Minor quality control issue on Gibson 70s Tribute mini hums

[AniML]

I won a pair of Gibson 70s Tribute mini hums on eBay and received them. I removed the bridge pickup from the plastic P90 surround and noticed the solder points for the cover are not tacked down to the baseplate. I can slide the baseplate lengthwise under the solder "blobs". The solder does not appear to have been reheated or cut, so there is nothing suggesting it was ever opened. I think it is a factory QC issue

The really strange thing is that when I do, only the baseplate is moving. I can see the coils are remaining stationary and can also feel that the weight is not moving either. It would seem the coils are not connected to the baseplate, but rather are connected to the cover

I am contemplating if I should reheat the solder to firm up the connection or contact the seller for a return. I did put it on a multimeter and it reads ~6.9-7.0K and does not waver when I move the cover, so there appears to be no electrical fault. Besides that, I am also concerned about microphonics from vibration

The tinkerer in me wants to pop it open and explore, but I am concerned it may not fit back together properly. Does anyone know about the construction of these?

 

[uOpt]

Re: Minor quality control issue on Gibson 70s Tribute mini hums

Careful, these mini hums tend to fall apart when you open them. Probably not worth the trouble.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Minor quality control issue on Gibson 70s Tribute mini hums

When considering quality control......remember it IS a Gibson.

As I see it, you really only have two options that make any sense.

1) reheat the solder connections and make a tight joint,

2) send them to me.

 

[AniML]

Re: Minor quality control issue on Gibson 70s Tribute mini hums

When considering quality control......remember it IS a Gibson.

As I see it, you really only have two options that make any sense.

1) reheat the solder connections and make a tight joint,

2) send them to me.

Well we are only talking about the bridge pickup, the neck is fine. So if I want to (ab)use statistics to make a point, Gibson QC fails 50% of the time

I did notify the seller of the defect and am waiting to hear back. I have no hesitation to reheat the solder, except that I would only want to do so with the seller's blessing. In case there are other problems I don't want to shoot myself in the foot as far as any further recourse might go.

That said, I am rethinking my configuration to perhaps use a Seth bridge with the mini neck pickup. So if I do decide to let the bridge pickup go, I have a suspicion you might be interested