New guitar arrived, weird issue with pickup, need advice

[Roxy13]

Yesterday I received a guitar from Japan. It's possibly more than 35 years old so there is a lot of rust and corrosion to screws and metal parts. Anyway, I unpacked it late last night and the bridge pickup and height adjustment screws are sticking up really high. The pickup is actually slanted as well, back towards the bridge. It is up so high that it's higher than the strings should be. I believe this happened in shipping as both the seller's photos and proxy service photos did not show this issue at all.

I'm not sure if I should just try screwing it back down? Or if I should remove the pickup and visually try to see what is going on? Might both screws have snapped? I'll be super upset if both baseplates on the pickup snapped off.

At the very least I wouldn't mind replacing all the screws in the pickup rings that hold the pickup to the guitar as some are so corroded now they look like they might try to strip out. Would anyone know what size these would be? This is a MIJ guitar so most likely they are metric.

And if those pickup height screws are snapped, does anyone know for certain what size they are likely to be? The guitar does appear to be all stock, but I will look at the harness this afternoon to be certain.

 

[BadPenguin]

To me it's a case of missing springs. Take the pickup out, and see if that's the case. A little shot of WD40 will help with the corrosion. Good luck

 

[Roxy13]

That could be as well, thank you! I'm hoping it's something simple. Or that the springs got out of alignment somehow.

 

[ARandall]

It might just be fouling on the rout (wood) somewhere - the tilted angle of the pickup might have been a contributor. The fact that the screws are also sitting the same amount proud would seem to indicate this.

 

[mdubya]

Can you just push on the screws and see if it will pop back into place?

Every guitar related item I receive looks like the carrier has tried everything possible to destroy the packaging. Fortunately, the contents is always OK, but the shipping companies push it to the limit.

Marshall Lead 12 box from Music Go Round

Box with all sorts of warning labels from CME - was supposed to be a '59 ES 335 RI, they sent an SG Custom by mistake.

 

[Roxy13]

No, I tried pushing on the screws just out of curiosity and they didn't budge.

The box did have 2 small areas of damage, but this was super well packed so I don't know other than they may have dropped it or set it down really hard.

@ARandall I'm not sure what you mean by fouling of the wood?

 

[ARandall]

Fouling on the wood.

Its an expression

 

[Mick Weiss]

If you can't get the pickup to settle down just remove the four screws that hold the ring to the body and lift the whole assembly out. maybe the springs got all tangled up or something...

 

[Roxy13]

I think the guitar got some rough treatment in shipping. As soon as I pulled the fourth ring mounting screw it fell into place. I pulled it out anyway to inspect everything. Adjustment screws are fine, springs are in perfectly. It went back together just right.

Thanks, everyone! I just never saw anything like this before.

Now to find out what's going on with the bridge. All the saddles are in a straight line. I'm not sure if the previous owner was clueless and thought they looked better that way or if I have an old bridge that's collapsing. I gave it some preliminary playing without plugging in though and don't see any other problems other than the frets wanting some polishing.

 

[Roxy13]

My other Burny SG copy from this same era had it's old bridge collapse a little over a year ago so I won't be that surprised if this one is on it's way too. Hey, at least these old Gotoh bridges get close to 40 years old before they do

I am thinking of adding a vibrola to this guitar, and if I do I was going to maybe add a new Gotoh bridge with nylon saddles.

I've been trying to find a roller bridge, but not sure such a thing exists that fits just right on a MIJ guitar with 4mm ABR posts.

 

[mdubya]

My 2014 ES 335 already had the bridge collapsing. New bridge made it all bettah.

 

[ARandall]

- StewMac

www.stewmac.com

 

[Roxy13]

This is the guitar. It's a replica of the 1961 LP/SG. Although I've only seen 2 black Gibsons in my whole life. Both were '61s. I saw one on this forum from a few years ago. That one had a Bigsby on it, but it looked like it once had the vibrola. The other was at CME a few years ago.

I would have to figure out how to age the vibrola though to try to match all the old hardware.

 

[Roxy13]

- StewMac

www.stewmac.com

I looked at that one but it has a 14" radius and my neck is 12". I also wasn't sure it would lock onto the ABR posts? I didn't want to drill this guitar to add bushings.

 

[ARandall]

I have that very bridge on a 12" radius guitar......and until you mentioned it now, I hadn't even realised the radius was different to the neck one.
Actually, if you have the nut set up right, the slots too are on about a 14deg radius.

It operates on 2 grubscrews. So it will lock to any post that the slot will fit over. Plus as the grubscrews are independent you can use them to adjust the angle of the bridge.

Highly recommended from me anyhow, whatever you decide to do.

 

[Roxy13]

For some reason several I looked at had the 14 degree radius.

The best one I've found is the ABM one. It can adjust back and forth to fit multiple post to post spacing and is a 12" radius. It also is undoubtedly high quality but it's also expensive. I still might splurge for it, but the Gotoh with nylon saddles is much more affordable.

Yes, I rejected any that required bushings and posts that were proprietary. Some might laugh since this is a MIJ guitar, but it's actually a very uncommon one. And other than the very tarnished hardware, it's close to mint condition. The hardware gives it a lot of mojo

 

[ARandall]

Yes, I rejected any that required bushings and posts that were proprietary.

Well, if you'd looked at the spec for the Stewmac one you'd see the bushings have posts of 4mm.

 

[Roxy13]

Well, if you'd looked at the spec for the Stewmac one you'd see the bushings have posts of 4mm.

I did see that. It was the radius on that one that kept me searching.

I meant some of the others I saw, like Schaller I think it was. I checked every well known manufacturer, StewMac, Philidelphia Luthier, and every single gold one on Reverb and ebay. I even checked Faber, Callaham and some other manufacturers, which was how I found the ABM one.

 

[Roxy13]

Oh, I also want to take an exact measurement. Faber says these bridges need a 73.6mm post to post spacing and some bridges were quite a bit longer than that.

 

[ARandall]

Ah yes, post spacing is one of those things that you indeed cannot substitute......

well, hopefully you find something.

edit - and aging parts can be done with Hydrochloric acid fumes. You simply place the parts in a plastic container, which sits inside a larger (enclosed) container of the neat acid. Check every 5-10 mins.
But if its gold.....well less is more as it gets aged very quickly on its own.