A few notes based on my experiences trying to achieve this:
Cagey said:
You could use threaded inserts to mount the pickups, which would allow you to use machine screws
This is of course true, but I could not find the correct threaded inserts for standard humbucker mounting machine screws ANYWHERE. I think in fact that they may not exist. So even if you do go this route, you need to drill out your humbucker base plate to take the new screws.
But, you'd still have to remove the threads from the pickup mounting plate to allow the screw to turn freely.
I actually ground the thread out of the mounting screws for about 5mm closest to the head of the screw. This means you can screw the screw into the pickup, and then when you get all the way in it will start turning freely.
You'd also need to modify the springs if you want to leave adjustability in the picture.
Yep, or use surgical tubing of course.
Unless you don't have any choice, there's really no good reason to mount the pickups that way. Magnetic pickups aren't sensitive to to vibration, so contrary to teenybopper opinion, you're not going to get anything out of the deal tone-wise.
Well, there's aesthetics, which is why I did it. But I absolutely don't believe the tone things. People genuinely do think pickups are microphones sometimes. But there you go.
So how did I actually do it in the end?
Well, this shouldn't work and one day it will, at least in theory, stop working. But I started to get sick of looking for ways to do this without permanently screwing up the pickup.
What I did was I got some scrap wood, and drilled a few test holes of varying sizes, each one very slightly bevelled at the top with a countersink. One of them, I forget the diameter, turned out to be fine: I could screw a standard humbucker mounting machine screw into the hole, and then dangle a large weight from it without it pulling out of the wood. Of course the problem here is that the threads on machine screws are
tiny and so, if I continue to screw the screws in and out of the hole, in theory the hole will eventually strip.
Next I had to slightly shorten the mounting screws, as if you're going from the baseplate into the wood there is way too much length in the screw - you'd be drilling nearly all the way through the body. I also had to do the modification I mentioned above - remove a bit of the thread on the screw near the head so that once it's through the baseplate it can turn freely. This means that the baseplate's threaded hole remains intact.
So to mount the pickups, I drilled the two holes in the guitar, and then screwed the pickup in. I put some foam under the pickup and surgical tubing over the screws to provide adjustability (I wasn't after a hard mount, just the looks). This works fine although I didn't put enough foam in so the pickup is still a little bit wobbly.
I ended up using the exact same method for the single coils on the guitar too - using single coil screws. They're modern pickups so they actually have metal threaded inserts in the casing for the screw. So I couldn't actually fit a wood screw through them if I wanted to.
I have had pickups in and out of the guitar about 5 or 6 times, and adjusted their heights quite a lot, and there's no sign of the holes getting stripped at all yet. If they do get stripped, I'll probably just fill them up with toothpicks and start again, as it works nicely and doesn't affect the pickups. I did paint the mounting legs on the humbucker black to match the rest of the guitar, but obviously that would just rub off.
It looks OK:
the pickups just because I want to use wood screws...
... with the same diameter as a standard humbucker mounting screw as this one...
... could it be that simple...?
