Pickup rout specifications.

[Unwound G]

Anyone can tell me if Mini-humbuckers, P90s and TV Jones 'trons share the same body pickup routing or at least with some minimal sanding at the edges ?

Thanks.

 

[blue313]

I may be mistaken but the P-90 is the hold up there.  As far as the TV Jones, it depends on what mount they have but they should work.

 

[Unwound G]

TV Jones makes 'Trons without mounting mounting ears which can be screwed to guitar bodies like P90 soap bar pickups.

P90 Soap bar and P90 Dogear pickups both need cavities in the body.

I am just wondering if these pickup routs share somewhat similar dimensions so I can order Warmoth bodies with the flexibility of using different models of pickups without much modifications.

 

[blue313]

Sorry. What I meant to say was that a mini hum and a TV Jones will fit in a humbucker rout, a P-90 will not and vice versa.   It would need a serious rout to be universal for all those options.

 

[jackthehack]

A mini-humbucker wil NOT fit a standard HB route, it's "mini" to fit in a P90 route, don't know the specs on the TVJones 'trons, the ones I've seen look like they take a full HB route unless they make a special model to fit in a P90/MiniHB route

 

[Unwound G]

I did some research late into the night and I found this :

Believe it or not, a P90 rout will accomodate all the pickups in question.  A P90 Soap bar pickup is actually the biggest of the whole lot in length and width.  Depth is also not an issue.  The only thing to be concerned with is to make sure the pickups are mounted on pickguards or pickup rings to cover up the extra space in the rout and facilitate height adjustments.

The smallest pickup is the Mini-humbucker, then the TV Jones 'Trons with or without mounting ears.

This opens a whole new avenue for me to try different pickups when I order bodies with P90 routs.

 

[blue313]

A mini-humbucker wil NOT fit a standard HB route, it's "mini" to fit in a P90 route, don't know the specs on the TVJones 'trons, the ones I've seen look like they take a full HB route unless they make a special model to fit in a P90/MiniHB route

Other than extra room, I haven't had any issues mounting mini humbuckers into full sized HB sized routs.  The ones that Ive used are neither wider, taller or deeper :icon_scratch:

 

[callaway]

I believe that Gibson actually invented the mini-humbucker because they had made a ton of guitars with P-90 routes, but the P-90 fell out of fashion and they wanted to put a humbucker in there to appeal to a wider audience. So I think the mini-humbucker was actually designed to fit in the P-90 route with no problems.

Wish I could remember where I got that info...

 

[OzziePete]

I believe that Gibson actually invented the mini-humbucker because they had made a ton of guitars with P-90 routes, but the P-90 fell out of fashion and they wanted to put a humbucker in there to appeal to a wider audience. So I think the mini-humbucker was actually designed to fit in the P-90 route with no problems.

Wish I could remember where I got that info...

The mini humbucker was originally, I believe, a pickup in the Epiphone line of guitars before Gibson took that company over in the late 50s.

The mini hum was used for jazzer hollow bodies, and the Johnny Smith style of suspended pickup.

This pickup eventually found it's way into the then new Firebird guitars, as the pickup offered some twang and treble to it, as opposed to the Gisbon humbucker which was more fuller sounding. By then (early 60s), the surf sound had taken off, darker, fuller sounding humbuckers were out of vogue, and the P90 was dismissed as old fashioned and too noisy (but Strats weren't!??).

By 1967/68, Gibson was getting pressured to re introduce the older style of Gibson Les Paul guitar due to that model's popularity with the likes of Clapton, Green, Richards etc. using old models that were no longer in production. Gibson re introduced a LP guitar in 1968, and went back to equipping them with P90s.

But the public was also demanding a LP guitar with humbuckers by then, as the age of hyper amplified backline and distortion plus reigned supreme.

They re designed the mini humbucker and improved it's 'output power' significantly and modified it so that it had adjustable pole pieces. Gibson then utilised what they had & modified P90 pickup covers & installed the newer mini humbuckers into them and used pre existing LP bodies. Thus was born the LP Deluxe.

The P90 mini humbucker cover can be bought from AllParts. So a P90 rout can accommodate a mini humbucker.

A mini humbucker will also fit into a standard humbucker rout, but the space around the pickup in that sized rout is the issue unless you are putting the pickup into a pickguard, ala Strat. I haven't seen any mounting rings that hold a mini humbucker snuggly AND cover up the rest of a standard humbucker rout. The chrome Firebird mounting rings for the mini humbuckers, do not cover up a standard humbucker sized rout.

I believe the P90 won't fit into a standard humbucker rout without significant modding of the rout or getting a P90 pickup squeezed into a humbucker sized cover.

 

[exalted]

The P90 mini humbucker cover can be bought from AllParts. So a P90 rout can accommodate a mini humbucker.

A p90-mini hb-p90 was actually my desired build, but Warmoth nixed the idea. If they do indeed sell a cover, then it's still possible. I looked at the Allparts site but didn't see anything. Is there any way you could link it to me?

 

[exalted]

This is the response I got from Lollar Guitars:

"The only problem youll have is mine may not be in phase with whatever you
mix it with, you could order the pickup with 4 conductor wire so if it was
out of phase you could swap the lead wires around to correct it
Jason Lollar"

So it looks doable.

 

[Unwound G]

The P90 mini humbucker cover can be bought from AllParts. So a P90 rout can accommodate a mini humbucker.

A p90-mini hb-p90 was actually my desired build, but Warmoth nixed the idea. If they do indeed sell a cover, then it's still possible. I looked at the Allparts site but didn't see anything. Is there any way you could link it to me?

Mini-humbucker covers (both Les Paul Deluxe and Firebird types)  are generally never removed from the time they come out of manufacture.

To mount these on a P90 routed guitar, you can use mini-humbucker rings which can cover up any gaps or extra spaces for a cleaner look.  These can be bought at :

Allpart for Les Paul Deluxe types - http://www.allparts.com/store/pickup-covers-rings-parts-pickup-rings-pc-0747-023,Product.asp

or

WD Music for Firebird types - http://www.wdmusic.com/parts_hardware_pickup_mounting_rings.html

 

[exalted]

Thanks for the info!

But I'm not sure which my guitar will use.

I went with Warmoth's new 'split' Jazzmaster.

I hate to drill holes in it if I don't have to.  :dontknow: