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p90 mounting stability

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  • p90 mounting stability

    I purchased an epiphone les paul featuring p90 of both neck and bridge.
    I am confused whether the factory flimsiness of mounting these two p90's is appropriate, or not.
    Both are a bit wobbly because the mounting precompressed springs might be inadequate in their expansive forces.
    If anybody has been thru this, what is recommended if any at all?
    I built a set neck tele in 2007 (from factory blemish assembly line), installing 50's melody maker pickups in both positions, but I chose to not use the usual mount to circumvent pickguard complexities.
    Instead I used carbon fiber toothpicks, mere cylindrical solid rods 1/16" to construct rafters within the cavity, longitudinally, port and starboard.
    rod endpoints (machined to spearheads) were precisely wedged and anchored snugly against retaining cavity walls, using carpenters glue at their endpoints. Consideration must be given to appropriate azimuth and aperture alignment (24th and 36th node apertures) as factory did have angle in neck to body adjoin. the melody maker pups were purposefully stripped naked exposing fragile coil filaments and alnico bar. the underside was carpenter glued onto the carbon fiber rod perch.
    what I was trying to realize was whether rigidity makes any sonic difference insofar as mounting. these pups are solidly integrated into the solidbody because there is no featured adjustment. now does this destroy sound or enhance sound, if any? do realize destructive and or constructive signal generation can result between the vibrating string, the vibrating solidbody, and the pseudo vibrating pup. this is analogous to the rolls Royce wheel suspension system offering a delicately smooth ride, because road imperfections that vibrate the wheels and suspension system become disjoint from the personnel carriage.
    One tends to believe a shaky pup will lose some of its intended output compared to a rigidly attached pup, or am I mistaken?
    I scoped the output using an ebow generator (steadied by fixed jig) however how would you compare any difference without actually purposefully imposing a wobbly mount condition without having to destroy the rigid perch?
    if I knew the answer, I could either leave the p90's as is factory, wobbly, or, I could alterate the factory's p90 mount arrangement into the same carbon fiber rod perch discussed.
    your recommendations are invited. thanks in advance

  • #2
    I would guess that the level of the signal generated is primarily a function of string movement relative to the pickup and the distance from string to pickup. I doubt that a pickup would move enough to make a difference under normal conditions. The pickups will pick up some mechanical noise from the body and if they are rigidly mounted they will pick up lot more. I suspect that this what creates the tonal differences between solid mount and suspended pickups. I have screwed pickups directly to the body of one of my guitars and that guitar seems especially lively but by the time I get everything changed out and hooked up I can't be sure if it's my imagination or something else I have changed.

    If your pickup is that wobbly I would suggest getting a couple of small blocks of wood and placing those under the pickups and then tightening them down firmly. I can't imagine that that would not couple the pickups to the body sufficiently. If you try this let us know how it affects the tone because this sounds like a good A/B comparison.

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    • #3
      pups wobbly mount concerns

      Originally posted by Richard View Post
      I would guess that the level of the signal generated is primarily a function of string movement relative to the pickup and the distance from string to pickup. I doubt that a pickup would move enough to make a difference under normal conditions. The pickups will pick up some mechanical noise from the body and if they are rigidly mounted they will pick up lot more. I suspect that this what creates the tonal differences between solid mount and suspended pickups. I have screwed pickups directly to the body of one of my guitars and that guitar seems especially lively but by the time I get everything changed out and hooked up I can't be sure if it's my imagination or something else I have changed.

      If your pickup is that wobbly I would suggest getting a couple of small blocks of wood and placing those under the pickups and then tightening them down firmly. I can't imagine that that would not couple the pickups to the body sufficiently. If you try this let us know how it affects the tone because this sounds like a good A/B comparison.


      What is not known is whether cancellation of sensed string oscillation results because wobbling pups are stroking out of phase relative to the string's imparted phase. That is the thesis of this thread.

      The same understanding can be applied to the flimsy plywood speaker panel and how loosely speaker fasteners anchor basket flange to the flimsy plywood panel. It's very believable the electrical phase is not phased to the said flimsy mechanical phase, resulting in annihilated acoustical energies.

      That's why the les paul is 9 pounds versus a basswood or alder at 4 pounds. Being heavier, it is less affected, hence pups realize less movement overall because they're attached to a non vibrating solidbody.

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