1st jazzmaster build pickup cavity too shallow?

victor

Junior Member
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I bought a Warmouth Jazzmaster body (bottom route) and bought a set of Fralin noiseless single coil Jazzmaster pickups and they are too tall. Even without the foam I think they will be too tall. This is my first guitar build and I don't really know what to do besides buy regular jazzmaster pickups somewhere else. I sure hate that I spent $300 on these knowing that they won't take them back. Any ideas?
 
I assume you mean a rear rout. This sort of thing can happen with some noiseless pickups that do not fit a standard rout. It may be possible to rout the pickup routs deeper or have someone do it for you. If you have a trem cavity behind the pickups that might be a no-go.

I looked on Fralins website you need a rout depth of 0.80" or 20.3mm for those pickups.

For anyone else reading. It is always worth checking the dimensions of parts before making a final choice.
 
I really appreciate that info. I just ordered a routing template from solo guitars. It's made of mdf but will probably do this one job ok. Thanks again!
 
You know, just a little while ago I thought that same thing and I wrote an email to solo guitars and try to cancel the order I hope they don't get in this morning and send me one back saying oh it's too late LOL maybe if they do I can refuse the package 🤠
 
Yes, noiseless single coils are somewhat notorious for being too tall for a standard pickup rout. Sounds like you're on the right path to a solution.
 
Hello, by "too tall" you mean the depth of the rout, or height of the pickup (sorry for my poor english). Other dimensions fits ?
 
Yes, the pickups are too tall for the cavity. Also, I believe that my neck pocket isn't deep enough. I saw a thread where they showed to take a caliper and measure the thickness of the neck like at the e string(not on top where you would think) then measure from the bottom of the bridge to where the string will sit with the height adjustment all the way down. Then subtract that measurement from the thickness of the neck and that's how deep the pocket should be. I'll keep that in mind as I go but what I'm going to do is figure out that first, then sorry about the pickup height but I know I'll have to take some out of those pickup cavities because they are way too shallow! I'm using a Hipshot hardtail bridge and it's low anyway.
 
Hello, by "too tall" you mean the depth of the rout, or height of the pickup (sorry for my poor english).

The height of the pickup is too tall for the depth of a standard pickup rout.

Die Höhe des Tonabnehmers ist zu groß für die Tiefe einer Standard-Pickup-Route

La hauteur du pick-up est trop grande pour la profondeur d'un chemin de pick-up standard.

Other dimensions fits ?

Yes
Ja
Oui
 
So I got a small router on Amazon and routed out pickup holes but not before routing my neck pocket because when installing the neck with the Hipshot bridge on the strings hit the frets even at the highest position so after all that everything worked fine. I have finished my project and all is well, I ordered a nut file yesterday for my low e string slot but have filed the test if them and it sounds great. I had to rewire it because the middle position on the 3 way didn't work but all good now. Only one problem, on the hardtail bridge the 2 e strings need to go lower and the mounting screws (one on each side and one in the middle) are in the way of these 2 saddles on one side so I can't go low enough because they hit the screws before they can go low enough and cause the saddles to tilt sideways. One side will go down but the other side hits the mounting screen on both high and low e, everything else is good. Any suggestions?
 
Shoot I'll try spanish ...
La altura de la pastilla es demasiado alta para la profundidad de una ruta estándar. Probably wrong but fun ...
 
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So there it is. I got the nut file in today that I needed for the low e string and completed that task. It sounds awesome. Still the problem with the bridge, I believe that I'll find some flat tapered screws, as the supplied screws have a dome top that sticks up and caused the problem and use them on the outside 2 screws, the middle screw poses no problem. I'll have to re-intonate it and all because I'll have to take maybe 4 of the saddles loose to do this job but no problem. I'm proud of it. I was going to go with white on the body but decided to go natural with the maple veneer looking pretty good. I used the 2K clear coat on top of the bullseye sanding sealer and after sanding the sealer to get it smooth like I wanted I believe I took to much off because it was darker and that really brought out the wood but it'll do. Fralin jazzmaster noiseless pickups with 5% overwind, 500k pots,.047 cap on the treble bleed (they recommended .022 but I tried it and like this one better) switch craft 3 way switch and simply wired like a Tele. Grover medium tuners, Hipshot hardtail bridge and LaBelle 11-50 flatwound (jazz flats) Warmoth neck with 1 7/8ths nut.
 
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