Pickup padding?

[dwillen]

I recently decided to direct mount guitar pickups into a body. I read online though that I would need some padding, since I'm using a trem and the pickups might pick up the springs without the padding. Where do I find this padding?

 

[mayfly]

you mean to stuff inside the trem springs?  Any open cell foam will do. 

 

[Great Ape]

Foam under the pickups, in the routed pickup cavities, will work just fine. Never heard of p-ups 'picking up' the springs! Never had it happen on any rear-routed body of mine. Foam under the p-ups enables them to be suitably close to the strings when there's no pickguard to mount them on. Pick up the springs? Really?

 

[MikeW]

I've had guitars where the trem springs pick up sympathetic vibrations from the strings and resonate pretty loudly. One guitar I had even did it on G. It was quite a trip to feel the bridge and strings vibrate from that. Strangely enough, when you played that guitar acoustically, you could hear the springs vibrate whenever you hit a G. I don't recall it ever bleeding over into the pickups though. A little foam padding under the springs solved the problem quite nicely.

 

[dwillen]

Thanks for the replies. I realize now though that if I do wind up using the foam, I'll just use the foam the pickups come it lol I can't believe I just now thought of that.

 

[line6man]

I always just use tissues/toilet paper/paper towels/etc. Steve Vai used to (Or still does?) stuff EVO's trem cavity with tissues and tape them in. Personally, I cut them to fit underneath the springs, because I don't use rear covers.

 

[Day-mun]

Thanks for the replies. I realize now though that if I do wind up using the foam, I'll just use the foam the pickups come it lol I can't believe I just now thought of that.

:sign13: That is what I use every time I gotta pack behind the pickups to get good upward pressure against the mounting screws.

 

[croquet hoop]

I've had guitars where the trem springs pick up sympathetic vibrations from the strings and resonate pretty loudly. [...] A little foam padding under the springs solved the problem quite nicely.

That happened to me too, now I just slide a cotton pad between the springs and the bottom of the spring cavity, like line6man said. No more sympathetic resonance, problem solved.

 

[Slackjaw]

I have a guitar that the pickup hole is punched straight through to the tremolo cavity. It's a thinner than normal body also, and the ends of the pole pieces are pretty close to the springs. This is still the best sounding guitar I own. A bit of natural reverb...

 

[swarfrat]

I used a vintage 1980's sock tie. I stuffed some down the middle of each spring.