Repairing broken pickup tab on single coil

[quadquadquadquad]

One side tab ("ear") of my bridge single coil has broken. This means the pickup is loose and hard to adjust the height. The current solution is "duct tape".

There are fairly cheap copper plated steel plates on ebay/reverb that I suspect will work. Anyone use one of those?

The steel would affect the tone of the pickup (which could be a good thing). Any experience with ferrous backing plates changing tone?

I'm inclined to find and cut a piece sturdy, thin plastic (or some other material like wood) that is non-ferrous. I also wouldn't have to worry about grounding that plate Any suggestions on sourcing this from junk or at a store?

Would aluminum work? That might be thin, strong, and possibly won't affect the tone like steel?

I know I should replace the pickup, but that cascades to replacing all the pickups and the electronics. The pickup is not under warranty. Would love to get a fix in place without going down this rabbit hole.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Repairing broken pickup tab on single coil

I'd think whatever solution that you want to try would work fine. I've stuck 2 single coils on a baseplate to make a stag mag and it worked fine. I grounded the baseplate. Ur plastic idea might work well because you wouldn't have to ground it.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Repairing broken pickup tab on single coil

That's like saying to use a two prong extension cord instead of a three prong plug so you don't have to ground it.

The grounding actually serves a purpose.

When you say the base plate is broken what do you mean? Base plates don't break. Do you mean that the threads are stripped? There are several solutions to repair that.

 

[quadquadquadquad]

Re: Repairing broken pickup tab on single coil

The part of the pickup that extends past the coil body which the mounting screw goes into has broken off. Sort of like this:


(* ( . . . . . . ) | broken: | *)