P-Rails? Yes, but looked funny in a JM....

[BigSteve22]

So, for like the last year and a half, I've been planning on building a Jazzmaster. And from day one, I planned on using SD P-Rails for the pickups. Well, I finally got all the parts together, and fitted up the pups to the pickguard. The problem is, I don't like the way they look for my project. They just don't look "polished". Not the finish, I mean the way they fit in the guard, and their asymmetrical look. Not exactly the classic look I'm going for.

Then I had a brainstorm. I remembered the plastic covers I had used on another project, AND the fact that I had purchased an extra set of white covers at the same time. A little digging in the 'ole parts cabinet, and there they were. AND they fit the P-Rails like a glove!

Then the problem was, they didn't fit the pickguard. An hour or so in the shop remedied that situation. The cutouts are really pretty square, although the ragged edge of the protective film makes it look otherwise.

Love the way they look, and the way they will look in the finished project.

I am a little concerned with how TIGHT the pickup routs in the body are. Looks like there's barely enough room for a little foil shielding. May have to widen the corners of the routs a might.

I would have thought that a body routed for humbuckers would be a might more spacious under the hood. The guitar that the other set of covers went into used standard HB pickup rings, and fit was nowhere near this tight. Just something to keep in mind.

 

[vetteman]

The covers really do improve the look of the pickguard over the original P-Rail look.  Seems those covers might be a great candidate for the old soaking in strong coffee/tea treatment to soften the white-ness a bit though.  And if you don't like it you can scrub 'em clean again.  Just a thought.

 

[BigSteve22]

The covers really do improve the look of the pickguard over the original P-Rail look.  Seems those covers might be a great candidate for the old soaking in strong coffee/tea treatment to soften the white-ness a bit though.  And if you don't like it you can scrub 'em clean again.  Just a thought.

Interesting thought. I went with white instead of cream because that's what the original JM's had. Wish I had a spare to try the coffee/tea staining on.

 

[Glimmer]

I too prefer the look with the unholy (ahem) white pup covers. And yes, the pup routs are mighty tight. You're right that with the copper shielding that Cagey loves so much :laughing7: there will likely be *no* wiggle room, at least that's what I found. Best fit the pick guard with the pups (or at least the covers) in place. That's what I did.

Looking mighty nice, by the way.

 

[BigSteve22]

Glimmer- Just re-read parts of your build thread, (thanks for the link BTW), I can only hope mine ends up half as nice as yours did. My neck should arrive back from Cagey tomorrow, I can't really finish fitting the pickguard until then. I picked up the same case. REALLY nice fit.

 

[rgand]

Using those covers is a brilliant idea. I'll keep that in mind when I finally get to the assembly of mine.

 

[BigSteve22]

Using those covers is a brilliant idea. I'll keep that in mind when I finally get to the assembly of mine.

Not really brilliant, more like an OMG moment. As in OMG, I've been planning this for the last 18 months and it never occurred to me that I might not like the look!

If you're thinking of using covers, this is where I got them last time:

http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/covers_humbucker.htm

 

[rgand]

Using those covers is a brilliant idea. I'll keep that in mind when I finally get to the assembly of mine.

Not really brilliant, more like an OMG moment. As in OMG, I've been planning this for the last 18 months and it never occurred to me that I might not like the look!

If you're thinking of using covers, this is where I got them last time:

http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/covers_humbucker.htm

Thanks for the link. I may need that. I wouldn't have thought about them being so much smaller than the cutouts. I have to do some cutting on the pickguard anyway so I may just cut them myself. I had to do that with my Bill Lawrence L500 pickups. Maybe a fat humbucker route would be close. Then again, those covers are the right size.

 

[BigSteve22]

I wouldn't have thought about them being so much smaller than the cutouts. I have to do some cutting on the pickguard anyway so I may just cut them myself...

I hope I didn't give the wrong impression, the pix with the uncovered pickups were taken after I cut the pickguard. I didn't think to take any shots before hand. The cutouts were larger than the pups, but not to the extent seen in the picture. The main problem I had with the fit was the radius at the corners which did not even closely match the pups. And the pups having two DIFFERENT radii made it look even worse. Cutting them nearly square eliminated this when the covers were installed. The cutouts were enlarged about 2mm in each direction. I'll measure the openings tomorrow and post an exact, (?), number.

 

[Glimmer]

Glimmer- Just re-read parts of your build thread, (thanks for the link BTW), I can only hope mine ends up half as nice as yours did. My neck should arrive back from Cagey tomorrow, I can't really finish fitting the pickguard until then. I picked up the same case. REALLY nice fit.

Well, it's looking mighty beautiful so far. Can't wait to see it with the neck in place! Do give us a quick pic once it's back.

And, as for the link to my build thread, it's also available via the pic in my signature (wish more folks would do that, so I could see how they made their fine guitars!).

 

[Verne Bunsen]

I agree, much better aesthetic with the solid covers. Looking good, and I'm eagerly anticipating the rest of the build!

I am a little concerned with how TIGHT the pickup routs in the body are. Looks like there's barely enough room for a little foil shielding. May have to widen the corners of the routs a might.

I built two Jazzmasters recently and in both cases I had to take the Dremel to the pickup routes in order to properly locate the pickguard and pickups. Tight is right!

 

[Logrinn]

I agree, looks really good.
Had the pickups been black, then the asymmetrical look might not have been that obvious or jarring, but the covers made it even better.


And about the shielding ... I'm with Cagey on that one. You don't really need it. Shielded cables should suffice.
Shielding under and around a pickup will maybe do some small good, but it's still exposed on top. And just like shielding an antenna underneath and on the sides, but not on top, won't stop it from receiving signals, right? Just my 2 cents and YMMV and all that. :icon_thumright:

 

[stratamania]

Good solution. Although I quite liked the look with the P Rails.

 

[BigSteve22]

Thanks to all or the kind words, I hope the finished project lives up to the expectations.

I wouldn't have thought about them being so much smaller than the cutouts. I have to do some cutting on the pickguard anyway so I may just cut them myself...

I took a caliper to the cutouts this morning. The Warmoth spec, according to their site, says that a humbucker cutout is 1.5" x 2.775", (38.1mm x 70.5mm). My cutouts, after opening them up, are now 1.539" x 2.800", (39.09mm x 71.12mm). That's means the cutouts were opened up approx. .039" (1mm) x .025" (.635mm). Plastic expands and moves around a bit during machining due to friction heat, so the cutouts were probably not exactly to spec from the factory.

I was really careful making the enlargement, starting with 80 grit sandpaper glued to a piece of wood I cut to the already existing width, then switched to a fine cut flat file to clean up the corners and make sure everything was smooth and flat.

Had the pickups been black, then the asymmetrical look might not have been that obvious or jarring, but the covers made it even better.

And about the shielding ... I'm with Cagey on that one...

I agree, had I chosen black pups, I probably wouldn't have had that much of a problem with the look.

And as far as shielding goes, to me there's no reason not to. I worked in military electronics for many years and shielding was absolutely essential in ALL applications. No reason for me to stop now.

Good solution. Although I quite liked the look with the P Rails.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the overall look of P-Rails, and in a different project, with proper cutouts or rings, they would be fine. It's just that I want to keep the overall look and feel of a traditional Jazzy, and the P-Rails were detracting from that aesthetic.

 

[rgand]

I wouldn't have thought about them being so much smaller than the cutouts. I have to do some cutting on the pickguard anyway so I may just cut them myself...

I hope I didn't give the wrong impression, the pix with the uncovered pickups were taken after I cut the pickguard. I didn't think to take any shots before hand. The cutouts were larger than the pups, but not to the extent seen in the picture. The main problem I had with the fit was the radius at the corners which did not even closely match the pups. And the pups having two DIFFERENT radii made it look even worse. Cutting them nearly square eliminated this when the covers were installed. The cutouts were enlarged about 2mm in each direction. I'll measure the openings tomorrow and post an exact, (?), number.

I was thinking that the fat humbucker route would only require that the rail corners be squared out some. I was planning black pickups anyway so they could look fine if the cutout was a close fit to the overall shape. If that still looks too bogus, then a pair of black covers would certainly do the trick. I really like the look you got with those covers. I actually have two black ones in my box of miscellaneous pickup stuff but whether they would fit the same way yours do is another matter since they have mounting screw tabs on them. I may need to use that link you provided to get some plain ones.

Thanks for the measurements on your cutouts. If i use the covers, that will help.

I'm not going for the traditional JM look, anyway. I'm getting it drilled for an American Standard bridge and will probably put a Bigsby on it.

 

[Cagey]

I'm not going for the traditional JM look, anyway. I'm getting it drilled for an American Standard bridge and will probably put a Bigsby on it.

If you do decide you want to do the Bigsby thing, I'd have two suggestions. First, rather than the AmStd bridge, get it drilled for a TOM bridge and no stop tailpiece, but instead of the TOM install one of these Wilkinson parts...

...also available here for less. The extra height will necessitate an angled neck pocket to compensate, but if Warmoth drills for a TOM you get that automatically. Then, when you buy the Bigsby, get the B5 rather than the B50. The B5 costs more, but it has roller bearings on the crossbar rather than bushings, so in combination with the roller saddle bridge you'll have a more reliable return to neutral and you'll be less inclined to cuss at your guitar for going out of tune all the time.

 

[rgand]

I'm not going for the traditional JM look, anyway. I'm getting it drilled for an American Standard bridge and will probably put a Bigsby on it.

If you do decide you want to do the Bigsby thing, I'd have two suggestions. First, rather than the AmStd bridge, get it drilled for a TOM bridge and no stop tailpiece, but instead of the TOM install one of these Wilkinson parts...

...also available here for less. The extra height will necessitate an angled neck pocket to compensate, but if Warmoth drills for a TOM you get that automatically. Then, when you buy the Bigsby, get the B5 rather than the B50. The B5 costs more, but it has roller bearings on the crossbar rather than bushings, so in combination with the roller saddle bridge you'll have a more reliable return to neutral and you'll be less inclined to cuss at your guitar for going out of tune all the time.

Thanks for the input, KG. I deliberated a lot on which type of bridge and finally settled on the Callaham Am Std with Bigsby cutouts. We'll see how that works. If it sucks, I'll convert to a roller bridge and shim the neck.

As to the Bigsby, I definitely ordered the B5 because it's made in the US. I didn't know it has bearings on the crossbar. All the better. I'll initially play without the Bigsby to see how I like it hardtail. If I decide against the Bigsby, it'll go on my Tele.

 

[stratamania]

Got it on the traditional look. I like the surrounds you used too...

 

[rapfohl09]

Did you use any sort of caulk to stick the covers to the pickups? Or just press fit?

 

[BigSteve22]

Did you use any sort of caulk to stick the covers to the pickups? Or just press fit?

No, these just press fit on. On my Hagstrom project I used these same covers in black on a pair of '83 vintage DiMarzio DP-103's. On that project I used a small piece of soft "dental wax" to hold things securely. Never had any trouble with them coming loose.