New pickup is in and it works!!!!
Moderators: rickenbrother, ajish4
Re: New pickup is in and it works!!!!
HBs are potted so there is no taking them apart.
"The best things in life aren't things."
Re: New pickup is in and it works!!!!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 
Guess it's time to buy a new one...
Guess it's time to buy a new one...
Re: New pickup is in and it works!!!!
New pickup is in and it really works this time! There really isn't a substantial difference in sound between the single coil and humucking modes of the pickup. There is a volume change and a the sound gets a little bassier, I think, but it isn't quite as drastic as I was thinking it would be. It was still a fun mod and is worth having to get an additional variance in sound. I'm not sure if I'll do the mod to my 650, though. Well, I may 
It'll give me a future project to mess with.
The only down side is that the humbucker is slightly skewed in the cavity and everything is really tight. I think it sits forward slightly on the mounting plate and that prevents it from moving freely. By itself it fits fine, but not all together. At some point I should probably widen that cavity ever so slightly. Anyone have any advice on the best way to do this? I do have a router, but am not all that experienced with it. I probably only need about an eighth of an inch.
It'll give me a future project to mess with. The only down side is that the humbucker is slightly skewed in the cavity and everything is really tight. I think it sits forward slightly on the mounting plate and that prevents it from moving freely. By itself it fits fine, but not all together. At some point I should probably widen that cavity ever so slightly. Anyone have any advice on the best way to do this? I do have a router, but am not all that experienced with it. I probably only need about an eighth of an inch.
Re: New pickup is in and it works!!!!
If the HB1 is mounted and centered properly with it's foam pad, then the pad may touuch the sides of the cavity, but there should be no binding of any kind while you adjust it.
Re: New pickup is in and it works!!!!
The metal is certainly touching a little in the cavity. Are the 4001 routes the same size as the modern routes? I can look again, but I don't see any other way to mount the pickup on the mounting plate. Maybe I can slide it back just a touch with the screws I installed.
Re: New pickup is in and it works!!!!
The bridge pickup routes seem to be pretty uniform over the years. Since the HB1 pickup cover is the same size as the hi-gain covers have always been and the same width as the plastic baseplate, I can't see why the sides would touch. It's also possible that the whole assemble wasn't perfectly centered when it was screwed down. I've seen a lot of early 4001's with crooked bridge pickup surrounds. You can peg and re-drill the mounting holes once it's centered properly. As to your first HB1, why did you feel the need to replace it? If one of the wires came off of it, you could just resolder it.
Re: New pickup is in and it works!!!!
There was an internal short to ground for the black wire. I got a continuity to ground when I put my multimeter on solder point one and the base plate or ground wire. Since everything I read said you couldn't open these up, I figured I wouldn't be able to get the humucking feature with the one I had.
I checked my pickup again and I think it has more to do with the mounting of the surround, like you suggested. My old pickup assembly was just the coil on top of the mounting plate, so there was much more room in the cavity with the old pickup. In order to not put new holes in, I lined up the surround with the old mounting holes and that required me to push the surround up towards the neck a little. That is causing the bind, I think. I drilled out the adjustment hole in my new surround a little bit to give the screw some flexibility and allow the pickup to sit a little bit further back. That has helped and, even though it appears to still be rubbing slightly, it isn't in the bind it was before. I think I'll leave it like this for a while since it seems to be at a good height.
Thanks for your help.
I checked my pickup again and I think it has more to do with the mounting of the surround, like you suggested. My old pickup assembly was just the coil on top of the mounting plate, so there was much more room in the cavity with the old pickup. In order to not put new holes in, I lined up the surround with the old mounting holes and that required me to push the surround up towards the neck a little. That is causing the bind, I think. I drilled out the adjustment hole in my new surround a little bit to give the screw some flexibility and allow the pickup to sit a little bit further back. That has helped and, even though it appears to still be rubbing slightly, it isn't in the bind it was before. I think I'll leave it like this for a while since it seems to be at a good height.
Thanks for your help.