I'm about to place an order for a carved top Telecaster body, and I'm trying to decide whether or not I should wood-mount the humbuckers. I used to have a Peavey Wolfgang that was designed like this, and I liked the aesthetics of the direct mount. I'm wondering if anyone who's done this can tell me if I'm going to need to do a lot of shimming, as I assume the routs are drilled on the deeper side? Is it necessary to widen the mounting holes on the pickup baseplate, like I used to have to do with my Wolfgang when installing new pickups, or are there screws that are short and skinny enough to work as a direct mount replacement to the traditional pickup screws? And finally, does anyone know of a good source for small washers that can be used as shims for direct-mounting? Thanks for the help.
Wood Mounting Humbuckers?
- Thread starter rspst14
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bagman67
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The advantage, if you want to call it that, is cosmetic. There is no tonal disadvantage or advantage to speak of.
The pickup is responding to disturbances in its magnetic field by the oscillation of the string, not the vibration of the wood (leaving aside the possibility of a microphonic coil, and other stuff that the EE's around here understand better than I do). The foam keeps the pickup in a constant orientation with respect to the strings, in the same way a bezel does - so it's really just a matter of what you like the look of.
The pickup is responding to disturbances in its magnetic field by the oscillation of the string, not the vibration of the wood (leaving aside the possibility of a microphonic coil, and other stuff that the EE's around here understand better than I do). The foam keeps the pickup in a constant orientation with respect to the strings, in the same way a bezel does - so it's really just a matter of what you like the look of.
line6man
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rspst14 said:
How exactly would a pickup pushed up firmly by foam be any more wobbly than if it was just suspended by two screws in a mounting ring? Mounting with foam makes it more secure than with a mounting ring.
Also, I agree with Bagman.
Some people claim that the guitar sounds better with firmly secured direct mount pickups (EVH, IIRC?), but if that's true, that would indicate that you have microphonic pickups. A good pickup should be sensitive to disturbances in it's magnetic field, but not able to transduce vibration from the body. Nothing is more irritating than pickups that give you finger noise if you so much as brush your finger across the plastic! Do you really want to try to intensify any resonance from the body in the pickups? Body resonance doesn't sound good at all if you've got tremolo springs making noise, for example.
Death by Uberschall
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Other than cosmetic, the only benefit I've seen going wood mount is less chance of feedback from the pick up.
Steve_Karl
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I think it would be great to see some detailed pictures of a wood mounted HB.
Does anyone have any good shots?
Does anyone have any good shots?
bagman67
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Steve_Karl said:
They're full-length, not up-close, but Carvin's C66 Contour line gallery featuers direct-mount pickups:
http://www.carvinguitars.com/isa/process/getGuitarsByModelID.php?model=c66
Likewise their Bolt Plus:
http://www.carvinguitars.com/isa/process/getGuitarsByModelID.php?model=boltplus
Lotsa fancy wood porn there. Enjoy.
Disco Scottie
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Steve_Karl
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Steve_Karl
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Yea
but this is the type of shot I was hoping to find.
http://www.sightsea.com/renders/korina_finished/037.jpg
but this is the type of shot I was hoping to find.
http://www.sightsea.com/renders/korina_finished/037.jpg
Steve_Karl
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Yea !!!
That's it. Wanted to see the wings.
Thanks!
That's it. Wanted to see the wings.
Thanks!
