Deepening the pickup cavity?

[bhuether]

I have some rather tall pickups (Bill Lawrence L-500R, and L-500L) 9tall compared to most anyway) and when placed in my Ibanez S540 they are quite close to the strings and can't be lowered to normal levels. So I was thinking I need to file awya the bottom surface of the cavity to achieve more depth. I have never done woodwork and have no idea what this entails. Any simple ideas or is a router really the only way?

thanks,

brian

[daz]

Of course there are other ways besides a router. Truth be told, you could chisel wood out of the cavity if you don't care what it looks like ! And when i first did this i in fact DID use that method ! It's sloppy, but it's not visible so WTF. However that was long ago. I still don't route them and i still don't end up with a really clean job like a router can do, but i now use a dremel and it's good enough as far as i'm concerned. But the fact is, all you need to do is remove some wood from an area that is not seen, so cosmetic perfection is un-necassary. If you feel it IS, get someone to route it. Probably shouldn't cost more than maybe $20-30.

[pwoody]

for me the chisel is also the way to go. it is sloppy, but....my only tip would be make sure you use a SHARP chisel and be carefull not to cut yourself. {like i did}

[Robert M. Martinelli]

FWIW I upgraded a 540 ( mahogany body/bubinga top ) with L500s as well, and I didn't have to make the routings deeper. Though the action is REALLY low ( and I mean LOW, as I use this guitar for "Gambale" stuff ) I set the pickups about 3 mm from the low E and about 1,5 mm from the high E and the guitar sounds just great ( L500s don't have the same "string pull" a strat pickup has, so they can be set closer to the strings without side effects ).
I'd try to see/hear how the guitar sounds/works before working on the body; chances are you' ll find no route deepening is needed.
Hope this helps
Best regards
Bob

[jack briggs]

As a woodworker of many years, I can say that it would be an awful lot of work to deepen a cavity with a chisel, and do a clean job.

Do you have access to a drill press? I would chuck a 1/2" forstner bit (drill flat bottomed holes) into a drill press and set the depth of cut to what you desire for the final depth of the cavity, and clean up with a chisel. This will save time and make a cleaner cut.



Cheers,

[spud1950]

I would chuck a 1/2" forstner bit (drill flat bottomed holes) into a drill press and set the depth of cut to what you desire for the final depth of the cavity, and clean up with a chisel. This will save time and make a cleaner cut.

Yup, that's what I've done a few times.Don't own a router or have access to one,but a friend has a drill press that I've used.This a quick and easy alternative.Bottom line is though,no matter which method you decide to use,if you have no wood working expirience,practice on some scrap wood first until you feel confident to do it on your guitar or you may end up doing some serious damage!

[daz]

As a woodworker of many years, I can say that it would be an awful lot of work to deepen a cavity with a chisel, and do a clean job.

i don't think it's even possible to do a clean job. Sloppy would be the best i think one could hope for. But it's really not all that long or tedious. But the point is not that it should be the way to go, but that not everyone has access to a press or router or even a lowly dremel. And in that case it cane be done in about 20 minutes and once the guard is back on for all intents and purposes the results are no different than the best method. so while it's not by any means the perferred method, for those who have no other option it is doable and yelids a guitar that with the guard on is no differerent than a routed job as far as anyone can tell.

[bhuether]

I ended up using a chisel which was quite tedious. Cleaned it up with sandpaper and it came out decent. But after all the work the pickup for which I needed to do the deepening (Bill Lawrence L-500R) isn't working... I can visually see that it looks like one of the coils is damaged...

Buit the Bill Lawrence L-500L in the bridge is sounding quite good...

thanks,

brian

[jrfrond]

FWIW- I usually use a Dremel in a transparent router base with a router bit to deepen/modify pickup slots, control cavities. I want the cutting power of a router with the precision of the Dremel, and go slow and easy.