Broken Back Plate Screw

[rv_bass]

I have an older Alembic with brass wood screws holding down the back plate.  The head of one of the screws broke off at some point, but the screw threads are still holding the plate in place.  Anyone have any ideas as to how to remove the broken screw?  Thanks!

[edwardofhuncote]

If a screw extractor wouldn't work, I'd just drill it out, plug the hole, and re-drill.

Is it one of the screws to the battery box, or the control cavity, Rob? Should be hollow under the control cavity screw, but I'd guess solid behind the battery plate.

[lbpesq]

Stewmac sells a guitar screw rescue kit just for this issue. 

Bill, tgo

[StephenR]

Battery plate on my 78 Series is held on with threaded inserts. The control cavity back plate did not come with threaded inserts but I had them added when I had a master volume put in up in Santa Rosa. When I removed my tailpiece to clean it I discovered that one of the brass screws for the tailpiece had snapped at some point. Luckily I was able to remove it pretty easily since it protruded slightly into the battery box and I twisted it out with a pair of needle-nose pliers then plugged the hole and re-drilled it. There is a reason Alembic no longer uses brass screws.

Sounds like it may be tricky to remove Rob's broken screw since the threads are still holding the plate on. If the plate could be removed it would be easier to extract the screw.

[rv_bass]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. 

I checked out the Stewmac kit and I'll look into getting one. 

I'd like to try to avoid drilling first if I can. The screw is in the back plate, not the battery box.  There is nothing protruding to grip with pliers, so I might try crazy gluing an Allen wrench to the screw and see if I can turn it back out that way.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Rob

[rv_bass]

Well, I ended up drilling it out, took about two seconds, easy fix.