Compressed pickup rings on Celebrities

[Sarah93003]

Recently during an email exchange with Michael Marks we got of the topic of Celebrities having compressed pickup rings. His theory is that the string tension on the neck causes the block to move into the pickup ring either due to the glue not being dried or it coming up from the tension.

I have a different theory for this issue. I know Semie understood wood very well, especially wood grain and the forces of warpage. So, I doubt if it is a condition of the wood warping causing the neck to jam up against the pickup ring. I've had these guitars apart many times and the block of wood is about 3" deep and 5" wide. For a block of this size to be "tilted" by string tension enough to move the neck 1/8" into the pickup of ring the top end would have to come up 1/2" - 1" (Pythagorean theorem) and I've never seen that happen. When I see guitars with the compressed ring I don't see any other associated gaps. Therefore, tiliting due to uncured glue or wood warpage isn't plausible.

So, how else might this happen?

My theory is related to the guitar's scale length. If someone did not drill the bridge pin holes in the correct/perfect location then your only choice is to move the neck to maintain proper scale length. I think that in the assembly process they had a jig of some sort where the body was placed and then the neck inserted. The jig would hold the pieces together so the operator could drill the neck mounting holes. They would have to have some way to measure from the 12th fret to the bridge to ensure that the scale length was correct. If necessary, they could "jam" the neck into the pickup ring to maintain the proper scale length.

Maybe there are other theory's or causal factors that I'm not thinking of it. I would love to hear other's opinions on how this happens, especially from former employees who may be aware of it.

[Veenture]

I would very much agree with your theory Sarah, also viewing it in the light of Semie's ways and means and Mosrite history. The assembly method you describe highly suggests intentional compressing of the neck pickup surround. "Use what we have, it's only cosmetic and doesn't hurt intonation, playability etc."...perhaps.

In the Mosrite bass thread I posted in 2009 I made a remark about the design of the bridge cover

[101Volts]

My Ventures II (Carved) also has a compressed pickup ring. Odd that they let it happen on so many different models?

- Austin