[ricksox]

Hi guys,

Brand new to this forum so excuse me if this question has been asked before. I own I believe, a black 78 Grabber. Love it!!! I do have a couple of questions hopefully you guys can answer for me.

1) I've got three single coil soap bar pickups on this thing. The neck pickup constantly falls into the body no matter how many times I try to reset it. Any ideas how I can make it stay in place?

2) Does anyone recommend similar pickups that I could replace with these?

3) Does anyone know where I can get a bridge cover plate?

Thanks in advance for all of your replies.


ricksox

[jules]

Hi, and welcome

Is it a G3?

The pickups are just held in with screws/springs - the same type that are still available at all the mail-order guitar parts stores

Are your screws correct? - have they been stripped or replaced

The grabber/G3 bridge cover is slightly narrower than on other gibsons, ebay is your only choice and they don't come up there too often either....

Jules

[ricksox]

Thanks for the quick response Jules. My bass is a G3 and I believe some of the screws (although I thought I had it set up by a well reputed luthier) were not the proper threads. So some of them are stripped. I've managed to reseat the springs a couple of times but they keep popping out. Ultimately, I would like to replace the pickups with some newer passive single coils. I just don't know which ones would fit or would sound good for that matter.


ricksox

[jules]

Sorry, can't help with regard changing out the pickups - not something i've done, but if you decide to keep the originals the screws, the ones you need are here

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Hardware,_p ... crews.html

I think you may need to cut them a tiny bit shorter - easily done with strong wire cutters

[ricksox]

Thanks for your help jules. Much appreciated.



ricksox

[SKATE RAT]

hey,i have a G3 that someone changed the middle pickup with an old dimarzio p-bass pick up,the cream colored ones from the late 70's. set up with bass side closer to the bridge.i still have the original pups in the neck and bridge positions.it was like this when i bought the bass.i think it sounds better than the bill lawrence pups that it has.it is a lot louder.i've never had it wired stock with 2 pups for every toggle position.i have it N/B/M.i would not have done this myself,they cut the pickguard!,but it sounds and plays great.

[ricksox]

Thanks for the reply reaper attack. I'm thiniking about getting in touch with warmoth and having them customize me a pickguard that will fit Seymore Duncan SSB single coils. I should have enough play in the body to fit them in. Basically I want to try to restore this thing. Not really too obsessive about keeping the original pickups. I actually was going to have them rewound but once I opened up the guitar I noticed that they are epoxied into the shell.

You think the Seymore Duncans would work? Also, the input jack is just a standard mono jack right? Thanks.



ricksox

[Dave W]

Originally Posted by ricksox

Thanks for the reply reaper attack. I'm thiniking about getting in touch with warmoth and having them customize me a pickguard that will fit Seymore Duncan SSB single coils. I should have enough play in the body to fit them in. Basically I want to try to restore this thing. Not really too obsessive about keeping the original pickups. I actually was going to have them rewound but once I opened up the guitar I noticed that they are epoxied into the shell.

You think the Seymore Duncans would work? Also, the input jack is just a standard mono jack right? Thanks.

Seymour Duncan SSBs are humbucking soapbar-sized pickups, they're not single coils and they wouldn't fit without routing. Are you possibly thinking of something else?

If you were thinking about anything with polepieces (instead of a blade like the Bill Lawrence pickups), then you have to consider whether the polepiece spacing fits your string spacing.

There are several custom pickguard makers, but Warmoth won't do what you're talking about.

[Redbird]

If you want to change the pickups to fender style why not sell it for $600- $800 and buy an Epi version that has the set up & sound you want and keep the change?

I doubt there are going to be direct replacement pickups for the originals?

http://www.music123.com/Epiphone-Ltd-Ed ... -(Closeout)-i254410.music

Why hack up a vintage bass when this is might be what you want?

[ricksox]

Understood. Thanks for the reply. So I'm gonna have to have a new pickguard made in order to accommodate my new pickups. I'm thinking about going with humbuckers for a fatter sound. If you guys have any suggestions on which pickups you think will work I'd definitely appreciate it. And again, thank you all for your replies so far.


ricksox