P F*****g 90 Nightmare..

KevS

So I notice my Neck P90 is sagging at the treble side...
I try and fix it by adjusting the height adjustment screw..
Now in a normal World this would Work..
Not in my World though...
Tiny Pickup Minions live in my guitars..

So the screw pushes down,,the pickup starts to push down,,when I try to take it up,
just after a couple of turns the pickup cover becomes loose there is no tension..
I am thinking the cover may be moving on the side of the screw rather than the screw being in the mounting plate....

So my strings get loosened..
I go in to investigate...
One spring is mangled across the thread of the screw. and almost at a right angle...
The screw is permanently bent,,so I try to put things back together and the screw won't engage with the plate..
Out the pickup comes again,,yet again the spring is mangled up with the screw..

Next as the screw is now longer and twisted..
I try to substitute some medical tubing..
The medical tubing not being magnetic it doesn't cling to the pickup..

Next,,I remove 3 straightish turns from the spring and insert it into the medical tubing..
This works..

I try again no joy..

Then I think,,maybe that screw never did contact..
Maybe the plate was put in the wrong way..
So I flipped over the plate and turned it around till it had the same mounting pattern..
Then I tried again,,nope and this time the other screw is mangled..
The other screw seems to work with the plate reversed..
So I'm getting muddled where the wire came out of the P90 now..
So I try what I think is the other way,,no matter what way..I think the wire is rubbing on the springs..
Why they are getting mangled..
Meanwhile the spring won't go into the plate..
I reckon it never did...

I am thinking the P90 wire originally came out of the top ? ceiling side of it looking at stuff online..

Is there some way of getting around Pickup / Wire / Spring Problem.. ?
I also take it not all P90 mounting plates are the same.. ?
I am thinking this one could have a dodgy thread..
The height adjustment screws don't go into inserts..
The thread is on / in the plate itself..

The guitar is a 2012 Les Paul Junior Special Gloss..
I bought it from new...
Gibson Quality Control is a whole other long ,long,long thread...

ICBM

It does sound like either the screw or the thread in the plate, or both, are stripped… if it’s the screw, replace with a new one. If it’s the plate, you will either need to fit an insert in the wood under it, or remove the plate and use direct-to-body wood screw-type height screws - as a lot of original ones do. This may also require patching the hole in the wood first. This can all be a faff… but it is fixable.

I had a similar problem on my PRS Custom 22 Soapbar, in this case because it had wood screws, and the floor thickness in the bridge pickup cavity is only about a quarter inch because the trem cavity is behind it. The solution was to glue in inserts and use the bolt-type screws.

normula1

I had to fit inserts to my LP special as the Kinman P90 was too deep for the neck pickup hole. Bit of dowel and glue, tiny bit of silicon tubing and has been fine ever since. I quite like the mounting plate idea though.

KevS

ICBM said:

It does sound like either the screw or the thread in the plate, or both, are stripped… if it’s the screw, replace with a new one. If it’s the plate, you will either need to fit an insert in the wood under it, or remove the plate and use direct-to-body wood screw-type height screws - as a lot of original ones do. This may also require patching the hole in the wood first. This can all be a faff… but it is fixable.

I had a similar problem on my PRS Custom 22 Soapbar, in this case because it had wood screws, and the floor thickness in the bridge pickup cavity is only about a quarter inch because the trem cavity is behind it. The solution was to glue in inserts and use the bolt-type screws.

I think this is maybe a job for a professional..
I will see what happens with both screws and the plate,,with pickup taken out of the scenario....
A dodgy screw is the best outcome..
The other stuff,,I don't really have everything I need to do a good job..
Or maybe I am not experienced enough to do a good Job also..

Flip

In a similar, though different situation I found 3/5mm silicon tubing worked fine. You say medical tubing. If that's not the same may I suggest silicon tubing.

FWIW I had to buy a metre on eBay since none of the primary dealers would sell less than 20m but it wasn't expensive and they gave fast service.