Attaching P-rail Problems

[leejord]

You guys must be shaking your head at how every step is so difficult for me.Parts finally arrived so started putting things together. (Chambered mahogany tele). I attached the neck P-rails to pickguard and then realised screws (attaching P-rails to pickguard) are too long. actually depth of rout is only a fraction deeper than right-angled P-rails legs.
I could 1- cut screws basically flush with legs
          2- drill hole into pick-up route allowing screw to drop in freely(concerned that legs will be sitting on bottom of rout without being attached)
          3- try to line up exactly where pickguard (and therfore where P-rail will sit and then screw P-rail through pick-guard and into base of route). Head hurts thinking about this one. Any of these appropriate or am I missing something obvious. thanks 

 

[Dan025]

file down the screws is my vote. it is easy to drill through the back of the guitar. but yse if you are careful you can drill a larger hole to clear the screw. just make surethe route is deep enough so the pickups have enough string clearance. if they dont id send it back to warmoth.

with the third one if you are thinking what i think you are then adjusting the pickup up will draw the pickguard down, and adjusting the pickup down would unscrew the screw from the wood and the screw head will lift from the pick guard.

 

[leejord]

Thanks.I'll cross off option 3.I think I will shorten screws a bit and drill shallow hole at bottom of route.thanks again.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

A lot of wire strippers have small, threaded bolt cutters on them.  IIRC, the pickup screws are 6/32s, which is the smaller of the 2 sizes if you have a pair of said strippers.

 

[leejord]

Used small hack-saw to shorten screws.will still have to drill base of route,otherwise no room if need to raise pickup

 

[Cagey]

Used small hack-saw to shorten screws.will still have to drill base of route,otherwise no room if need to raise pickup

The screw never changes depth when raising or lowering the pickup. The pickup just rides up or down the threads. So, if you've got clearance now for the screws, you're good to go.

 

[leejord]

In the end I had to chisel out the bottom of the rout as feet(legs) of p-rails were too long. Took out about 3mm off each end.not the cleanest of jobs but pickguard now sits freely on top.lesson learnt if attaching p-rails to pickguard and not mounting ring-get rout deeper

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but the distance from the strings determines the preference for pickup height.  That doesn't change if using a pickguard or mounting ring.  The screw depth maybe, but once it is shortened to keep from bottoming out, raising or lowering the pickups doesn't change the screw depth.  The legs of the P-Rails maybe longer than normal, but again, what you're mounting it too won't change that.  It's depth into the pickup cavity remains the same, regardless of what it's mounted to.

 

[leejord]

The depth of pick-up rout was 19mm.i screw pickup to pick-guard and approximated pick-up height i'd need. Drilled 7.5mm holes(5mm deep) but pickguard still sat 3mm proud.raised pickup again still proud.so I chiseled 3mm out slighted larger than feet o pick-up.when I did final set-up, I didn't need to raise pick-up any further.I think thi s was my only option but this was my first