Don’t you just hate those pickup mounting springs?

Yes I do! I prefer surgical tubing.

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Having more or less specialized in rewiring and replacing pickups since the 70's I have a lot of springs laying around.

Stew-Mac sells a "Humbucker Helper", but it's not worth $18.99 in my opinion.

And if you aren't happy with them, might I suggest DiMarzio? They have a good return policy if you're not satisfied with the sound.

Trying to hold all the parts in alignment in one hand while compressing the spring and rotating the screwdriver with the other hand is probably more challenging than the job Neil Armstrong had while hand-flying the Eagle LEM to a safe landing.



I came up with a dead-easy way to install springs on a humbucker. Here's how:



1. Set the pickup on the bench, face up.

2. Stick the screw through the mounting ring and slip the spring over the screw.

3. Hold the assembly by the spring, and place the screwdriver in the screw head.

4. Hold the bottom end of the spring on the pickup's flange.

5. Press downward with the screwdriver to compress the spring and start the screw into the flange.



This works really well. The beauty of it is you always have complete control of the spring and the screwdriver.  Give it a try.


Buying that Stooge-Mac tool is like throwing money off the back of a train.

Yup. Always keep the left over springs just in case one goes pwing across the room. Better that the spring flys across the room than the pickup.

I'm joining this thread because I have the right amount of 'classroom supplies' to do the humbucker assembly. There have been some methods suggested on how to do this tedious little task. It's one of those assemblies that would work well accomplishing if one had three hands. Be that as it may, I have put together one assembly using a small pair of needle nose pliers, it worked out well...for me, anyways. I will now attempt this assembly following the instructions laid out by Mr. Peegoo. [Some minutes later] Well, I ended up doing a sort of modified Peegoo version, using the needle nose pliers again. I found that compressing the spring with your fingers, low enough that the spring is compressed beyond the tip of the screw and then, holding that position with the needle nose makes it fairly easy to position the screw onto the screw hole then releasing the needle nose with a firm grip of the assembly in one hand. You can then, start the screw into the hole. During both methods, I did launch a couple of the springs but, they were easily retrieved.

Now that I have these assemblies, I have no place to use them.

Class, dismissed! 

So like me you probably looked a bit then gave up and ordered another (if you didn't already have a spare).

Definitely suggest you try this before giving up on a pickup