Installing direct-mount humbuckers with mounting rings?

[Seashore]

Hey all - I have a set of humbuckers with fiberboard baseplates (with unthreaded holes for direct-mount). I want to put them in a guitar that uses pickup rings and springs. I have some nuts of the right size and threading to fit the mounting screws, so I was planning to glue the nuts to the underside of the fiberboard and install them like I would any other pickup.

Does this idea make sense, or is there a better way to go about it? I can foresee that some glue might get into the threads but I'm hoping that won't be a big problem. I'm not thrilled about permanently altering the pickups but I'm opposed to drilling into the guitar and can't think of another option.

Thanks!

 

[skelt101]

Can you swap the baseplates for more appropriate ones? That would probably be my recommendation.

 

[GuitarDoc]

You can do it that way if you want. I'd suggest putting paste wax on the screw threads and put the screws into the nuts when you glue them to the baseplate. That way you won't get glue into the nut threads, or even if you do the screw will easily come out.

 

[Top-L]

I have soldered small nuts to the metal mounting tabs. This is faster than gluing. Not sure if it is a stronger bond than glue.

 

[ehdwuld]

They make plastic covers with the threaded nuts on the legs.

I usually cut off the threaded feet as i only want the covers

But you could push those pickups in and add aome wax to hold them

Look on Amazon for plastic pickup covers

 

[Seashore]

Cheers for the suggestions everyone, much appreciated. These are 7-string pickups so I'd have to order new baseplates if I wanted to swap them out for threaded metal. Nothing extra laying around. I suppose the advantage is that it would be reversible. Thanks GuitarDoc for the paste wax idea, that is most likely what I'll wind up doing.

 

[Seashore]

I have soldered small nuts to the metal mounting tabs. This is faster than gluing. Not sure if it is a stronger bond than glue.

If the plates were metal I'd definitely solder them on. I didn't even consider that the baseplates might be fiberboard when I bought them... probably wouldn't have, if I had known. My bad for not asking.

 

[Top-L]

If the plates were metal I'd definitely solder them on. I didn't even consider that the baseplates might be fiberboard when I bought them... probably wouldn't have, if I had known. My bad for not asking.

I was going to ask, what is fibreboard? Who makes pickups with a fibreboard base?

 

[Seashore]

I was going to ask, what is fibreboard? Who makes pickups with a fibreboard base?

It's that vulcanized flatwork stuff. These are from Guitarmory.

 

[jeremy]

gluing the nuts and using wax as doc suggested is what id do. fiberboard vs metal baseplate will change the sound, im guessing theres a reason the builder went this route

 

[Seashore]

Well, nuts. Or I guess I should say, no nuts. I'm using Gorilla Glue and it won't bond to the fiberboard. I don't know if there would be enough surface area to make a really good bond in any case, but it's a moot point. These baseplates just resist the glue and it flakes right off.

I think at this point I can either contact the builder and see if they'll swap the baseplates for threaded fiberboard ones (which they do make, apparently), or look into a refund.