Direct mounted humbucker trouble...

[Bowtomecha]

I’m looking for advice on mounting my pickups. I bought a new Sentient/Pegasus set for my jp70 which has direct mounted pickups. The screws for the original pickups are inch long (maybe #3) wood screws. The Duncan pickups came with standard silver 3-48 machine screws that are an inch long as well. I’ve researched getting black 3-48 screws, stripping the threads closest to the bracket ears and using 3-48/M2.5 threaded wood inserts. Next to impossible for me to find however. I searched for #2 wood screws that are black and an inch long and can’t find anything suitable with a pan or round head like the machine screws. The FU system is too expensive for me to install for both pickups. I could cannibalize my old pickups’ baseplates or buy new ones but the effort seems real clumsy. I was thinking of finding a 3-48 tap and getting aluminum blanks and making a threaded base myself. I just don’t want to mess up my pickups in case I don’t like them in this guitar and I have maybe half my 21 day return left.

The closest I’ve been able to find are 3/4 inch pickup ring screws which are supposedly the longest that are made in that size for that purpose. I’m curious if there are any newer ideas on direct mounting pickups or what the easiest, least destructive, and most available option for doing this is.

P.s. I always thought the included SD humbucker ring adjustment screws were 1 1/4 inches. Why would mine be an inch?

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Direct mounted humbucker trouble...

I understand your dilemma. If you knew you loved the pups and were going to keep them no matter what, the easiest thing would be to drill out the threaded holes in the baseplates.

Perhaps you could mount them in another guitar that uses mounting rings just to get a general idea of whether you think you'll like them enough to keep them.

 

[Downrazor11]

Re: Direct mounted humbucker trouble...

I’m looking for advice on mounting my pickups. I bought a new Sentient/Pegasus set for my jp70 which has direct mounted pickups. The screws for the original pickups are inch long (maybe #3) wood screws. The Duncan pickups came with standard silver 3-48 machine screws that are an inch long as well. I’ve researched getting black 3-48 screws, stripping the threads closest to the bracket ears and using 3-48/M2.5 threaded wood inserts. Next to impossible for me to find however. I searched for #2 wood screws that are black and an inch long and can’t find anything suitable with a pan or round head like the machine screws. The FU system is too expensive for me to install for both pickups. I could cannibalize my old pickups’ baseplates or buy new ones but the effort seems real clumsy. I was thinking of finding a 3-48 tap and getting aluminum blanks and making a threaded base myself. I just don’t want to mess up my pickups in case I don’t like them in this guitar and I have maybe half my 21 day return left.

The closest I’ve been able to find are 3/4 inch pickup ring screws which are supposedly the longest that are made in that size for that purpose. I’m curious if there are any newer ideas on direct mounting pickups or what the easiest, least destructive, and most available option for doing this is.

P.s. I always thought the included SD humbucker ring adjustment screws were 1 1/4 inches. Why would mine be an inch?

The 3-48 screws that SD sends out with pickups are 1 1/4 inch screws. The 'pickup ring screws' you mention, are you referring to the 4 wood screws that secure the pickup mounting ring to a body?

You could go that route If you have enough room between the body and strings, and if you don't mind drilling 8 small holes in your guitar (though measure 4 times to cut once and use masking tape, and plan for a #3 or #2 wood screw), I would probably do that only if I loved the guitar. Ibanez uses some low profile (~1/16 thick) metal pickup mounting rings in many of their models that would work fine, and allow you to use the 3-48 screws that come with almost all humbuckers.

I dislike when manufacturers don't stick to a standard, or at least a non-destructive variation, makes me avoid their products..