tip to reduce rattle from loose humbuckers

[skeletor]

my humbucker was rattling.

I tried to find out how people solve this and for many longer and stiffer springs do the trick. I already had a long spring.

I solved it by using the foam from the box the pickup came in.

here are a few pictures:

I you have that type of tail piece you don't need to take off the strings entirely, you can just loosen them with the tuners and then release the tail piece.
(meaning you can change pickups in just a few minutes)

You just unscrew the four corner screws on the pickup mounting ring. You see the foam and the pickup box on the picture too.
You can also see in that photo that I used screw terminals (also called luster terminals) to connect the new pickups when I changed them (I just cut the wire from the old pickups and connected the new ones to the remaining part, it is probably better to remove the old pickup wire entirely and put the new pickup wire in it's place (solder it to potentiometer or switch depening on how it is wired), but this method is much easier, especially for this type of guitar).

I found it easier to place the foam of the back of the pickup (and mounting ring) and then put it in place. The alternative is to first put the foam in the hole and then place the pickup.

In this way the pickup doesn't rattle, and it is still easy to raise it or lower it.

If you don't have the foam from a pickup box, you could use some type of sponge (small dishwashing sponge perhaps) that doesn't tear apart too easily.

I am not a pro guitar repair man or luthier or anything so I don't know if the foam could be bad for the guitar in any way. It shouldn't affect the electronics. But I don't know if it can in someway be bad for the food or the finish, or could perhaps affect the wood's moisture/dryness.
It's probably recommended to check maybe once or twice per decade to see if the foam is still fine (not super dry or crumbling or anything)


In case you are wondering, the guitar is a Washburn HB35 and the pickups are SD Seth Lovers.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: tip to reduce rattle from loose humbuckers

I'm trying to figure out how the pickups are rattling/loose.

And that's a neat idea on the homemade terminal rig in the pickup cavity.


As for loosening the strings and pulling the stopbar off, that never worked for me. Probably because I didn't have a ton of windings around the posts. As well, if I removed strings or loosened them enough (especially the plains), the bend at the tuners resulted in a break point, so it was always easier for me to just change pickups when I changed strings.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: tip to reduce rattle from loose humbuckers

i cut up closed cell foam (the kind they use for hiking mattreses). It has more compressive range than any spring or surgical tubing and stops vibration dead in its tracks.

 

[Metalblaze]

Re: tip to reduce rattle from loose humbuckers

Almost always I had problems with the regular thin pickup springs. The pickups always had an angle and not sitting straight in parallel with the strings.

Tubing solved this very well for me, especially if you cut it a bit longer and press it harder:




And also the strong thick spring from WCR pickups when I got the Fillmore. It looks kind of like this. That was PERFECT. Very very stable.