Repairing a set of vintage Gibson Tarbacks.

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

I have two Tarbacks that came out of a '78 SG Custom. Unfortunately the mounting tabs and bar they are part of has separated from the back of the pickup. I was thinking the easiest fix would be to solder the tab ends to the nickle pickup cover. Is this also the best and proper way to fix them?
They're great sounding pickups with nice bite and grind when driven, and clear treble with subdued base when played clean.

 

[freefrog]

Soldering a cover to a baseplate can be done fastly but soldering legs requires more solder, more time, more heat. Possibly enough IMHO to melt the epoxy (the "tar") if not to make it emit toxic fumes. I'd also wonder about the soft white dampening strip around the heads of the screw poles, under the cover: to which extent would it resist to a thermic stress?

Personally, I'd just cut a couple of brass baseplates in order to reduce 'em to strips, like what Tarbacks have in their backs just under the tar. Then I'd glue these second strip baseplates under the original ones. I've already done comparable things, FWIW (and I've resoldered once or twice legs on a baseplate... but after having separated it from the coils and magnetic circuit, which is not doable with Tarbacks).

Now do what you want and be happy.

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

Would you recommend superglue?

 

[freefrog]

Would you recommend superglue?

I'd use a powerful glue leaving enough time to adjust correctly the parts involved by drying not to fast.

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

Thanks.

 

[larryguitar]

I'd use a powerful glue leaving enough time to adjust correctly the parts involved by drying not to fast.

I'd use a slow-setting epoxy; plenty of time to adjust, and a strong bond on dissimilar materials.

Larry

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

I'd use a slow-setting epoxy; plenty of time to adjust, and a strong bond on dissimilar materials.

Larry

Thank you.

 

[freefrog]

I'd use a slow-setting epoxy; plenty of time to adjust, and a strong bond on dissimilar materials.

Larry

Surely the most orthodox solution if the operator can do that.