RANT: Why does anyone make a pickup with ONE hole per side????

[Rocktane]

Have you seen the fu-tone pickup mounting system? Not used it myself, just a thought.

https://www.fu-tone.com/product/pms-pickup-mounting-system/

 

[PowerTube44]

Have you seen the fu-tone pickup mounting system? Not used it myself, just a thought.

https://www.fu-tone.com/product/pms-pickup-mounting-system/

I looked at that a while back. Honestly, it wouldn't be worth it to me because I very rarely change pickups.

 

[RobS]

Ibanez Super 70's pickups had two screws on one side to allow for adjustment

Ibanez Super 70 neck pickup | Ibanez, Vintage fashion, 70th

Jun 2, 2020 - Original Ibanez V-2 pickups (stamped in the metal bottom: V-2) were designed to be like Dimarzio Super Distortion pickups. They were used on Ibanez models from about 1981 through 1983 (or so). Brand: Ibanez Model no.: YE100[5] Construction: Humbucker Position: Bridge/ neck Magnet...

www.pinterest.com.au

 

[Lefty68]

I always thought one hole per tab was standard.
I've had good results utilizing cheap flip flops as foam material for the underside of the mounting plate. Easy to cut, dense enough to provide rigidity, but still has some "give".

 

[nickfox]

I have a late 70s 335 copy made in Italy by Eko. Model number C-29S. It comes with the pickups that have two holes on one side and one on the other. You can see see it in the picture. The bridge pickup is an original super distortion that came with the guitar and a matching dimarzio PAF in the neck. I contacted Dimarzio about it and they told me that they did not make these pickups with 3 screws and that it was most likely done by Eko or a third party.

On a side note, this is my best sounding and most important guitar. I bought it a year ago for 350 dollars. Absolute game changer for me.

 

[paul-e-mann]

As the title says... I have three Carvin guitars. One has the stock humbucker, one has an M22SD, and one has a Duncan TB-4, all direct-mounted.

I decided I wanted to try a DiMarzio in the one that currently has the Duncan, maybe a Tone Zone or Super Distortion. But guess what? Every pickup I see on the DiMarzio website has ONE hole on each side. Just one. Even if I wasn't direct mounting, how the hell does anyone set the LEVEL of a pickup with only ONE hole per side?

These pickups are built by machines. I can't believe it's an issue to have the machine drill three holes per side instead of just one.

Duncan is also guilty. The SH-4 has one hole per side, while the TB-4 has three on each side. They're the same pickup otherwise. WHY?????

Youre guitar does not have pickup rings I suppose if you screw them to the wood beneath? I'm not gonna tell you to add rings but thats one option, or put foam under the pickup to get the angle you want. Fender is the only pickups I've ever seen with 3 screws so I've always thought of it as an uncommon design since I've never seen any other company do it, now I see Carvin does it to.

 

[Edgar Frog]

It sounds like Carvin are the oddballs in this situation. I hate when companies do weird crap like this with their in house hardware that leaves people very limited in choices or having to modify their guitars. IIRC though SD has 3 holes on each side of some or all of their Trembuckers. I've had a few over the years with 3 holes per side.

 

[jeffb]

It sounds like Carvin are the oddballs in this situation. I hate when companies do weird crap like this with their in house hardware that leaves people very limited in choices or having to modify their guitars. IIRC though SD has 3 holes on each side of some or all of their Trembuckers. I've had a few over the years with 3 holes per side.

+1


For general consumption:

Carvin were the oddballs in nearly every situation- especially when it came to guitars. Nice instruments, but they tried way too hard to be different and their pickups and the mounting system are a prime example of that.

In your typical humbucker rout- and consider that the humbucker design was Gibson's invention via Seth Lover and became the industry standard and still is- the routs do not allow for the 2x1 pickup mounting rings you saw on many japanese and other guitars because of the minimal routing in the top for where the leg tabs/adjustment screws go. The screws would be running alongside the wood/digging into the cap f it would fit at all. Those guitars that use a 2x1 ring, also use a different top route and a very wide leg which requires a completely different baseplate. Not industry standards.

IOW- its a big hassle changing from an industry standard for a "problem" (and I use that term very loosely) that effects maybe 1/10th of 1 percent of guitars. So the 2x1 design died a quick death (I realize that Fender and maybe some other still use them on some humbucker guitars, I mean in the overall market, they pretty much died)

As for the 3 hole tabs - they are structurally less sound (Duncan Trembucker tabs often crack/strip threads if you are putting them in various guitars over the years and pulling them out) and again require a manufacturer to come up with a new baseplate, and all the hassle that involves- it is entirely ineffective cost wise for a pickup manufacturer nd they will never sell enough compared to their normal baseplates to make it viable financially.

As for direct mount designs, Fender/EVH is doing the Frankenstein and Wolfgang pickups with 3 holes per side. A big company and subsidiary like EVH can do something like that because the whole EVH brand/design works around that direct mount pickup. They (Fender) make far more pickups than the aftermarket companies do, and are already geared up for mass production.

 

[PowerTube44]

Youre guitar does not have pickup rings I suppose if you screw them to the wood beneath? I'm not gonna tell you to add rings but thats one option, or put foam under the pickup to get the angle you want. Fender is the only pickups I've ever seen with 3 screws so I've always thought of it as an uncommon design since I've never seen any other company do it, now I see Carvin does it to.

Correct. These have no pickup rings. Here's one of them:

 

[PowerTube44]

It sounds like Carvin are the oddballs in this situation. I hate when companies do weird crap like this with their in house hardware that leaves people very limited in choices or having to modify their guitars. IIRC though SD has 3 holes on each side of some or all of their Trembuckers. I've had a few over the years with 3 holes per side.

It doesn't limit their choices in the least. The pickup has THREE holes on each side. My Duncan TB-4 is the same. That way, you can mount 1+1 or 2+1.

It's actually far more flexible than the one-hole-on-each-side idea.

 

[PowerTube44]

+1


For general consumption:

Carvin were the oddballs in nearly every situation- especially when it came to guitars. Nice instruments, but they tried way too hard to be different and their pickups and the mounting system are a prime example of that.

In your typical humbucker rout- and consider that the humbucker design was Gibson's invention via Seth Lover and became the industry standard and still is- the routs do not allow for the 2x1 pickup mounting rings you saw on many japanese and other guitars because of the minimal routing in the top for where the leg tabs/adjustment screws go. The screws would be running alongside the wood/digging into the cap f it would fit at all. Those guitars that use a 2x1 ring, also use a different top route and a very wide leg which requires a completely different baseplate. Not industry standards.

IOW- its a big hassle changing from an industry standard for a "problem" (and I use that term very loosely) that effects maybe 1/10th of 1 percent of guitars. So the 2x1 design died a quick death (I realize that Fender and maybe some other still use them on some humbucker guitars, I mean in the overall market, they pretty much died)

As for the 3 hole tabs - they are structurally less sound (Duncan Trembucker tabs often crack/strip threads if you are putting them in various guitars over the years and pulling them out) and again require a manufacturer to come up with a new baseplate, and all the hassle that involves- it is entirely ineffective cost wise for a pickup manufacturer nd they will never sell enough compared to their normal baseplates to make it viable financially.

As for direct mount designs, Fender/EVH is doing the Frankenstein and Wolfgang pickups with 3 holes per side. A big company and subsidiary like EVH can do something like that because the whole EVH brand/design works around that direct mount pickup. They (Fender) make far more pickups than the aftermarket companies do, and are already geared up for mass production.

Carvin has indeed been unique at times, with varying results. Their 22-pole pickups come to mind. Their dual truss rod system is hard to beat, though, and so are the options they offer.

 

[donwagar]

I don't know anything about Carvin mounting, but on my P-90 Les Pauls I use wood shims (eg popsicle stick) to get the correct height. A P-90 only has 2 screws.

Would that help stabilize the pickups?

 

[jeffb]

Carvin has indeed been unique at times, with varying results. Their 22-pole pickups come to mind. Their dual truss rod system is hard to beat, though, and so are the options they offer.

Absolutely, they made a great guitar at it's core- and while I was never able to gel with the necks (at least BITD), they were always built tight with great setups/playability, etc.

 

[Edgar Frog]

It doesn't limit their choices in the least. The pickup has THREE holes on each side. My Duncan TB-4 is the same. That way, you can mount 1+1 or 2+1.

It's actually far more flexible than the one-hole-on-each-side idea.

But it sounds like the guitar itself has only one on one side and 2 on the other. Otherwise you wouldn't be having trouble finding a pup to fit in the guitar. Not so versatile in your situation. I would imagine the rout could accommodate just about anything with the large rectangular foot that's carved in it now. . I had a guitar that came with 2 adjusting screws on both sides but it had rings. When it came to getting a different set of pups I liked I had to drill a center hole in the middle of the 2 holes on each side of the rings. Then I had 4 empty holes on each ring. lol

 

[Moony]

In other words, I want the two coils of the pickup to be the same height, not tilted with one higher and one lower. That's easy to set when one side has two screws, but I've had issues with them wanting to tilt when there's only one screw per side.

I never have problems with tilted humbuckers which are mounted only with 2 screws.
But I've seen that before with other guitars.
Problem oftentimes is that people pull the pickup cables towards the electronic cavity and don't leave a bit of the cable left in the pu cavity.
So when they install the pickups, in most cases flush to the pu rings or without rings and pulled cable, then adjusting the height (which means they make the pu higher), the cable pulls at one end of the pickup and then it becomes tilted.
For me there's absolutely no need for those 3 screws systems and honestly I wouldn't want my pickups to have this.

Also please note: You can easily adjust the height of non-pu-ring mounted pickups with two screws. Those screws don't heave a thread right under their head, that's where the pu baseplate holes are. The lower side of the screws has a thread. Some of them are screwed direct to wood (like Charvel Pro Mods), some others to inserts with threads (like the better WMI Korea made Schecter or LTD guitars). And there's foam and/or springs under the pickups which push them up.

The only gripe I have with DiMarzio equipped guitars with direct mounted pus is, that they have those triangle form and classic Duncans won't fit with their rectangluar form if the cavity is routed in the triangle DiMarzio style (you sometimes get that with Ibanez guitars).

In fact those 3 screws are not provided to archive that the pu lies parallel to the pu ring - that's what you get with 2 screws anyways.
It's designed for archieving different angles. So if you want to tilt them, THEN you need 3 screws.

 

[junk notes]

As the title says...

I think @pedecamp is on to something in a reverse thinking application. Two screws under - one on each side towards the bridge side of the cavity. Screwed down, patiently going through the process, adjusting the screws height to your preferred angle. The pickup will have a final resting place based on your adjustments.

 

[Im247frogs]

I quote unquote direct mounted a Bareknuckle HB in one of my Tele's after i sized about a 7/16ths wide and 3/8ths thick piece of scrap wood which I then screwed directly to the bottom of the pickup rout. The pickup is never going any lower (obviously), it doesn't rock forward and back anymore, and I still have some height adjustment. Just didn't want to deal w some skanky rotten piece of weatherstripping 10 years from now.

 

[paul-e-mann]

What I'm talking about has nothing whatsoever to do with string height or intonation. I'm talking about not having the pickup tilted too high or low on either the bridge side or the neck side.

In other words, I want the two coils of the pickup to be the same height, not tilted with one higher and one lower. That's easy to set when one side has two screws, but I've had issues with them wanting to tilt when there's only one screw per side.

The springs that come with the pickups are kind of trapezoid shaped, put the big end against the bottom of the pickguard will stabilize the pickup from tilting one way or the other, problem solved.

 

[PowerTube44]

The springs that come with the pickups are kind of trapezoid shaped, put the big end against the bottom of the pickguard will stabilize the pickup from tilting one way or the other, problem solved.

Not these. The springs for direct-mount pickups are typically straight.

But I solved the problem and got it mounted.

 

[Redguitar]

I have a dimarzio HB that would tilt. I stuffed a few picks under the mounting ring, in between the pup and wall of the cavity. No more tilt, and still height adjustable. I went the "function before form" factor that day.