Humbucker doesn't fit in route

[David.Bernstein]

Hi Everyone, I'm working on a double humbucker build where the two pickups are mounted on a ring and a pickguard. Pretty standard stuff. I got the normal Warmoth humbucker route for both and the pickups are standard sized humbuckers. But today when I went to test inserting them into the body they wouldn't fit. The pickup legs are just slightly too wide and too far apart to fit in the curved "leg" sections of the route. The pickups themselves must be the standard size as they fit in the mounting ring and pickguard perfectly.

Do I widen the routes slightly or file down the metal legs? If so, how? Hard to believe the route in the body would be such that the fit is so tight.

 

[Rick]

What brand and what model of humbuckers are they?

 

[David.Bernstein]

They are bareknuckles, HSP90s. standard humbucker size. It's a solid color finish so maybe this is just a case of the finish filling in the route slightly and I just have to sand it out?

 

[JohnnyHardtail]

You should get other opinions of course and maybe post some measurements and pics of these pickups. If it was me I would consider using metal shears to trim about 2mm off each corner of the pickup legs. Of course I haven’t seen your pickups, so I don’t know exactly how much needs to be removed and whether it will solve the issue. I recall doing this when I owned a bareknuckle VH2 humbucker in the past.

 

[David.Bernstein]

Trimming the corners with shears is a good idea, thanks. Better than filing since who knows where the metal shavings will end up.

 

[ragamuffin]

I had the same issue with a Bare Knuckle humbucker ; I just hit the corners of the tabs with with a rasp

 

[David.Bernstein]

I trimmed the tabs just a little and now they're fine. The funny thing is years ago I ordered some stuff from StewMac and they included a set of fret cutters for free. At the time I thought what the eff am I going to do with these so I put them away in a toolbox. They were the perfect thing for this.
Anyway, thank you JohnnyHardtail for that suggestion!