Stripped thread

[jimi page]

   Has anyone dealt with a stripped hole on the ear of a pickup that the height adjusting screw threads into? This is a 79 (I think) Dimarzio  humbucker. Looks like the screw is maybe a 4-40 thread possibly? 

Thanks

[crunchee]

I've seen that happen to Tele bridge pickups, a possible fix might be to solder a nut to the pickup ear so that the screw has something to thread into.

[JGravelin]

These things happen and the solution is as Crunchee said: solder a nut to the underside of the leg. I've got a sizable bag of nuts and am glad to assist! Feel free to get in touch.

 

 

[BadgerDave]

OR, MY FAVORITE SOLUTION:

Drill out the holes on both sides and use a wood screws and springs to mount the pickups directly into the wood at the bottom of the pickup cavity.  Then enlarge the holes in the pickup mounting ring enough to accommodate a small screwdriver for height adjustment.

 

[MCChris]

6 hours ago, BadgerDave said:

OR, MY FAVORITE SOLUTION:

Drill out the holes on both sides and use a wood screws and springs to mount the pickups directly into the wood at the bottom of the pickup cavity.  Then enlarge the holes in the pickup mounting ring enough to accommodate a small screwdriver for height adjustment.

BD did this to my PRS CE22. Works great!

[jimi page]

Thanks for the advice! I'm going to try soldering a nut to the underside. I had thought about filling the hole with some weld and tapping it again but was concerned about too much heat. I'd rather not drill/enlarge or make any extra holes if I don't have to.

[hamerhead]

9 hours ago, JGravelin said:

....I've got a sizable bag of nuts.....! Feel free to get in touch. 

So this is what it's come to, a boast and a proposition. Shame, shame, shame.

[JGravelin]

7 hours ago, hamerhead said:

So this is what it's come to, a boast and a proposition. Shame, shame, shame.

 

Just havin' a little fun.

Jimi, I support your effort to solder a nut on. It's easy: rough the nut up first to give the solder a surface to attach to, tighten the screw into the nut through the leg to make sure you've got proper alignment, use a hot iron - 825F or so if you've got a digital iron, or a 40-60 watt with a pencil tip - heat for a couple of seconds and touch solder to it. Repeat on each exposed edge that you can get to. 3-48 is what you need and I'm happy to drop a couple in the mail if needed.

JB Weld will work too and heat isn't an issue at all with a 3-48 thread tap bit. Use a toothpick, a tiny bit of JBW to the tip of it and touch it to the stripped threaded area. No need to glop it in: a little dab is all you need. Applied judiciously you may not even need to tap it.

Good luck!

 

 

[Jakeboy]

I also have had success using basic superglue to glue the nut under the ear tab if for whatever reason you find the solder doesn’t take.

[ArnieZ]

Had a problem with a strat years ago. Don't know if the screw size is the same. I used one of those thin cardboard? nuts they use on the back of light switches to grab the screw. worked well did not require solder or a longer screw.

arniez

[tbonesullivan]

You can probably just glue a nut to the back honestly. It's still better than a lot of strat type pickups, which have plastic and/or fiber base plates. The screws just make a thread through that.

I just had to use the wood glue trick on a strap button hole again. Not sure how it got stripped. Seems like the wood just wasn't stable. IT IS NOW. I'll probably never get that screw out.

[kizanski]

1 minute ago, tbonesullivan said:

You can probably just glue a nut to the back honestly. It's still better than a lot of strat type pickups, which have plastic and/or fiber base plates. The screws just make a thread through that.

I've had similar success applying a dab of solder to the stripped hole. The screw makes its own threads through that, provided you don't go nuts with it.

[ksmjc1969]

On 2/19/2019 at 8:00 AM, kizanski said:

I've had similar success applying a dab of solder to the stripped hole. The screw makes its own threads through that, provided you don't go nuts with it.

I’ve done the same on my Strat but retapped the hole and it worked great I think it was a 15 min fix that’s still working perfectly 15 years later . 

[jimi page]

I finally found the time to fix this. Soldered a nut to the back and it works like a charm! the other ear had some play in it and I had 99 more nuts so that got one too. Thanks for the advice, lots of good ideas here! The only problem now is (continuing with the nut theme), when I took the strings off to fix the pickup the nut fell out of the neck...😕…. Can I just glue it back in with wood glue? superglue? use string tension to hold it in place as it sets? clamp it?  Its a bone nut that was installed about five years ago. It seems to fit back in place without any issue.