annoying pickup screw adjustment

[atarilovesyou]

...so the height adjust screw on the neck pickup of my Soloist has a strange tendency....the side closest to the low E?...it somehow dips when I'm not lookin!...I'll explain.

I notice the pickup is low on that one end. I adjust it back into the proper position. I play it and it's fine....I wipe the strings and fretboard down (watching to see if the pressure from that does anything...it doesn't) ....then I pick it up and forget about the problem.

But the damn pickup goes back down again??..wtf?...I try to push down with reasonable force to see if the screw is stripped or something..nope. The weird thing, I can grasp the head of that small screw and 'lift' up while the pickup is in the lower position...can't do that when I adjust it back up.

The pain in ass thing is that this guitar is new, this is the second problem I've had with it, quality-wise. I doubt I can adjust what I need to without removing the Floyd...blah.

Unless you guys can help me out...any idea what's happening here?..other than poltergeists?

[skorb]

sounds as though the screw hole is a hair too large, and the screw is vibrating down through it as you play and move around, dropping that side of the pup.

maybe a little superglue in the hole and let it dry then screw it back in? not sure if that works with metal holes but it's worth a try as a cheap fix attempt. or duct tape over the hole and screw the screw in...

[straycat]

Makes sense.You can try a larger diamater pickup screw.
You are not afraid to remove the floyd are you?Don't tell me you go back to the dealer to get new strings put on.Get in there and mix it up with the floyd and learn how to work on it.

[atarilovesyou]

I've worked on my trems but I haven't done the "block the trem, remove the strings, pop out the trem" technique...at last that would save this set of strings!...lol, I don't wanna swap em out this soon, with such a small problem. Maybe I'll try the super glue trick...replacing the pup ring wouldn't be difficult but finding one that is an exact match may be tricky.

I just wonder why I can't 'recreate' how the screw gives?..like I said, when it's adjusted so the pickup is at the right height, I can't pull the screw up by the head...only when it's 'bottomed out'. Hmmm.

..any other ideas?

[straycat]

You really wont know until you pull the pickup out and see what the problem is.You can find a small nut that fits the screw and super glue the nut to the pickup base plate and put the screw back in.No need to replace the pickup ring.
It does sound like the hole in the baseplate is a little larger I'd just find a larger adj screw and music store should have tons of them.

[MountainDog]

I agree with the others that the threaded hole in the baseplate is a little large. They had good suggestions, I'll add mine: clamp down hard on the threaded mount plate area with pliers. This should smoosh the hole a little bit to make it smaller. Has worked several times for me. You also might try putting some teflon plumbers tape around the threads of the screw.

[straycat]

Good idea MD I'll use the pliers next time.

[jrnic]

I've had the same problem too. On a Dimarzio SD p/u. At first I "smooshed" the hole with pliers and that worked. But after a while it did it again. I used solder to fix the problem. I put the screw halfway into the slot, then covered around the bottom of the baseplate with a little solder paste, then a ran a little solder around the base of the screw. While it was cooling, I turned the screw to release the threads and then let it cool. Has held for many years now without a problem.

[Budman68]

Actually another tip if you don't have a lot of tools, is to take a standard flat blade screwdriver and center it over the hole and tap a few time until it "peens" the hole a little and that will close it up a bit. Then your screw should fit tighter.