Someone turned these...
Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 11:42 pm
...I'm sure of it!
Terrible photo I know, but the polepieces (especially the D) are raised way up. As far as I've ever been able to tell from these screw-tops, the two screws in the middle have a little "collar" under the head that, when set into the bobbin, keeps them a bit higher than the two on the outside...like this:
Makes sense considering neck radius. And sometimes they just used round screws in the middle and flatter ones on the outside, but whatever...they should all be more-or-less against the bobbin.
Now the pickup works, so unscrewing these didn't do anything to the windings, presumably. But, as the action is very low on this bass and the screws are all too high, I had to lower the pickup way down to avoid clanking the strings off the screws (I don't play light). It's small variations in height but as we all know they can make all the difference in whether the string has clearance or not. I have very little wiggle room in pickup height as it is now. I've never seen one like this, and I'm pretty sure the factory wouldn't have set the poles this way. So, my long rambling point is this:
Should I...
1)Screw the poles back down, aligning them in their correct positions and allowing me to raise the pickup back up (and possibly tearing the windings which didn't tear the first time) Or...
2)Leave the screws as is, with the poles "unbalanced" and the pickup hanging by a thread (or three) in the cavity (the height-adjustment screw ends are at least halfway unscrewed through the steel plate, it's so low)
The safe, sensible answer is 2...but I like 1 better! It's not a volume thing (lower the poles/raise the pickup - should be the same I'd imagine) - I just want it correct and fully-adjustable again.
Terrible photo I know, but the polepieces (especially the D) are raised way up. As far as I've ever been able to tell from these screw-tops, the two screws in the middle have a little "collar" under the head that, when set into the bobbin, keeps them a bit higher than the two on the outside...like this:
Makes sense considering neck radius. And sometimes they just used round screws in the middle and flatter ones on the outside, but whatever...they should all be more-or-less against the bobbin.
Now the pickup works, so unscrewing these didn't do anything to the windings, presumably. But, as the action is very low on this bass and the screws are all too high, I had to lower the pickup way down to avoid clanking the strings off the screws (I don't play light). It's small variations in height but as we all know they can make all the difference in whether the string has clearance or not. I have very little wiggle room in pickup height as it is now. I've never seen one like this, and I'm pretty sure the factory wouldn't have set the poles this way. So, my long rambling point is this:
Should I...
1)Screw the poles back down, aligning them in their correct positions and allowing me to raise the pickup back up (and possibly tearing the windings which didn't tear the first time) Or...
2)Leave the screws as is, with the poles "unbalanced" and the pickup hanging by a thread (or three) in the cavity (the height-adjustment screw ends are at least halfway unscrewed through the steel plate, it's so low)
The safe, sensible answer is 2...but I like 1 better! It's not a volume thing (lower the poles/raise the pickup - should be the same I'd imagine) - I just want it correct and fully-adjustable again.
No, RIC are the men!
