Allen key bolt has fallen in on a brand new pickup!

P

P-Ride

New member
Hey, I have a new humbucker by another manufacturer, that has allen key bolts.

I was curious to see what kind of allen key bolts were used, as I might change them for another colour.

I checked on Google and found posts suggesting these bolts freely unscrew and rescrew back in.

I unscrewed one and it came out, with a little wax too.

When I went to screw it back in, it basically fell through, so whatever it seemed to be biting into before no longer seems to be there.

The allen key bolt's head is now 1mm lower than the others and it freely spins, so won't come back out.

Is this normal?

Although there is wax in there, don't they usually use have something more substantial - like the pickup's top - to bite into, rather than just relying on wax?

What should I do.. is this faulty? Or have I done something I'm not meant to?

Thanks
 
Re: Allen key bolt has fallen in on a brand new pickup!

That is unusual. You can probably take the screws loose on the baseplate and open the pickup up to see what shifted down in there. Go slow and careful though. If it is that different from other pickups, it is hard-telling what you will run into.
 
Re: Allen key bolt has fallen in on a brand new pickup!

I think they just thread into the bobbin. Whether it's covered by the manufacturer probably would depend on the manufacturer. The pole pieces are meant to be adjustable, but most people don't remove them, just raise or lower them slightly. I don't know if completely removing them would qualify as doing something you aren't supposed to do (in terms of warranty coverage). I've changed pole pieces before and they can tend to require more effort to remove the first time because of the wax. But they should still thread back in and hold tight at the level you want them. Sounds like you stripped the thread.
 
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Re: Allen key bolt has fallen in on a brand new pickup!

Yeah, they normally thread into the coil bobbin, and sometimes through the baseplate, too. Wrap just a little teflon pipe tape around the threads and see if it holds.
 
Re: Allen key bolt has fallen in on a brand new pickup!

One more thing you can try before having to remove the baseplate is to turn the pickup upside down & & try tightening the screw & see if it grabs on better. Worth a shot, could get lucky.
 
Re: Allen key bolt has fallen in on a brand new pickup!

Hmm, strange. I wonder if you wrap the threads in teflon tape if it will stay where you put it.
 
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