Replacing plastic pickup covers on a P Bass?

[AngelCrusher]

I have a cool cream colored set of plastic Pbass covers that I got from all parts.

I was thinking about putting them on my 50's classic P. The pickup is stock. Is this a huge PITA, or easy to do? I am looking for a guide on how to do this, but am coming up empty.

Any input appreciated!

 

[jallenbass]

It's a piece of cake if the original covers slide off like most. I would take the pick guard off to get it out of the way and then remove the screws that hold the pickup in place. From there you can remove the covers. Just be careful of the wires. If they are epoxied in like Bartolinis then you're out of luck.

 

[AngelCrusher]

It's a piece of cake if the original covers slide off like most. I would take the pick guard off to get it out of the way and then remove the screws that hold the pickup in place. From there you can remove the covers. Just be careful of the wires. If they are epoxied in like Bartolinis then you're out of luck.

Ok great, thanks. I will give it a shot.

 

[Batmensch]

Just a heads up ... I bought a set of white P-bass plastic pickup covers fro the Duncan Designed pickup on a FrankenSquier bass I was assembling, and they were way too small. The fact they were cheap (4 bucks) Chinese imports may have has something to do with that. I jut thought you might want to know there is a small possibility the covers might not fit.
Having said that, if they are indeed the right size, they should slip on easily enough.

 

[line6man]

I was thinking about putting them on my 50's classic P. The pickup is stock. Is this a huge PITA, or easy to do? I am looking for a guide on how to do this, but am coming up empty.

Provided that the covers are appropriately sized, and that there are no fitment issues, this is one of the simplest procedures you can perform on a bass.

All you need to do is loosen/remove the strings, remove the pickup using a screwdriver, swap the covers, screw the pickup back in, and tune up. It should take about a minute in total, plus the time spent adjusting the pickups and retuning.

Occasionally, pickups will have covers that taper, such that the tops are narrower than the bottoms. If this is the case, it is sometimes necessary to remove the pickguard, so that the pickup covers can be pushed in from the underside. This is an annoyance, but it requires no more than removing and replacing your 8 to 11 pickguard screws.

 

[AngelCrusher]

So it worked pretty easily. Bass sounds the same, which is good. Only one thing - one of the pickup screw's heads stripped very badly and it did not screw down. It's at an angle so the head is over the pickup cover. I need to pull it out and rescrew it or source another screw. Trying a rubber band now but thats not working. Any other ideas?

 

[JGbassman]

So it worked pretty easily. Bass sounds the same, which is good. Only one thing - one of the pickup screw's heads stripped very badly and it did not screw down. It's at an angle so the head is over the pickup cover. I need to pull it out and rescrew it or source another screw. Trying a rubber band now but thats not working. Any other ideas?

I'd grab the head of the screw with a pair of pliers and slowly unscrew it. You should be able to get it with a pair of needlenose pliers.

 

[calypsocoral302]

Just a heads up ... I bought a set of white P-bass plastic pickup covers fro the Duncan Designed pickup on a FrankenSquier bass I was assembling, and they were way too small. The fact they were cheap (4 bucks) Chinese imports may have has something to do with that. I jut thought you might want to know there is a small possibility the covers might not fit.
Having said that, if they are indeed the right size, they should slip on easily enough.

Resurrecting this thread for an anecdote.

I just replaced the black pickup covers on my G&L LB-100 with Cream ones I bought off of Reverb called "True Custom Shop Replacement Parts" for less than $10. These fit the stock pickup just fine!