Clearance issue mounting 705's in my push pull

Jack Stanton · From: Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey

Put 705's in my P/P, but I'm having trouble getting them low enough. This is happing on both necks...I have about a nickel's clearance, and I know they'll sound better if I can get them lower. I'm using 1/8th inch spacers to allow for the wiring to clear. I've backed the screws on the neck out to lower the mounting plate to the point where they're falling out...Maybe the pickup mounting screws are bottoming out on the body?
I'm thinking at this point the only thing to do is drill a hole in the mounting plate for the wire and mount the pickup directly to the plate, doing away with the spacers???
Has anyone experienced this, and what was the solution?
Thanks

Carl Kilmer · From: East Central, Illinois

I had the same problem putting a 705 on my Mullen. I tried everything,
then called Mike at Mullen's and he told me the screws were too long.
I got new screws 3/16" shorter and now get up to 4 quarters in there.
_________________
aka "Lucky Kay"--Custom built Rittenberry SD10 3X5, Walker S/S, NV-112, and Hilton Pedal

Jack Stanton · From: Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey

Thanks, Carl. Are you talking about the screws that hold the pickup to the mounting plate ( forgive me, I'm really not familiar with Mullins and how the pickups mount)or the screws that raise and lower the mounting plate? I did put shorter screws in the pick up/plate.

Carl Kilmer · From: East Central, Illinois

Yes Jack, the 4 screws that hold the pickup to the plate.
I have the 1/8" spacers under the pickup for wire space.
_________________
aka "Lucky Kay"--Custom built Rittenberry SD10 3X5, Walker S/S, NV-112, and Hilton Pedal

Bob Hamilton · From: California Central Coast

Jack I tried drilling the hole in the plate on my PP and mounting it directly to the plate. Still wasn't enough clearance.

John Macy · From: Rockport TX/Denver CO

Jim Palenscar at Steel Guitars of North County just had that same problem with the Emmons PP he is restoring for me. He ended up milling some of the bottom plate of the 705 pickup off so it wouldn't hit the pillow blocks...gave him just enough clearance.
_________________
John Macy
Rockport, TX
Engineer/Producer/Steel Guitar

Jack Stanton · From: Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey

Thanks for the responses guys! Not, sounding good....maybe I'll give Jim a call and pitch his brain.

Jim Palenscar · From: Oceanside, Calif, USA

It was a bit of a conundrum as we were trying to install a late model 705 into John's pushpull and I had only about .100" (a small 1/8") clearance between the pickup and the strings- too little clearance. The 705's were about .200" taller than the original single coil Emmons pickups. After unsuccessfully trying to remove the bottom plate of the pickup(removing the 2 screws did not free it from the bobbins) and slotting the Emmons pickup mounting plate to allow for the pickup cable I realized that the legs of the pillow blocks were the problem and that the bobbins were wider than the distance between the pillow blocks. I thought that if I were able to remove the portion of the base plates that extended over the pillow blocks it would allow for enough clearance so I put the pickups in the milling machine and took about 90% of the plastic material off of the ends of the base plates. I also swapped the aluminum spacers out under the pickup with rubber O rings as well as replaced the pickup mounting screws with shorter ones and that gave me enough clearance to be confident that it would be enough.

Jack Stanton · From: Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey

Thanks, Jim! Now where the hell can I find a milling machine?

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

Harbor Freight?

Jim Palenscar · From: Oceanside, Calif, USA

I have an Enco table mill but Harbor freight has a number of options. Not sure I'd buy one for this application alone Smile

.

Jack Stanton · From: Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey

Jim,
Looking at the pickup in the guitar, it looks to me that the width of the actual pickup part extends over the pillow blocks, so not sure how removing some of the mounting plate material would make a difference?? Did you happen to take any pictures when yo did it?

Jim Palenscar · From: Oceanside, Calif, USA

If you "simply" remove that part of the base that extends over the pillow blocks- being careful to not touch the bobbins (I left a smidge just to be sure) that should give you the clearance you need.

Jack Stanton · From: Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey

Jim,
Looks to me like the bobbin extends over the pillow blocks? Yours fit between them?
I'm thinking I could get it done with a dremel...

Benjamin Franz · From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

I encountered this same problem a month ago putting a 705 into my '71 push pull. I realised that the expansion springs that sit around the mounting screws that push the base plate down, and thus lower the pickup were too short. A replacement set of off the shelf expansion springs for $2 from the local hardware sorted the problem out.

Jim Palenscar · From: Oceanside, Calif, USA

I also put longer expansion springs in to keep the pickup tight however w/o partially removing the base plate of the 705 the clearance was less than .125" and I wasn't comfortable w that. I wonder if the dimensions of the new vs the old 705's are the same?

Jack Stanton · From: Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey

Benjamin, I did change the springs, didn't make a difference. How did you get the pickup below the pillow blocks? The problem I'm having isn't the plate going low enough, it's that the pickup is wider than the plate and rests on the pillow blocks which prevent it from lowering enough.

Jim, I was wondering the same thing about new vs. old. I had a set of the original Lawrence's I bought back in '82 and they dropped right into an old PP I had.

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