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NEED ADVICE: Mounting pickup with low action without weakening the neck??

Posted by Mark Jeghers on August 6, 2016 at 9:38pm in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion

Greets,

I am starting a new build, and I am facing the dilemma how how to mount the pickup without chopping deeply into the neck.

In the past I dodged this issue by using special ultra-thin pickups.  Once I *did* notch the neck to fit the pickup lower, and it weakened the neck so bad the instrument wouldn't hold a tune at all, and I had to add metal straps internally to strengthen the neck in order to rescue the guitar.

There must be a better way!

Darn pickups are easily 1/2 inch high, and that makes it hard to achieve low action.  I really want the high frets to be more usable, so low action is a must. As it is, if this pickup is mounted right against the neck with no notching, it will be a good 9 or 10 mm high!

I really want the neck all the way thru the body for strength.  And I don't want to weaken it by notching a slot for the pickup.  How have you guys worked around this?

Pics are attached...

Thanks and blessings,

/Mark

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Replies

  • darryl kernaghan August 9, 2016 at 4:28pm

    I get a lot of jarrah where i am,hard,strong,it's compressive strength very high,making it ideal for necks,but unfortunately,it is rather plain in appearance when only 40 mm wide,the grain beauty only really starts to show at 150-200 mm widths,but I can live with that as long as a 5 minute walk can get me 3 or 4 necks worth for free by visiting a house building site or 2,but a t moment,i have about 3/4 of a tonne in my carport,reclaimed from a demolished shed for a bottle of rum,so i just try to use a contrasting fretboard as a feature.Jonno,I made many guitars from jarrah with no fretboard in my early builds,no problem strength wise,not sure how the merbau stacks against the jarrah,as i've only used it for a 6 string lap steel,25x 20 mm laminated, and that is very rigid with 6 strings

    • Jonno > darryl kernaghan August 9, 2016 at 7:05pm
      Wow thatz oodles of Jarrah Darryl. Hey I think there is a little song title there 'Oodles Of Jarrah'.

      @ At Fomhorach.Hmm. I'm a minimalist at heart. Leaving out a seperate fretboard might be my cup of tea. Correct me if wrong but I think I read that original fenders had neck/fretboard as single piece of sugar maple with no seperate frettie.

      @Blues Frog. Can you explain or depict how you place the supporting piece in the box.

      @Way. Would you choose the look of a wood over its hardness. Do you have a fave wood that is as hard as you can get but finishes up nice
      • Blues Frog > Jonno August 9, 2016 at 7:21pm

        306570838?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024

        See the piece in the photo. This allows the neck to be big enough to fit in the box at the right height, and i glue the neck in for added stability.

        • Jonno > Blues Frog August 9, 2016 at 8:03pm
          Gotcha Blues. Very nifty
  • JL August 8, 2016 at 10:28am

    Shane posted a video here somewhere about, he glues more wood to the sides of the neck inside the box.

    • Jonno > JL August 9, 2016 at 6:26am
      Such a wealth of info on this site. Its incredible repository of build experience. For my first build I used a top of the box method. Builds 2 and 3 thru the box. I started build 4 with a thru box. Build five is the one I posted showing the cut out and bracing for a transformer. But I am quite taken with this short piece thru the box and a neck then attached to that I am going to modify build 4 to try this method after getting onto some 40mm wide Merbau which I can make 3 necks out of for 6 bucks. Feel like a pig in %&it. Merbau hss a janka hardness about the same as Jarrah. Gonna be much harder workin with the few hand tools I have. All part of the journey. Cheers all. Jonno
      • Fomhorach > Jonno August 9, 2016 at 6:32am

        Everyone seems to get much better woods than me. 

        All I can get a regular (but quite cheap) supply of is mahogany.

        • Ron "Oily" Sprague > Fomhorach August 9, 2016 at 6:45am
          Jeez, I'd kill for some cheap mahogany...all I can get is cast off plywood. And yet, I can build decent necks and boxes with good tone out of them...
          • Paul Craig > Ron "Oily" Sprague August 9, 2016 at 1:13pm

            What, you get cheap plywood? Too far for a joke.Hahaha

            Mahogany is tops, be happy with all you can get.

          • Fomhorach > Ron "Oily" Sprague August 9, 2016 at 7:25am

            Yeah it's decent, I'm just tired of working with it.

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