Mounting holes for a pickup

[adam_swapp]

This may be a dumb question, but I have no pride (and no choice).

A Ric pickup has 6 holes in the cover; 3 along each of the top and bottom edges. As far as I can tell, the vintage pickups are mounted to the body with screws and grommets at each corner; the center holes have a screw and nut to hold the cover on. The high-gain and humbucker have a screw and nut in each corner; the pickup sits on a neoprene ring and is fastened to the body by a screw in each of the two center holes.

The questions are: why are/were there 6 holes in the body of my '62 625? Did the vintage Rics have mounting screws in all 6 holes? I need to redrill these holes (mine are filled with 1/8" plugs), and I don't know whether to make pilot holes for mounting screws or (perhaps) to size them to clear a nut for flush mounting. Any help would be appreciated.

BTW, I called Ric with this question. Their response: "I've seen the guitars, but I never looked at a pickup."

[admin]

Adam: I would be using the center holes only, with grommets between the pickup and the guitar. In my experience, this is certainly the convention. Sometimes you will see that the grommets are also placed under the four corners as well to tidy up the appearance and give the illusion that all of the screws are being used.

Two screws per pickup are quite sufficient and allow for easier adjustment of the height.