Highway One Neck Pup Adjustment Question

[paisleytele68]

Hi everyone,
I just picked up a new Highway 1 Tele and (as you can tell by the title) am having an issue with the neck pickup. I've had about 5 or 6 Tele's over the years, but this is the first one that hasn't had the neck pickup mounted to the pickguard so I have to remove the pickguard off to adjust the pickup height. However it seems that the only way to remove the pickguard on this guitar is to remove the neck (the pickguard is pinned under the last fret, and can't slide out without catching the next pickup) which doesn't really do my any good. Is there some trick that I'm missing here?

[Guitar_Ninja]

I replaced the stock pickguard with an American Series one with the mounting holes. That way I can just stick a screwdriver through the holes to get at the screws.

You can try pushing the neck pickup all the way down with your thumbs and then slide the guard out from under the neck overhang, or else cut out some material on the pickguard where it goes underneath the fretboard. No one will ever see it, but you should then be able to get the guard off.

[boris bubbanov]

Welcome.

Yeah, that is an unusual combination, a body mount pickup and a 22 fret neck.

One thing I've done that helps is substitute a single ply pickguard from a MIM Classic Baja. The second thing it to substitute a set of conversion bushings and a set of Gotoh "kluson" tuners for the stock Pings. This makes getting the strings on and off without ruining them possible, provided the string winding is prepared properly. With the strings off the tuners and the neck pup pressed down into the foam, the unscrewed pickguard will usually come off. In some cases where the neck pickup wants to be set higher, the neck will have to be loosened some.

[Dave]

It is a pain, isn't it? The Lite Ash Tele has a pickguard that is cut thinner near the heel so it doesn't go under the 22nd fret. You could try picking one up or, as has been suggested, enlarge it yourself with a dremel tool or something.

[KokoTele]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this already. It's a one-time pain in the butt fix:

Drill those two little mounting holes in the pickguard, then mount the pickup to the pickguard. You'll have to pick up a pair of the right machine screws to mount your pickup.

If you go slowly it's maybe an hour's worth of work, including cleanup and testing.

[paisleytele68]

Thanks for the help everyone! I can't get the pickup to push down at all, so I think I'm going to have to take it all apart and carefully notch the pickguard at the neck. The store where I purchased it from offered a free setup, so I figured why not? Well now I know: the bridge pickup was so high the low E string would hit it when picked hard, and the neck pickup is either as low as it goes, or the screws are jammed.

I think I learned my lesson.