Garrett Calcaterra

Any bright ideas on how to remedy this? The height-adjustment screws on my Telecaster humbuckers keep slowly backing off, lowering the humbuckers away from the strings, particularly the bridge pickup on the bass side. I put some foam squares in the cavities below the humbuckers thinking that'd help counteract some of the tension on the springs, but it's still happening particularly during gigs. This picture is immediately after a gig. I literally adjusted the pickup height right before the gig and you can see that it dropped significantly on the bass side. Should I try swapping out the springs with ones that have less tension? Put some thread locker on the screws to hold them place? Any advice much appreciated!

New comment Jan 11

Garrett Calcaterra

4 likes • Dec '25

@Jordan Oster Ah! Good call. That didn't occur to me. I'll dig around to see if I have some nuts that fit.

Garrett Calcaterra

4 likes • Jan 11

Thanks for the rec, @Jordan Oster ! Before and after photos of the bridge pickup. I added nuts to both humbuckers and ran it through its paces at a 3-hour gig last night. I'll check the pole heights this morning to verify once I unpack the truck but seems to have done the trick. 🤘

Jordan Oster

Jan 7 •

Maintenance, Upgrade, repair

Project guitars

I’m looking at getting a cheap guitar off of Amazon and upgrading it. I’m just apprehensive about it and am wondering if there are problems I have yet to plan for. Anyone tried this recently? If so what problems did you run into? The guitar I’m looking at: https://a.co/d/ea6Q5Qo Update: I ended up finding a Jackson DKAF7 at one of my local guitar centers and am going to go with that. It’s about half the retail price and I am way more confident in its quality. Gonna trade some guitars in and get me a Jackson!

New comment Feb 28

Garrett Calcaterra

3 likes • Jan 10

I say go for it! I've heard good things about IVY guitars with the caveat that QA can be spotty and there's definitely a risk of getting a lemon. Have you done your own setups and mods on guitars previously? If not, it's a great way to learn, but I will say I have zero experience w/ multi-scale guitars. I imagine setting up intonation is a bit more complicated -- if that's the case, maybe hone your chops doing a few setups on standard guitars?

Doug DeLuca

Dec '25 •

General discussion

Kit bass

Sorry for multiple posts this week, but I’m bursting at the seams about my son’s bass. If you’ve followed me, you know I have asked for insight on this build and you all did not disappoint! All I have left before Christmas is stringing it up and setting the intonation and pickup height. Sure hope he likes it.

New comment Dec '25

Garrett Calcaterra

2 likes • Dec '25

Looks bitchin!

Garrett Calcaterra

2 likes • Dec '25

@Doug DeLuca Not that I'm aware of but certainly possible. My side of the Calcaterras are originally from Sicily and I occasionally run into folks who turn out to be cousins of some sort!