Uhhh I think I destroyed my pickup

[He's Dead, Jim]

Long story short, I was trying to use the height adjustment screws on my active EMG 81-7 bridge pickup (per my other thread) and the screw head on one side became stripped. I think the screws are shit (the ones on my neck pup are also somewhat stripped and I've never touched them) and the Guitar Center doofus who set it up may have used the wrong size screwdriver or something.

So, I took it to a highly regarded guitar tech in the area, and he had no idea what to do/didn't want to risk damaging it. Brought it home and tried a bunch of different ideas but ultimately had to just rip the pickup out of the guitar by pulling the other side until the screw head broke off, then I used pliers to screw the screw out. I don't think I stripped the actual screw hole threading, but I may have destroyed the pickup. No damage as far as I can tell to the actual internal body of the pup, but one side is kind of misshapen:

http://imgur.com/NekLVTL

http://imgur.com/2dxGCUh

http://imgur.com/CmlIjni

Since the pickup cover and the pickup are sort of fused together and I destroyed the side slot where the screw goes, am I out a pickup? Or is there a way to buy a new cover and put it on the pickup itself? Could I just sand the warped part down and put it back in the guitar?

Secondarily, if I'm out a pickup anyway, should I just buy another 81-7 or go with a 707 or something?

 

[JeffTD]

Hahahahha your pickup is fine man. The issue you're going to have is mounting it... may have to go with a wood screw + washer on top, as horrible as that seems.

What I would actually do is pour a bunch of silicone type hardening material in there (bondo?) and re-drill the hole where the pickup goes in.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Yeah, you can fix that man! Like Jeff said - wood screw with a washer. Or if your screw holes in your body are stripped, fill then with wood glue and re-drill a pilot hole then re-mount.

On the other hand, you probably could have gotten an extractor in the first place and extracted the stripped screws. But now that's not an option!

 

[He's Dead, Jim]

That is better news than I expected! Thanks dudes!

 

[flowersinsulpher]

!!!!!!