So now that the brackets are done I gotta install them - jam was to be last night, but got moved to Thursday so under the gun a bit (though I guess I could use another bass [twitch] NO EXCUSES!). Anywho, the current state of affairs (notice the tape - I have to smooth down the tape on the neck pup a couple times per jam to keep it from muting the G string; a pathetic way to live)
Also under the shop lights I realised how much I had let Paula go; just filthy. Anyway, moving on to show the root problem (I tossed the foam that was under the pups - yeah that was me who did that):
Close up of Neck (bottom tab cracked off):
... and Bridge (both top and bottom tabs cracked off):
So it looks like I inheritted it (partially) this way - looks like there`s a lot of material missing from the top tab area of the bridge pup and the bottom tab on the neck pup has a previous fix along the edge of the bushing). I dunno what glue the former owner used but it was stronger than my shitty gorilla glue attempts (scraping that shit off with a razor blade was a pain, but necessary).
I grabbed some JD Weld (Quickweld, because a. dries clear, b. claimed it sets in 5 minutes, though more like 10 and c. only one that explicitly said it was good with plastics and metal on the package). The stuff smells like ass. Never used it before so figured I'd try fixing the neck pup first, but mixed too much so did the one side of the bridge pup as well (what a pain - due to the missing material I kept having to adjust and was worried it'd set up when not in position - eventually I taped it in place and hoped the tape wouldn`t stick - it didn`t).
You may have also noticed that I cleaned her up a bit while I was at it (had to clean the pups to prep for glue anyway) ... cleaned and conditioned the board too - been a while and the studio is a bit dry (except when we had that flood last Jan); Paula deserves better, I've been neglectful (I just realised the other week that since my beer gut has grown, my belt buckle has really done a number of her back side; shame on me).
Next comes test fitting the brackets (I may have to shave a bit more off the curved edge as each pup is a bit different), then glue on the 3rd cracked tab and I think I will fill that gap between cover's inside edge and coil with epoxy so as to increase the surface area of the broken tabs that is contacting the main unit. I tried to do that a bit on the neck pup there, but I didn't mix up enough and it kept flowing away down the pup, so figured I could do that in a second layer - any opinions if that's a good/bad idea? I just never wanna have to worry about this again.
Anyway, after setting up it already feels damn strong.
