Early 80s Squire Bullet Question

[minorkey]

Hello, the bar magnet on my middle pickup decided to come unglued. I want to fix it but am having trouble finding resources.  Here are my questions:

1. What is the best type of glue to use for this?

2. It appears that the old glue job put glue in between the magnet and the poles, would cleaning off the old glue and re-gluing just around the edges to achieve direct contact with the poles affect sound?  If so how?  What is best to clean the old glue off with?

Thank you for your help!  I'm also planning on cleaning contacts with Deoxit D5 while I have the cover pulled, anything else I should do?

[antares]

John is the one to answer this really but here goes; I would say that being a magnet it should hold on by itself, but a little adhesive will probably keep it secure. I wouldn't use any preparation nor any heat to remove the residual adhesive, just carefully pick and scrape away. As far as adhesive goes, something that will release fairly readily if required down the line? Any pickup rewirer would probably thank you! A couple of small dabs of RTV maybe?

e&oe ...

[GuitarAttack Forum]

Thanks for the question about pickups. Steve hit the nail on the head - the key is cleaning off the old glue and making sure the magnet makes contact with the metal slugs in the pickup.

I've used a number of glues for this task, as well as silicon RTV, or caulk, like Steve said. One of my favorites for all kinds of pickup work is Duco cement. I usually get it at Walmart, but you can get it at Amazon, too.

www.amazon.com/Duco-Cement-Multi-Purpose-Household-Glue/dp/B0000A605H/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=duco+cement&qid=1575036031&sr=8-1

I would clean the bottom of the pickup and the top of the magnet with naphtha (lighter fluid) after a very careful scraping with a razor blade, then a few strokes of with sandpaper to rough-up the surface. I would then use a thin film of the Duco on the bottom of the pickup, attach the magnet, and clamp it for an hour. The film of this glue will not affect the magnetism of the pickup.

Good luck,
John

[Deleted]

I have a question on the direction of the magnet. Does it matter the direction of the of it?

 I had a MIM Tele that the magnets fell off of. I use ca glue to hold them in place. But never thought of the direction of the magnets on the pickups.

 I was was in another forum where they were taking about how you can change the sound of a pickup by changing the direction of the magnet.

 Is there any truth to this?

  All I know about pickups are how test the resistance and how to solder them in. LOL!

EB

[GuitarAttack Forum]

Actually....

The middle pickup's magnet should be facing the opposite direction compared to the neck and bridge pickups. That will give you more "quack" in the 2 and 4 positions on the five position switch because the middle pickup is out of phase with the other two. You can even check it with a compass - the bridge and neck pickups will probably be south-up, while the middle is north-up.

The first Fender Strat with a five-way switch was the 1979 25th Anniversary Strat, and it had a reverse polarity pickup in the middle position. That is also when Fender went back to a four-bolt neck plate.

However, I would recommend that Minorkey reglue the magnet the way it came off. However, you can always experiment!

John