Pickup Height Screws for64 Polara s-100 and other things

Dr. Hook

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Good afternoon everyone- glad I found this community! I am in the process of restoring my old 64 Polara s-100. While disassembling and cleaning, I noticed one of the pickup height screws was bent. I don't even know how that happens but I need to replace it. They are the old single coil humbuckers. I am not sure what to get in terms of replacements regarding size, thread etc. I know they are 1 in. long. So any ideas from anyone would be helpful.

On a second note, I have toyed with rebuilding the tremolo system and I can get the parts I need from Hagstrom, but one thing I can't find are the bridge saddles. Are these things pretty much like a needle in the haystack sort of thing? Curious if anyone has ever located those.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

Jeff
 

adorshki

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Hi "Doc", welcome aboard!
I don't know much about the vintage electrics but the first place I'd start is our member Hans Moust who literally wrote the book on vintage Guilds, "the Guild Guitar Book", and has his onw repair shop in the Netherlands, and a variety of original and replacement vintage parts as well.
Even if he doesn't have the parts he's happy to offer suggestions for "workarounds".
He can be reached through his website
http://www.guitarchives.nl/guitarsgalore/

Recently he did mention there were some access problems, if that happens, look him up here in the search window as one word: hansmoust.
You'll see a bunch of threads pop up like this one:
http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/sh...Bridge-Placement-Question&highlight=hansmoust
Open it and click on his name by his avatar in the last post there, you'll see an option to send him an email, which he suggested to another member in the last month or so, when they had a problem getting through.
Good luck!
 

kakerlak

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A little wobble in a height-adjust screw is no biggie. I'd probably ignore it or, if it's significant enough, try to bend it a little straighter. It'll be easy to find an identical thread and length screw from the hardware store, but could be tricky to find a match for the screw head if it's anything but round/oval-head.
 

Dr. Hook

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A little wobble in a height-adjust screw is no biggie. I'd probably ignore it or, if it's significant enough, try to bend it a little straighter. It'll be easy to find an identical thread and length screw from the hardware store, but could be tricky to find a match for the screw head if it's anything but round/oval-head.

Yeah its a pan head with a flat slot, the replacements that I can find easily like from Warmoth, Reverb, StewMac are all different. It is really bent, though, as in almost an S shape with curls at the ends. How someone did that is beyond me, but I couldn't really straighten it enough to make it work okay. I will try a hardware store if all else fails, as I don't care *that* much about keeping those parts original. I am going to use the guitar as a gigging instrument (I did use it that way for about a decade in the past), so not necessarily looking to create a vintage showpiece.
 

DThomasC

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I don't know why, but vintage pickup pole screws are often 5-40 thread with a fillister head. You will not find these at Home Depot or Lowes, not even better old fashioned hardware stores with an isle full of those little drawers with all different fasteners. You can probably find something with the right thread at McMaster Carr or Fastenal, but they won't look right and might not even be made of plain old steel which is what you want. Fortunately, (if you're still reading this) you can get pole screws at Mojotone.com.
 

Dr. Hook

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I don't know why, but vintage pickup pole screws are often 5-40 thread with a fillister head. You will not find these at Home Depot or Lowes, not even better old fashioned hardware stores with an isle full of those little drawers with all different fasteners. You can probably find something with the right thread at McMaster Carr or Fastenal, but they won't look right and might not even be made of plain old steel which is what you want. Fortunately, (if you're still reading this) you can get pole screws at Mojotone.com.

Actually I was looking for the height adjustment screws that go on the sides, not pole screws, but thanks for the link to mojotone, as it looks like they have some good stuff there. Yes I am reading and have responded, but it might be a bit before you see this as I am still on post moderation as a new guy,
 

Dr. Hook

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:joyous: Exactly the same rant for hieight adjust screws except that the thread is 3-48 which is even more obscure and difficult to find than 5-40. So, yeah, mojotone.com. stewmac.com is handy too, as is allparts.com.

Thanks DTC- If nothing else, I'll replace them all with new ones so they match. Having one odd looking one might bug me to no end :chuncky:
 

Dr. Hook

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Just an update, found bridge saddles through Hagstrom- the parts guy there had a lot of ten in a box that he is sending me for $64 US which I felt was fair given how hard they are to find. My next small acquisition would be an original toggle switch cover. I've seen pictures of Polara's, Thunderbirds of this vintage having chrome covers. mine is black so I am guessing it was a later add-on, but I don't really know. Anyone have an idea about this? And of course, tracking one down might be silly hard.
 
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