Bass Machine Head Screws.

[lasalle69]

Hi all. Before I criticize, let me just say that my RD 4 bass kit was well built, expertly shipped, and the PB team were great with answering emails. However; After two weeks of finishing my body and neck, putting the elephant ear tuners on the neck crapped the neck out! The included mounting screws broke off and had to be dug out of the headstock. This left gouges so bad, I scrapped the whole neck for a jazz bass replacement neck found on EBay. The machine head screws are probably Chinese made and very poor quality. I pre-drilled tiny starter holes and hand screwed. After almost in, SNAP ! Very dissapointed. I could have filled holes, huge after drilling out screw bodies, then sanded and re-stained, but the alignment of the heads was now also off. Again, love the PB bodies, but beware of the included hardware.
Cheers

[dingobass]

Hey lasalle,
Sorry to hear you had dramas with the neck
We stand by our products and if you experience any problems we will bend over backwards to rectify it.
If you email Adam, I am certain he will sort any problems out for you.

[bargeloobs]

beware of the necks, and do not use the included hardware.
Cheers

What happened to the neck mate?

[lasalle69]

Just to reiterate, NOT blaming PB, Adam, or Dingo. Great products, great service. Just that these machine screws were crappy. The neck is sitting on my shop table. Probably will refinish and use it on a future build. Right now, I just want
to complete and play this cool RD4!

[vh2580]

Sorry to hear about your experience Lassalle.
I have built about seven full kits and have 6 sitting in various stages of build. Have used all the genuine screws and never had any problems. Sometimes there are hurdles with a build but that's part of the challenge in building a kit.
The one time I had a major issue ( self inflicted by flipping a neck off a bench) the level of service to assist was awesome.
As Dingobass said drop Adam a mail.

[bargeloobs]

Just to reiterate, NOT blaming PB, Adam, or Dingo. Great products, great service. Just that these machine screws were crappy. The neck is sitting on my shop table. Probably will refinish and use it on a future build. Right now, I just want
to complete and play this cool RD4!

Man that's a LOT of pressure to shear the top off of one of those screws, if you screwed your pilot hole to the correct depth and diameter this shouldn't have happened.
Even then I don't think I would have "dug the screw out"
You were telling people to beware of the necks, what was wrong with the neck?

[lasalle69]

Barge:
Perhaps beware the necks was too harsh. It was the Ides of March though. Seriously, the machine heads did not align perfectly on the back of the headstock to begin with(2x2 config.). Digging them out, though carefully, with a tiny diamond tip dremel sounded good at the time. The holes can be filled, sanded and refinished. So I am thinking it was more of a machine head/screw issue than neck. It was only my second full build and things do happen. It was just very surprising to have a screw snap.

Thanks.

[dingobass]

Those screws can be a right pain.. I have managed to snap a few, and I use good quality stainless steel ones.
The trick to employ is to get some soap or wax onto the thread before driving them in, reduces the chances of snapping the little beggars dramatically.

[lasalle69]

Thanks all. I sanded the back of the neck and filled all holes with what we in the states call plastic wood. It is made by DAP and is a solvent based fill. Will completely sand down in a couple of days and try again with new screws. Dingo is totally correct, next some wax or soap and good pilot holes. Not giving up !!! I really want to use this neck !
Thanks again.
CL

[andrewdosborne]

Also not sure if this helps but I also turn in the screws very slowly to reduce heat build up through friction. Whenever I've snapped a screw (el. cheapo or stainless steel) I've noticed I had been driving in quite quickly (maybe coincidence)


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