problem with LoZ pups

[Granny Gremlin]

Anybody else have an issue with the mounting bushings (brass, molded/embeded into the black resin pup cover) breaking off?  It's driving me nuts - the pup still works great but I've had to tape it down and can't adjust it.  The tape is now giving way so best case my treble side is stupid loud and worst case (when fretted a bit higher up the neck) the string is muted by the bridge pup.  Tried gluing them back but they keep breaking off again.  Driving me bonkers.

I can post pics eventually, but it requires some take-apart so not got to it yet.

[Basvarken]

I have quite a few of these pickups and (only) one of them has a broken off ear.
I guess these pickups are so heavy that glueing the ear back is not always successful, as the stress of the weight is quite high.

You could try to reinforce it with a metal strip or something that gives the broken off part more to hold on to.

Or

Have you tried making a new "ear" with epoxy?


Another plan could be to make some sort of baseplate.
Get your jigsaw out and cut a piece of brass to match the pattern of the pickup with all three ears.
Then use slightly longer screws that go all the way through the metal bushings in the ears. And secure them (underneath the new plate) with a matching bolt.
This way the weak ear will not give under the stress but the pickup will hang in the "cradle".

[Granny Gremlin]

I do have a spare one (maybe 2; don't remember, but I doubt it), but this has happened to at least 1 ear on each pup in my Triumph (I think 2 of 3 on the neck pup, but don't recall).

Definitely undersized for the weight of the pup.  Though I wonder if the foam under the pups is a bit to blame too; just one more force acting on the pup.

I think the baseplate idea might work (+ some epoxy); I have some aluminum sheet laying about.  I don't think bushings under the plate would work (to allow adjustment...  not without embedding them in the baseplate; better to remove original bushings in that case too), but also should not be necessary - hoping the base plate would reinforce the glue/epoxy job enough to not have it break again.  Thanks for the idea; we'll see how that goes.

Thanks.  I'll think this through a bit more. 

[exiledarchangel]

That baseplate idea is good, but I wouldn't use metal, because that could change the sound of the pickup. Using a thick piece of plastic, or some pickguard material, is better I think.

[Granny Gremlin]

That occurred to me, but I'm worried about there being room for the additional thickness.  The pickup is sealed completely in epoxy so it won't short anything; might affect the magnetic field a tad, but it's not moving so it should not affect the signal.  No more so than metal pickguards and that metal cover over the pup on a TBird II.  ... I suppose I could just stick some some scrap under the pup and play it a bit before I commit to attaching it permanently.

[Basvarken]

I don't think that an aluminium sheet underneath the pickup will affect the sound in any way.
These pickups are very deep. And the actual working magnet bar is on the top side. Plus it's cast in a thick layer of epoxy like you said.
And aluminium is non magnetic, so that would be an even better option than brass.

If there's enough room for padding or foam (who put that there?), there certainly is enough room for a thin sheet of aluminium.

[Alanko]

Daft question, but can a pickup's magnets be between the strings and the coils? I'm probably mis-interpreting Basvarken's post here, but it was something I was thinking about a whole ago.

[Basvarken]

Probably lost in translation

Maybe I should make clear that these are stacked humbuckers.
The coils of these humbuckers are on top of each other.
Does it make more sense to you now?

[Granny Gremlin]

Yes, with a blade polepiece/magnet running right down the middle.

I don't remember if I put the foam in there or if it came to me that way and I left it.  Once I sort this out I might remove it - think it contributed to the damage by creating opposing tension, but we'll see.

[Alanko]

Probably lost in translation

Maybe I should make clear that these are stacked humbuckers.
The coils of these humbuckers are on top of each other.
Does it make more sense to you now?

Loud and clear!

[Grog]

Of the seven guitars I have with these pickups, none of them have broken ears. I wonder if the plastic gets brittle with age........ I have seen quite a few of them on eBay with broken ears.

[Granny Gremlin]

Alright, so it took me forever to locate my spares (found them ina box with a whole whack of other things that I can use right now; score).  I did not want to rip the ones out of my Triumph as I didn't know how long I'd be and didn't want it out of commission.

So, the baseplate plan was a goiod idea but not very workable; the core of the pup actually hangs down out of the plastic cover by about 1/8th" so there would be a gap between the baseplate and the mounting ears.  Damn.  making a cutout for the guts wis doable, but I worry about a) my ability to do so as accurately as required, and b) whether that would not help structural integrity much on account of being so thin in places.

Thinking I can just make some sort of corner braces for the top and bottom mounting ears (the middle ones tend not to break on mine; they have more material around them and less stress generally).  Won't be pretty, but if it does the job I'll be happy.

[Granny Gremlin]

Well, this is what I am thinking:





Thoughts?

[Grog]

A friend of mine, (who for the record, has WAAAAAY more patients then I do), reconstructed many broken details like this with epoxy. He once reconstructed a big chunk that was busted out of a Leslie horn. It took weeks, but it is still working to this day. Epoxy seem to stick to a wide variety of plastic types. You could possibly form clay around a good pickup & fill the void on the broken pickup, casting a threaded insert like the original. Fixing broken plastic parts is an art form on to itself. 

[Basvarken]

A friend of mine, (who for the record, has WAAAAAY more patients then I do),

Is he a doctor?