My pickup won't screw down properly!

beatcomber · Post by **beatcomber** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 5:58 am

A few years ago I tried out a set of toasters on my 1984 330, and ultimately decided to return to the original HiGains. Ever since, I can't get my bridge pickup to screw down parallel to the body top. Once it gets about halfway down it starts angling so that the side facing the tailpiece is lower than the side facing the neck. I've looked under the pickup to see if there was a wire or something lodging itself under the pickup, but I can't see any obstruction. I've even bought a new foam pad, but that doesn't help.

Has anyone had this problem, and how did it get fixed?

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 6:42 am

maybe the wood screw hole is striped? if it is try the old trick of a small piece of tooth pick and a dab of elmers glue in the hole and reinsert the screw ...

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 8:19 am

I think Jeff means stripped...

This verbal description doesn't light my fire--could we see some pics?

rick12dr · Post by **rick12dr** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 8:27 am

If this is what I think it is, my own solution to it is simply this, and I have done this for years when reworking a Rick, is to take the PU off the guitar, and rebore the screw holes on each end of the PU with the next largest size drill bit.

beatcomber · Post by **beatcomber** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 12:06 pm

Thanks, Don. A well-known former Ric luthier suggested the same thing.

johnhall · Post by **johnhall** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 2:22 pm

Glenn, they're first cousins, so it's not exactly a surprise.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 2:24 pm

rickplayer · Post by **rickplayer** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 3:42 pm

They are cousins? They don't look alike

johnhall · Post by **johnhall** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 4:08 pm

Actually, I've just been informed that they are not related, although their fathers were good friends. Richard Burke, a 40+ year veteran of RIC and mentor to both of them is the one who told me they were cousins. One or the other of them was responsible for getting the other a job at RIC . . . or so Dick told me.

My apologies, as I see how it could have been insulting.

rick12dr · Post by **rick12dr** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 9:05 pm

John is correct; both dads were airline pilots.
I worked at Rick first, then told Mark that they might have been hiring, dada. Good choice of words; I definitely considered Dick a mentor, and
a very knowledgeable woodshop man, probably the best I ever worked with, and I've been in more than a few shops over the years.After I left, Dick would occasionally bug Mark about "his cousin",
meaning me, but years later Mark never really knew what that was about.Dick called Mark, "Baby Huey", which is totally absurd, but if you knew Dick at all, he could be a bit off the wall at times.No insults taken.

rickplayer · Post by **rickplayer** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 9:57 pm

I bet that was a fun shop to work in. But it always sounds better when you reflect back. Good story!

johnhall · Post by **johnhall** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 6:37 am

Richard Burke is certainly a character and has said some outrageous things, no doubt about that. But while the Chattanoogese made you wonder sometimes what he really said, it has always been with a good heart and dead on point.

rick12dr · Post by **rick12dr** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 7:58 am

But while the Chattanoogese made you wonder sometimes what he really said,

Yeah, exactly

rickplayer · Post by **rickplayer** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 11:24 am

Triplets seperated at birth?

rick12dr · Post by **rick12dr** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 9:21 am

Who's in the upper right pic??wait a minute; don't tell me[yes, Tell me!]