Rivet mounted gold foil pickups?

[Ian Pender]

I'm re fretting an old Barclay guitar. This is the only Barclay I've ever seen, but it's basically a Harmony bobkat. While I'm at it, the customer would like me to see about replacing the damaged pickguard (check out that sweet jack plate!). However, the pickups seem to be riveted to the guard, and I'm hesitant to try removing them. Any suggestions? I can attach more pics if necessary.

[Robbie Collins]

Are they rivets or snap washers?

[Paul Verticchio]

They're definitely rivets, Robbie.

We have to keep reminding ourselves that these entry level quality guitars were made to be disposable; not repairable. Ease of repair wasn't even in their crosshatch when these were made & marketed. Their #1 goal was simply to keep up production to meet demand during the great guitar explosion of the mid '60's.

btw: with a FB level, a refret with modern fretwire, a few hardware upgrades (like replacing the rosewood bridge), new tuning keys and a new nut, these can be made into very serviceable stage instruments.

[Ian Pender]

Yeah, something is going to be done about the bridge as well. The radius is way too flat.

[Paul Verticchio]

Hi Ian.

Simply drill out the rivets using a drill bit the same size of the I.D. of the rivet. There's no other way around it.  It's standard operating procedure for these pup's.

To reattach, you may rivet them back in OR use a machine screw, a washer & nut.

Those are the coolest Harmony solidbodies EVER!.  Those pickups can sound incredible.

Best of luck.

[Andrew]

Thats what I was gonna say too. It [i]looks[/i] like the rivets go through to the top of the covers, so they should slide out once the bottom of them is drilled out, then you could replace them with the appropriate screws.

Why does he want the guard replaced anyway? Looks serviceable to me.

Looks like one of those fun, stress free spruce ups. :) Fixing up funky old electrics is always neat.

[Ian Pender]

Oh, so I don't have to drill through the pickup itself, just the bottom of the rivet. I guess that makes sense. That's reassuring.

And yeah, I'm not sure why he wants it replaced. It's a bit warped, but I think it's fine. I honestly might try and talk him out of it, since I think a pristine new pickguard would look out of place. The crazy thing is, he wants me to leave the weird improvised jack plate. Here's a better pic of it.

[Andrew]

Hahaha I like it. That probably used to surround an old doorbell button.

I think Id maybe smooth out the area that was cut away for the doorbell jack, then give the guard a hand buffing (careful around the chrome on the pup covers). Then itll be clean and have some nice shine back, but wont look out of place like a new guard would.

Of course, if he wants to dispose of the doorbell jack, then thats all moot, as youll have a big old hole without a new guard.

With the pickups, you could also file the bottoms off the rivets if you wanted to be extra careful.

[RETROROD]

I kind of like that too! Kind of 'funky and steam-punk'.....

[Robbie Collins]

Just what I was thinking!

[Joshua Levin-Epstein]

The Jack Plate solves another problem. Those guitars did not have bridge grounds and are very thin. It is very easy to drill through the back of the guitar trying to install a conventional ground wire.

This is where we say "and please don't ask how I know".