Video 10.2 'Fitting pickups and controls to a TL-1' needs improving
This may have been raised before, but I had a look and couldn't see anything, so:
Whilst answering a query about pickup height adjustment on a TL-1 neck pickup, I noticed that the PBG video 10.2 on fitting pickups to a TL-1, fitted the pickups in what I can only assume to be the incorrect way for the kit that was supplied.
There are two methods for mounting a standard Telecaster neck pickup:
1) The original way was to screw the pickups into the base of the pickup cavity, and have a pickguard that fitted around the pickup, with no holes at either end of the pickup slot. This meant that the pickguard had to be removed if you wished to adjust the pickup height.
2) A later way, which made it easier for height adjustment (and probably also meant easier fitment at the factory), was to mount the neck pickup from the scratchplate, in the manner of a standard Stratocaster.
The kit in the video (and on the one that was having issues) clearly had holes in the scratchplate for mounting the pickup on the scratchplate. It also came supplied with machine screws, not true wood screws with pointed ends (which I would have expected if it was meant to be body-mounted) and what look like fairly short springs.
However, the fixing method shown in the video was that for a body mounted pickup, leaving two unsightly holes in the pickguard at either end of the pickup, and a limited ability to raise the pickup close to the strings (as either the machine screws supplied are too short, or the springs aren't long enough to provide enough upward thrust - I don't know which).
If the neck pickup in the kit really is supposed to be body mounted, then I'd have expected a pickguard with no mounting holes drilled, screws designed for direct pickup mounting and probably longer springs or a foam block to mount under the pickup.
I don't know if the TL-1 kits come supplied at random with either drilled and undrilled scratchplates, (and whether the pickup mounting hardware is varied to match), but a new video is really required for the neck pickup mounting, preferably showing both means of neck pickup mounting to avoid others having problems.
