Weak neck (toaster) on 4001 v63

funksterman · Post by **funksterman** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 9:15 pm

All,
Thanks again for the suggestions.

Last night I plucked up the courage and lifted the lid off my baby.

Have done the trick with the wire and solder. Much better balance between the two pickups now. Also found the hot wire to the toaster had very bad solder, so re-did that too - all nice now.

So, success - although I too have a crack in the pickguard from where too much was put into lifting the toaster - don't think it was me but could have been.

It's now ready for first gig in a couple of weeks time! Woooohooo!

Cheers
Jo

ben_brown · Post by **ben_brown** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 3:49 pm

I was getting ready to do the VTC mod and also look at my toaster in my '05 4003 while I had it open. I remembered this thread talking about removing the screws in the neck pup allowing more height adjustment. After looking at the pup(this is the first time I had the guard off)I noticed something. Why can't the small nuts and bolts be removed like earlier suggested but instead of holding the halves together with stranded wire, just adjust the height of the pup up until it is somewhat tight up against the back of the guard? Maybe even use some smaller grommet material or something for cushioning. On my 4003 the small screw heads only take up about 3/32 of space if that. If I do that the toaster should be a bit louder. Using the wire idea your're limited in height adjustment to the thickness of wire you use.
Buy the way....The VTC mod looks like a piece of cake! I just have to be a bit more careful than I am with the soldering iron when I repeatedly change my brother's Tele pups on a yearly basis.
What is it with guitar players?!!! LOL

ben_brown · Post by **ben_brown** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 12:44 pm

No answers?

aceonbass · Post by **aceonbass** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 3:00 pm

Another method of getting the pickup closer to the strings would be to put pickup grommets under all of the pickguard screws,thereby raising the whole pickguard assembly. I saw this on an old 325. It looked kinda cool too. It may also be possible to tap the 4 screw holes in the pickup cover for threads, screw the new,slightly larger screw in from the bottom, and then cut it off level with the cover using a Dremmel.

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 3:39 pm

Ben: Yes, it can be done that way. The only problem with it is if someone decides to adjust it down later, it may rattle a bit.

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 3:42 pm

Dane: I like your screw-from-the-bottom idea. Would the chrome cover be thick enough to hold the screw?

markbass99 · Post by **markbass99** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:59 pm

Something I've done before to get the toaster as close as possible to the strings is completely remove the two screws from the E string side of the cover, this requires you to tighten the E string side of the toaster up against the pickguard to hold everything together, then you adjust string balance by raising or lowering the G string side. Of course you leave the rubber o-ring out on the E string side and don't overtighten, but this gets the pickup as close as possible and I've had good success with this method.

aceonbass · Post by **aceonbass** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 6:21 pm

Ted, I just looked at one of my Ricky pickups and I would say there is definitely enough thickness in the cover to thread. Just don't go crazy tightening the screws.The pickup base should be tapped also. This way, even if the the screws lost their grip from over tightening, they would stay in the base and act as locating pins like you'd find in an engine block to keep the heads from moving around while you bolt them down. The heads of the original screws could also be ground down and slotted with a dremmel for flat head screw driver use.