Humbucker pole piece recessed

[ShortScale034]

I'm wondering if others have encountered this issue and have experience in dealing with it. I recently bought a used mid-2000s MIM HSS strat with what appear to be its stock Fender pickups. A few of the adjustable pole pieces on the humbucker were pretty far down into the pickup, or at least not close to flush with the top face. I tried backing them out with a screwdriver like normal but they just spun in place and did not back out. I quasi-disassembled the pickup and was able to apply a bit of pressure to the back of the offending pieces, and they came back up to about where I wanted them when using a screwdriver counter-clockwise on the front. The tone improved to be sure, but now I'm concerned they might "fall" back down into the pickup and I don't want to have to repeatedly have to do this.

My questions are:
1. Why did this happen, i.e. stripped threads, no threads at all and its just wax holding them in place that got "stripped", other?
2. Ignoring the obvious solution of changing the pickup which I actually do like, is there as way to prevent this? Another forum I sought help from had a related thread and superglue was mentioned or else melting some wax in a spoon and applying it to the empty hole. I guess those are viable means but before trying them I'm wondering if there are less messy or lower screw-up potential (no pun intended) things to try first.

Anyone with experience or advice on this, your help is appreciated.

 

[Wallaby]

I'm guessing a power driver accident stripped out the bobbin and the mounting plate threads?

The wax idea might work, at least maybe to get serviceable bobbin threads. I'm actually not sure if the mounting plates holes are threaded on that pickup, so maybe wax would be enough. You might be able to just scrape enough wax on the screw itself to make it work, rather than having to melt wax and pour it and such.

Affixing proper nuts ( poss. 5-40 threads ) to the underneath of the mounting plate could be an option. I'm not certain that having metal nuts in that area of the pickup won't affect the way the pickup works and possibly the way it sounds.

I've fixed bobbin mounting screw holes by coating the brass mounting screws in floor wax and screwing them into the stripped holes after dripping CA into the holes. It's potentially messy, and I'm not certain it's really a permanent solution, but it did work temporarily, and I was later able to unscrew the mounting screws, and then screw them back in. So at least I didn't permanently glue the screws in

If you try the wax, trying a method later that uses glue could fail, if the residual wax prevents the glue from working.

 

[ShortScale034]

Thanks. I'll likely try the wax-coating of the screw threads approach first and see how that goes. Much appreciated.

 

[Solaris moon]

Here's a fix that I did a while ago and it worked. Try removing the screws just a little so that you can get inside the bobbin. Use a little bit of Elmer's brand glue - no mess that can't be cleaned with water. Then push them back into place and clean the glue squeeze out with a damp rag. The glue will dry and provide a spacer in between the poles and the pickup as it dries hard and won't allow the poles to fall inside again.

 

[tomasz]

I would rather believe, those screws/baseplate holes in this particular pickup were not threaded at all and decorational rather, than functional. Usually, I find the screws in humbuckers very useful for adjusting tone and would sometimes lower the EBG screws a bit on the bridge, while raising the pickup body. Once in a while, you come across a pickup with screws that just turn in place with no vertical movement. I think that might be your case.

It might be, they just have been pushed down a bit and pushing them up would be enough. I believe, the friction and existing wax could be enough to keep those screws in place. You could always apply a few drops of new wax on top, or to the bottom. They might be plenty enough. You usually don't throw around, rattle or shake your guitar in a way, that could move those screws around

 

[skunqesh]

Suggestions above are great - a touch of glue in the holes is ez peezy.
or - search around (online, hardware store, etc) for new pole screws or set screws - same length, slightly wider diamter.