next until all four are trapped. Then you can put downward pressure on the pickup and align one at a time and replace the toothpick with a screw. I don't know what guitar you are working on so this might or might not work for you.
Jerry |
Dean Parks
Member From: Sherman Oaks, California, USA
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posted 22 September 2006 08:43 AM
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Put the guitar on its end, keyhead toward the floor. Install the pickup horizontally. |
Jim Bob Sedgwick
Member From: Clinton, Missouri USA
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posted 22 September 2006 08:54 AM
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What Dean said. Works like a charm!! BTDT
(been there, done that)  |
Jim Cohen
Member From: Philadelphia, PA
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posted 22 September 2006 08:59 AM
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D'oh! (Why didn't I think of that? Years ago!) |
Jon Light
Member From: Brooklyn, NY
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posted 22 September 2006 09:06 AM
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You are all wrong--the answer is: curse. A lot.Finished, successfully. So that proves that I am right. Dean, Jim Bob--awesome. Too simple. Next time, for sure. That's amazing. The suggestions of tubing----I'm not picturing this. If any of you care to elaborate, I'd like a better idea of what you are saying. Adding to the degree of difficulty--I've been doing this while trying to keep the strings on. One discovery--on my Carter with the V-groove holding the string I can loosen the strings quite a bit without them falling off the changer. With my Fessenden with the pin, it doesn't take much slack for the string to pop off. However I'm also finding that it's no big deal to reseat the string when I'm done so I think I'll just undo them all next time to make life a bunch easier (this is my first guitar with pins so I'm just starting to feel my way around with them). Anyway, next question---know any good tricks to remove foot impressions from the sides of cats? |
Jim Cohen
Member From: Philadelphia, PA
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posted 22 September 2006 09:14 AM
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Do what I do. Just fill them in with Bondo. |
David Mason
Member From: Cambridge, MD, USA
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posted 22 September 2006 09:37 AM
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You can get clear plastic flexible tubing at a decent hardware store, our Ace and True Value both have it. The smallest stuff is 3/16" with a 1/8" hole in it, and you just cut off an appropriate length and slip it on instead of the spring. I'm sure you can find some people somewhere who will argue with you about which tubing "sounds best." If you buy a few extra feet, you can throw it across the room and the cat will think it's a Martian snake - it might buy you a few minutes relief. |
Jon Light
Member From: Brooklyn, NY
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posted 22 September 2006 09:42 AM
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But I don't get how the tubing will serve the purpose of the spring---up/down pickup adjustments. |
Jim Cohen
Member From: Philadelphia, PA
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posted 22 September 2006 09:44 AM
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It squishes down. |
Pete Burak
Member From: Portland, OR USA
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posted 22 September 2006 09:47 AM
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Jon,
I found some tubing in an RC Airplane hobby shop.
It is more like a rubber spacer. A pre cut 1/2" (or other size) rubber spacer.
It compresses like a spring, but doesn't have the "boing" factor of a spring.
I also use them under P-90's in a Les Paul.
A strip of closed-cell foam under the PU is another way to go, instead of springs.
Pete B.
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Jon Light
Member From: Brooklyn, NY
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posted 22 September 2006 09:55 AM
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Good ideas. I also just realized another solution--a plate the size of the bottom of the pickup with properly alighned holes made from plastic, around the thickness of a credit card. insert screw into pickup, slip on springs, put on plastic plate and compress it until the pickup is in the cavity.
Ought to work. And btw--cats don't get kicked because they are being a nuisance. It's just that....they are there, they are cats, and they are much easier than walls on the toes.
Trouble with Bondo is getting them to stay still while you are shaping them after they set up. |
Jim Cohen
Member From: Philadelphia, PA
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posted 22 September 2006 10:01 AM
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quote:
Trouble with Bondo is getting them to stay still while you are shaping them after they set up.
Oh, I have a "special device" I use for that. (Gov't surplus) |
Jerry Roller
Member From: Van Buren, Arkansas USA
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posted 22 September 2006 10:23 AM
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I was thinking the problem was that the magnets in the pickup were attracting the springs.
Jerry |
Jon Light
Member From: Brooklyn, NY
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posted 22 September 2006 10:24 AM
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Jim---I don't have time for a trip to Guantanamo. Do they take paypal?Jerry--yeah, that's another pesky part of the problem but not the main one. Gravity and its affect on little unsecured objects is issue #1. And I just don't have the time to finish my anti-gravulator. One of these days.[This message was edited by Jon Light on 22 September 2006 at 10:26 AM.] |
Lee Baucum
Member From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) - The Final Frontier
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posted 22 September 2006 01:13 PM
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Jon - I took a piece of cardboard and folded it into a triangular shaped tube. (Looking at the end, it is a triangle instead of a circle.) I loosen the strings quite a bit and slip the tube, flat side down, under the strings, near the middle of the guitar, and start sliding it toward the pickup. By the time it gets close to the pickup, the strings are held up high enough to slip the pickup in or out, and the strings are still held under a bit of tension. I've used the same tube for several years now.Lee |
TRAP TRULY
Member From: mobile,al
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posted 22 September 2006 02:37 PM
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I put a tiny bit of glue on the bottom of the spring or tube,let it dry to the body,and solved the problem. |
Dean Parks
Member From: Sherman Oaks, California, USA
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posted 22 September 2006 10:11 PM
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Jon, Jim Bob, Jim Cohen, ... Jerry Fessenden gave me that one, among others.-dean- |
Jon Light
Member From: Brooklyn, NY
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posted 23 September 2006 06:58 AM
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If I'm not mistaken (I haven't changed out the Carter pickup in a number of years---very happy with the XR-16---so I might be....) the Carter springs are either glued to the cavity, fitted into slightly enlarged holes, or both. It's a good solution.Lee--I know exactly what you are describing. I've done similar. I've got a sheet of thin packing foam that I've rolled up into a tight tube and worked under the strings (at full tension). In theory it expands as the strings are loosened. The I can wedge a more rigid support under them. It only sort of works. Trouble with your method is that it requires loosening each string a little bit, round & round. I've been designing the most absurb contraption in my mind----individual spring loaded fingers that keep tension on each individual string as it is loosened. I think that if I can make these things for around $50 apiece, sell them to the four people who would be interested in them for $7 each, I could retire when I run out of cat food. |
Sonny Priddy
Member From: Elizabethtown, Kentucky, USA
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posted 25 September 2006 07:11 PM
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I Put A Little Glue On The Spring Next To The Body. Works Great. SONNY.------------------
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Jim Sliff
Member From: Hermosa Beach California, USA
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posted 26 September 2006 06:38 AM
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Dean' and Sonny's methods are both ones I've used - horizontal is quick when you don't have glue handy; Sonny's works great with just a tiny drop of superglue.Sugical tubing works fine, but realize over time it tends to rot and crack as the plasticizers leach out of it. Same with aquarium tubing. Springs are far better IMO. And if you lose them, grab a cheap ballpoint pen, tear it apart and cut the spring to the desired length. |
John Bechtel
Member From: Nashville, Tennessee,U.S.A.
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posted 26 September 2006 06:13 PM
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Jerry; I was glad to see your solution to an obvious problem that I anticipated last year while changing a PSG P/U for the very first time ever! Your idea is the exact same idea that I had! I stuck a toothpick in all (4) mounting~holes, slipped the expansion~spring over each toothpick and then set the P/U over the (4) picks. Then gently pushed downward on the P/U and replaced each pick with a screw, one at a time, giving each screw several turns to keep them in place. Then gradually snugged down each screw. It worked perfectly the very first time with no slip-ups at all! I'm happy to realize that great-minds travel in the same direction! Dah! ------------------
“Big John”
a.k.a. {Keoni Nui}
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