Metal plate things under pickups - keep them?

roberty

I'm changing the pickups on a 2013 50s Tribute SG.  There's these metal things screwed into the body in the pickup cavities I've never seen before.  Should I keep them in?  Would they work like a baseplate?  The pickups are magnetising to them so maybe they'll affect the sound.

Excuse the dust, it's been sitting out for a few days.

ThorpyFX

The pickups appear to mount to them, therefore probably best to leave them in. 

roberty

The screws go through those holes and into the wood. I took the plates out and it's just normal cavities under there. I guess it doesn't matter so much whether they're in or not in hindsight, but I do wonder why they're there and what they're for

ICBM

They are for mounting the pickups, as Thorpy said. The small two outer screw holes are for Deluxe-style minihumbuckers, the two small ones in the middle are for P90s. The other two large holes in the middle are extra mounting holes in case of a wiring channel being under either of the ones that are in use on your guitar.

If the pickups are held in with woodscrews which pass through the holes and into the wood, it's done wrong - they should be fine-threaded machine screws which engage with the plate. They do go through into the wood as well, but that's not what holds the pickup in place. The treble-side hole has no wood under it anyway.

The two screws in the neck pickup surround don't look right, they look more like they might be woodscrews.

roberty

Very well spotted, yeah the screws in the neck pickup are wood screws that came with the pickup. Haven't drilled these in yet. The screws that came out of the guitar are machine screws. Makes sense now, thanks both. I'll probably leave it how it is and use machine screws.

Wonder why they changed to doing it this way? It's got PCB controls so maybe a time saving exercise

ICBM

It's not a new thing - they did it that way in the 1970s, although the baseplate is a much narrower strip. They were used on the Les Paul Deluxe, but fitted with screw holes to take P90s as well. I'm not 100% sure about the 1968-69 P90 Standard, it's so long since I've seen one I can't remember what it was like under the pickups, or even if I looked.

The larger size of the modern plates will probably save a bit of time by making it much easier to centre them in the cavities.