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Humbucker Mounting Rings

etj92

Newbie
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I thought that for my VIP project, I would need 2 short flat plastic rings. However, from the photos that are posted of a VIP in Just Out of the Box/ VIP arrived, it appears as though agent317 used a tall ring at the bridge position and a short ring at the neck position. I have no experience of building a humbucker equipped guitar and wonder whether those of you who've built VIPs might have some advice on the type of ring to use. I am also intending to cut/sand  the inner part of the neck ring to take a Trembucker. Will this work; are there any traps for the unwary?
 
Common with set neck and/or carved top guitars is to use a short humbucker ring at the neck and a tall ring at the bridge due to the neck tilt.
I am pretty sure Trembuckers will drop right in with no mods, if someone knows for sure please correct me.
 
They will.

Rings come in MANY flavors.

I've seen, and have,
rings about 1/16 inch thick, flat
regular flat (bout 1/4 in)
thick flat (bout 3/8 in)
thin arched, flat
thick arched, flat
thick arched curved
thin arched curved
REALLY thick arched curved (1/2 inch tall "historic spec")

All sorts in the middle... everybody has their own idea of what they oughta be
 
On my Korina/Wenge VIP build I had ordered a short and a tall curved plastic humbucker mounting ring to use, but the tall one didn't look "right", seemed a bit tall and the carved top relief at the bridge pickup wasn't that curved, so I wound up using a regular flat short mounting ring at the bridge and a short curved one at the neck PU:

http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=873.0

Note: Before I finally decided to use the Rio Grande TX BBQ gold set on this VIP build, I was thinking about using gold metal PU mounting rings and a set of PUs that had black coils sans covers, the metal PU mounting rings Warmoth sells are thin/malleable enough to mount on VIP carved tops w/o issues.
 
Jack.
Heyman!  Great looking guitar!  Beautiful.  I've got a solid Mahogany VIP arriving next week.  The Neck is on order and should take another month.  Did you do the assembly and electronics and did you run into any problems?

Thanks, Shane-man
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P.S. your info on the mounting rings helped!  :headbang:
 
Sure, I pretty much do everything to include finishing, but they had that body up for the same price as a couple of unfinished korina bodies, and I liked the finish, so thought WTF?

The only issue I ran into was the body already had the PRS style control holes drilled through the cavity and I didn't realize that the third hole was actually drilled 1/2" like on a McCarty PRS model for a Gibson style 3 way toggle switch, rather than the 3/8" size for a rotary switch. I was going to use push-pull vol/tone pots, but had bought a Rio Grande TX BBQ set, and wired them up first in stock mode without coil-tapping and wound up so pleased with those PUs I've never bothered with rewiring for coil-tapping.

What are you using for PUs, and how are you going to finish that VIP, I monitor the VIP section so I know exactly which body you bought.
 
Jack,

You're a madman!  I plan on installing Alnico 2 Pro's Neck and Bridge.  I'm in to classic rock and love humbucker tone.  The specs for my guitar are this:  Body: Mahogany VIP, Gotoh 510 bridge, Alnico 2 Pro(N)(B) w/ x1Vol, x1 Tone, & 3-way switch w/ speedknobs.

                      Neck: Mahogany w/ Rosewood fretboard, Abalone dots, Corian Nut, Sperzel Tuners, 24 3/4 conversion neck.  I'll stain the entire guitar w/ a light coat of black and then Tung Oil treat it for the next month, then buff the crap out of it.

I'm really shooting for Tone on this baby.  I really want a natural organic feel for this instrument.  I would like your opinion on metal covers on Humbuckers though.  Do you really think that they dampen the sound or tone vs. those w/out?

You contribute quite a bit to this forum man.  You're alright! :rock-on: 

Later man, Shane
 
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