attaching a pickup question...

[xoe]

hello i'm about to build a complete guitar,including the humbucking pickups.what i would like to know is....i've seen pickups attached to the body with out any pickup rings,are they just screwed right to the body?i've seen an ibanez single coil screwed to the body and it just had some foam under the pickup.so is this the best way for humbuckers too?

[75Destroyer]

Most conventional humbuckers are just to big to do that. You need the bezel in order to adjust the height. It really depends on the pickups your using, I've seen a few that looked like they were attached to the surface, but they were adjustable and most certainly had to be routed out underneath anyway. What kind of guitar are you building? If it's a strat style, the pups just are just attached to the pick guard. The only time I've used Humbuckers without bezels are when I've mounted them in a pick guard which in that case acts as a bezel.

It's easier to answer if you post the guitar and the pickups your using.

[David Schwab]

Yes, you can mount full size humbuckers this way.

You just use some wood screws to screw the humbuckers to the wood, and put some foam rubber under them so you can adjust the hight. Some people drill out the holes on the mounting tabs to accept larger screws. Just keep in mind that if you do this, you wont be able to use those pickups with mounting rings.

You need to make sure you pickup cavities are not too deep. If they are, shim the pickups on some wood blocks.

A cool option would be to make the pickups adjustable from the back of the guitar. To do that, you would drill your two mounting holes all the way through the guitar, and then use longer screws and put foam under the pickups.

That's a bit tricky though, so don't try it unless you can figure out how to make it work with your guitar.

[LtKojak]

Originally Posted by David Schwab

A cool option would be to make the pickups adjustable from the back of the guitar

Oh no, David! The Rickenbacker Glenn Frey model is just like this.

That's the worst service-unfriendly abomination ever concieved... add this to their epoxy sealed p'ups and BINGO! You've got THE guitar tech's worst nightmare.

I HATE this system with a passion. Can you tell?

[David Schwab]

Originally Posted by LtKojak

Oh no, David! The Rickenbacker Glenn Frey model is just like this.

That's the worst service-unfriendly abomination ever concieved... add this to their epoxy sealed p'ups and BINGO! You've got THE guitar tech's worst nightmare.

I HATE this system with a passion. Can you tell?

Well not talking about the Rick system, I've done this on many guitars, including the AS-57 when I worked at American Showster. When I started there you couldn't adjust the pickups at all! You had to disassemble the guitar which would probably chip the paint.

If you go over to MIMF.com, many builders do it there as well. it's all in the execution, and not the idea.

Old Danelectros also adjusted the pickups from the back.