P-90 Pickup Adjustment

[herb]

Got my Gibson R4 Les Paul (2010) and my SG Special (2000) out to do a little maintenance (oil fretboard, change strings, etc.) and noticed neither of them have capability for pickup height adjustment with the two set screws. Basically they just hold the covers on. Is that right? I always thought at least the SG adjusted but apparently my memory is not as good as I thought. Am I missing something here?

 

[poor man's burst]

You are not missing anything. P-90s are usually screwed down on the wood.
If you need to adjust the heigth, put shims under the pickups. personnaly, I would use mahogany or maple. Or you can simply adjust the pole-pieces screws.

 

[herb]

So there were no springs on the set screws to put tension there for adjustment? For some reason I'm thinking there might have been some but now I don't know.

Shims sound right. That's what I'm reading in books and seeing on the internets. For some reason, though, my brain remembers springs. Guess everything is starting to clog up upstairs.

 

[herb]

Just saw a Jason Lollar vid where he's installing springs with the set screws for height adjustment!
Maybe I do remember seeing springs in there? What happened to them? Thoughts?

 

[herb]

Update: Just want to document this in case someone else comes across this issue. I found some old adjustment springs for humbucker pickups and cut them down to fit over the screw ends that attach the pickups to the guitar. It works! I now have screw adjustable P-90 pickups. It worked on both my LP and my SG.

Took a look at the "dog-ears" on my ES-330 and those pickups would definitely need shims for adjustments as they are attached differently.

Thanks for your input!

 

[herb]