Struggling to raise the pickups on my Jazzmaster

[jason1297]

I've had my Vintera Jazzmaster for about 3 months now, and have decided to have a go at adjusting the pickups. When doing this, I'm assuming that turning the screws clockwise will lower the pickups and counter clockwise will raise them. When I turn the screws counter clockwise, they just start coming out of the pickup rather than raising that side of the pickup.

The image below is of the bridge pickup, as I'm pretty sure this is not at maximum height.



Am I missing something obvious here, or would it be better to take it to a guitar tech if I am not experienced in working with electrics?

[efiug]

Jazzmaster pickups are normally held up with a bit of foam placed underneath so its likely that the foam on yours is compressed and won't expand.

[Larry Mal]

It's weather stripping foam, so you can get it at any hardware store, just pull the played out stuff that you have in there and get some thicker kind. It's a very common thing to have to do.

[jason1297]

It's weather stripping foam, so you can get it at any hardware store, just pull the played out stuff that you have in there and get some thicker kind. It's a very common thing to have to do.

Sounds nice and easy. What thickness would I be looking at? Had a check online and my local store does 10mm or 20mm.

[Larry Mal]

It's weather stripping foam, so you can get it at any hardware store, just pull the played out stuff that you have in there and get some thicker kind. It's a very common thing to have to do.

Sounds nice and easy. What thickness would I be looking at? Had a check online and my local store does 10mm or 20mm.

A little hard for me to say exactly, but I see that 20mm is a little more than three quarters of an inch, and looking at my tape measure I think that would be what I would buy.

[Embenny]

It also shouldn't really matter what thickness it you buy. Whatever thickness I have on hand, I often end up either cutting in half, doubling up, layering a half thickness piece on top of an intact one, etc.

It comes down to trial and error with whatever combination of rout depth, pickup thickness, and neck angle a particular guitar has, plus however squishy that particular piece of foam turns out to be.

You basically want to find the correct amount of foam that compresses enough that you can still lower the pickup, while resisting enough that it pushes the pickup upward as soon as you loosen the screws. There's no specific quantity or density of foam you can say will do that for certain. You just want medium-ish density foam in a reasonable shape and quantity, and the rest is trial and error.

[andy_tchp]

The stock stuff is around 5mm. Just buy a length of the 10mm thick stuff and cut it into pieces to suit.