Humbucker mounts poorly drilled

skinfreak

Dear all,
Fitting an apparently new Dimarzio Tone Zone and then i just noticed the holes had been enlarged and not very well either. The oringal screw pack is sealed but there are two additional screws in the box. However, the supplied screws cannot get through on the one side without stripping - both screw head and my screwdriver are chewing themselves up.
The side that does go through is also far from straight.

Options? 

OilCityPickups

skinfreak said:

Dear all,
Fitting an apparently new Dimarzio Tone Zone and then i just noticed the holes had been enlarged and not very well either. The oringal screw pack is sealed but there are two additional screws in the box. However, the supplied screws cannot get through on the one side without stripping - both screw head and my screwdriver are chewing themselves up.
The side that does go through is also far from straight.

Options? 

Hummm  I could run a tap through them for the cost of postage ... but I only carry Gibson/imperial size taps ... if the TZs have the larger size holes/screws I won't have those (don't use them on my own pickups at all)  and by now the holes may be chewed. 
Can you not send them back? 

Funkfingers

Was the pickup sold as being brand new from an authorised DiMarzio stockist or was it, perhaps, removed from a brand new guitar and, then, advertised as being in *as new* condition? The drilled lugs suggest direct to body mounting à la Musicman Axis.

OilCityPickups

Funkfingers said:

Was the pickup sold as being brand new from an authorised DiMarzio stockist or was it, perhaps, removed from a brand new guitar and, then, advertised as being in *as new* condition? The drilled lugs suggest direct to body mounting à la Musicman Axis.

Ig you are canny with a soldering iron you can solder a metric brass nut over the top of the oversize hole and then use any of the cheap metric height adjuster screws ... you need a big, hot tool mind ...  

Funkfingers

Bold!

OilCityPickups

Funkfingers said:

Bold!

Should write a 'Julian and Sandy open the Bona Guitar shop' ...  


For those too young to remember: Julian and Sandy were characters from the radio comedy show Round the Horne (1965-1968), voiced by Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick   

Funkfingers

For younger readers, think of The Fast Show tailors. 

Surely, a Julian and Sandy guitar emporium would style itself a boutique? This is probably why I am amused at the notion of "boutique" guitars, pickups, amps and effect pedals. I find the label simultaneously pretentious and camp.

skinfreak

Every thread I start goes somewhere odd...

It was supposed to be "as new" if I recall but bought last year because of my lax attitude to finishing the project is been in a box.   Last night I did get the screws in to the point where I can do the pickup comparison. I seem to think it was drilled for direct mounting and now it's in a ring is more than a bit wonky.  

The humbucker does look mint apart from this though. 

OilCityPickups

skinfreak said:

Every thread I start goes somewhere odd...

It was supposed to be "as new" if I recall but bought last year because of my lax attitude to finishing the project is been in a box.   Last night I did get the screws in to the point where I can do the pickup comparison. I seem to think it was drilled for direct mounting and now it's in a ring is more than a bit wonky.  

The humbucker does look mint apart from this though. 

The permanent solution is a baseplate swap ... let me know if you ever decide you need it ... it's not particularly expensive.  

skinfreak

Thanks Ash. If I fall in love with this pickup in my tele I might. I loved it in my old Jackson. Just realised far too late I hated speed necks. That guitar became a reason I stopped playing fir much of my 20s 

OilCityPickups

skinfreak said:

Thanks Ash. If I fall in love with this pickup in my tele I might. I loved it in my old Jackson. Just realised far too late I hated speed necks. That guitar became a reason I stopped playing fir much of my 20s 

Speed necks never worked for me ... I realised I wasn't issued with a speed hand :-) 

victorludorum

Can you run a self tapping screw through it? They hold up usually.

OilCityPickups

victorludorum said:

Can you run a self tapping screw through it? They hold up usually.

I'm guessing it'd have to be a pretty thick one by what the OP has said

skinfreak

The screw is roughly the same size as those used in P90s

OilCityPickups

skinfreak said:

The screw is roughly the same size as those used in P90s

Ah that's a tad large ... 

skinfreak

Update time! I made one screw take one for the team ;-). I found a bag of 3mm humbucker screws and replaced the ones that were in there - really screwed it in and out to work the threads. It appears that the problem hole has sorted itself out and the humbucker is oriented correctly now. Which is good as this is a silly Dimarzio F Spaced bucker and getting a new baseplate might have been hard.

normula1

OilCityPickups said:

Funkfingers said:

Bold!

Should write a 'Julian and Sandy open the Bona Guitar shop' ...  


For those too young to remember: Julian and Sandy were characters from the radio comedy show Round the Horne (1965-1968), voiced by Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick  

I bought the complete Round The Horne from Itunes a few years back