Warped Series One Pickup

[gtrguy]

I have a used series one pickup with warped edges. I was wondering if anyone had ever encountered this and might have a fix for it. I get a good reading on it with my meter.
 
I am wondering if heating it a little at the edge and trying to straighten it might work or is there too much risk of messing up the internals?
 
I bought it as part of a set this way and it was described correctly before I bought it. The other PUPs are OK.
 
Thanks,
Dave  

[adriaan]

They take some beating, don't they?

[terryc]

Correct if I am wrong but Alembic PU's are epoxy castings, I doubt if heating them will make them pliable enough to straighten them as epoxy is not a thermoplastic.
How the hell did they get in that condition?

[afrobeat_fool]

Hey, David. How are you enjoying all the rain? It's been a while. My thought is that you are going to have to shave the top of the casing so that it is level, and shim or epoxy the bottom till it is level. Mica will probably chime in soon. Good luck!
 
 
Nick

[David Houck]

Terry; it must have been a really smokin' bass solo.

[JimmyJ]

David,
 
That twist is a result of our Series mounting screw system.  Possibly due to over-tightening or maybe just slow reshaping from years of torque, like old window glass, or my garden wall...  
 
Two of our four mounting screws are below the pickup and two are above.  These are adjusted together to raise, lower or tilt the pickup.  (But not to twist the pickup!)  Obviously the below screws were on the left corners in your pics.
 
As long as the pickup is working this is just cosmetic.  If you wanted to you could swap corners and put the short screws under the right sides...  Maybe in 30 years it will flatten itself back out?
 
Jimmy J

[gtrguy]

In 30 years maybe I will become a better bass player :>) It does look like a mechanical torque flaw with those stress striations running through the edge, doesn't it. I could put it on my bearing press and see if applied force to the edge might reverse the problem, but that might break it. Ahhh, it's a hunch-back!! or hump-edge, or...

[gtrguy]

BTW Nick, I hate this arfing rain.

[mica]

The pickups are cast in polyurethane, which is also not thermoplastic. It does however exhibit another property of many plastics: creep. That's what you're seeing in response to pressure, it slowly deforms. Jimmy is right that if you reverse the mounting, it will encourage the creep in the other direction. If you leave it unmounted, there is no motivation for it to return to where it was, since it's not elastic.  
 
Those pickups look like they've had a rough life. The top picture it seems it's already been broken, the flange looks cracked on the left edge and the mounting screw hole looks less than complete.  
 
You only have to tighten the screws to be snug - this is a good example of one of the reasons to not overtighten the mounting. But of course the good news is that they still function.

[FC Bass]

This is not from the set you got from me right?
 
Any luck with those electronics yet?

[gtrguy]

Flip, it is another set I came across this summer. Yes, I am finally starting to work on the fretless project. Maybe by next spring it will be ready to play!
 
Thanks to everyone for their help!
Dave

[flpete1uw]

Hello David,
 Any luck on your Pickups? I have a similar issue with my Series Pickups, no broken corners just enough warp age to make the pickup height sit to high even when bottomed out.  
 Being this is a gradual thing could the pickups be slowly coxed back into shape by removing them putting X # of lbs of weight on them on a flat surface?  
Pete

[gtrguy]

Hi Pete,
 
I bet you are right. I have been too busy to do anything about it, but i should mount them in something and see if they will slowley resume the original shape.

[flpete1uw]

David,
 Excellent! If you do please let me know of any of your findings and I?ll do the same. I've been in the process of dialing in my 75 Series sound and going through the process of elimination. I'm thinking (Guessing more like it) that it might take a couple of weeks to settle in. Meanwhile I'll have the Mother ship do a check on the Mother board. This is all uncharted territory. The pickups as far as I can tell are fine.
Onwards,
Pete

[gtrguy]

I think they have a reasonable flat rate to replace the board if it needs it, if I remember right. I have another set of series pickups too that I will be trying out in my series one project one of these days. I want to see if either set will work well with the original hum center pickup that I can not remove from the bass (it is really glued in there). The other two original pickups were long gone when I got it.
 
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