Humbucker Mounting Problem

[micpoc]

I've got an old Bartolini humbucker that I want to mount in a Les Paul-style guitar with the standard humbucker ring mounting method. I now realize, however, that the pup must have previously been mounted directly to a guitar body, because whatever machine threads had once been in the mounting bracket have been reamed out, leaving merely a clean hole that won't take a screw; the standard machine mounting screws slide right through the bracket holes.

I could always just mount the Bartolini to the body, but I'd rather use the mounting ring approach, if possible. I'm just trying to decide how best to rig this up, and any suggestions would be appreciated. My only thought so far would be to attach a nut beneath the bracket to keep the pickup solid, but I'm not sure how well that will work.

Thoughts?

[patrickhowell]

It probably wouldn't be hard to attach a small nut on the the backside of the brackets with glue or something?

[kman900]

Nuts are difficult to fit and they will twist off . . easier take a small strip of sheet metal, as long as the brackets of the humbucker. Place it under the holes, cut two threads into it . . ready.

[Deaf Eddie]

Speed nuts, like they use in automotive speakers. They would just clip over the existing holes.

OR, use a tap and thread the holes.

[Telenator]

Or, just solder a couple nuts to the bracket.

[micpoc]

I need to look into the speed nut idea; sounds easy and cheap (as long as I can find the right size locally). Soldering the nuts sounds like a possibility as well; I'm assuming standard rosin-core solder would be acceptable. I like kman900's idea, but I don't have a tap and die set, nor anything to cut sheet metal with, and I'm not really looking to buy either; plus, that sort of sounds like what the speed nuts do anyway.

[kman900]

I remember doing a very slick tweak . . i took a thin insulated wire and wrapped it twice through and around the pickups thread. I drove the screw through the now narrowed hole, cutting itself a new thread into the plastic insulation . . fixed! :-)

Here's a very avantgardistic pic i created . . ;-)

[micpoc]

Hmm. . . I may have some hookup wire that's thin enough. Were you still able to raise and lower the pickup after doing this, kman900?

[kman900]

Originally Posted by micpoc

Hmm. . . I may have some hookup wire that's thin enough. Were you still able to raise and lower the pickup after doing this, kman900?

Yes, everything worked fine. You have to find the right amont of windings to let the screw still move but cut some threads into the plastic . . and the best is: if you ever decide to do a different "repair" you just take out the wire and you're at the same starting point.