Stripping

Hi All,
I noticed last night that my Tremonti has a pickup ring hole that seems stripped. The screw goes into a certain depth and then just turns and turns without ever tightening to completion. What is the best and safest way to fix this myself? Thanks for any help!

Someone may have a more high tech fix for this, but the old carpenter's trick is to glue a piece of toothpick in the hole, let it dry and then drill a new (undersized) pilot hole and re-thread the screw.

Drilling holes in the top of a guitar is not for the faint of heart. A brace and bit is slightly safer than a power drill...

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Originally Posted by rugerpc

Someone may have a more high tech fix for this, but the old carpenter's trick is to glue a piece of toothpick in the hole, let it dry and then drill a new (undersized) pilot hole and re-thread the screw.

Drilling holes in the top of a guitar is not for the faint of heart. A brace and bit is slightly safer than a power drill...

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+1

As long as you're careful you'll be ok because you only need to drill a small pilot hole for those screws.

A trick that worked for me was to just dab a small amount (You don't want it to pool up as you screw the screw in) of superglue on the thread of the screw. The toothpick in the hole is a better and more solid method though.

BTW... Where's the nekid chicks you promised?

I have toothpicks in one of mine without the glue

Thanks for the tips guys. Indeed, aiming a drill at the top of my guitar is pretty intimidating.
Could I possibly put just pieces of toothpick that only occupy half the length of the hole? Then I wouldn't need to drill a pilot hole, correct? I could just start screwing until it reaches bottom.

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Originally Posted by Blackbird

Thanks for the tips guys. Indeed, aiming a drill at the top of my guitar is pretty intimidating.
Could I possibly put just pieces of toothpick that only occupy half the length of the hole? Then I wouldn't need to drill a pilot hole, correct? I could just start screwing until it reaches bottom.

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Generally a screw looses its hold because the hole is stripped axially, not lengthwise. That is because the hole is too large in diameter for the screw threads to bite into the wood, not because the hole is too long for the screw.

So placing pieces only at the bottom of the hole only solves the problem to the height of those pieces. You need to reduce the diameter of the hole for it's entire length (depth).

If you don't want to completely obturate the hole and start over by drilling a pilot hole, try using several slivers of toothpick which are in total smaller than the diameter of the hole. You should glue them, but you don't have to - it just won't be as strong a repair.

You will know you have enough slivers in the hole (for it's entire length) when the screw feels like it has more resistance to turning and feels like it is biting into the toothpick slivers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rugerpc

Generally a screw looses its hold because the hole is stripped axially, not lengthwise. That is because the hole is too large in diameter for the screw threads to bite into the wood, not because the hole is too long for the screw.

So placing pieces only at the bottom of the hole only solves the problem to the height of those pieces. You need to reduce the diameter of the hole for it's entire length (depth).

If you don't want to completely obturate the hole and start over by drilling a pilot hole, try using several slivers of toothpick which are in total smaller than the diameter of the hole. You should glue them, but you don't have to - it just won't be as strong a repair.

You will know you have enough slivers in the hole (for it's entire length) when the screw feels like it has more resistance to turning and feels like it is biting into the toothpick slivers.

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Thanks! Yeah that makes sense. I figured since it was just a pickup ring that it wouldnt require as much hold or resistance, which is why I wondered if just half the length would suffice. But I like your suggestion much better, it will be tedious, but the drill option would have driven me crazy.

When you say glue them, you mean just gluing them to the inside wall of the hole so it forms a new, smaller-diameter hole?

What Ive done before is take a match, a sharp knife and a stable and non marking surface, chop the match in half down its length hopefully making a wedge shape.

Second stage is with some wood glue, put the match in the hole with the wood glue and the you have a good fix after you have put the screw back in. Use the wood glue sparingly, as you dont want any to touch the finish of it!

put a small amount of solder on the edge of the stripped hole. It should be enough to allow you to re-tap the hole and continue to use the pickup and screw as before.