Bill Lawrence pickups too high for guitar...

[bhuether]

I am putting Bill Lawrence L-500R and L500L in my guitar. The thing is, they are taller thn most humbuckers. I have the neck position as low as possible and it is still pretty damn close to the strings. I suppose that means I need to file the pickup cavities down so that pickups can go lower. How would I go about doing that? Can someone recommend tools and a website?

thanks,

brian

[HeavyMetal4Ever]

Check out the Dremel brand. They make exactly what you want.

As for a tutorial, just google it, i'm sure there are plenty online.

Rock on!

[fookgub]

Nah, router is the way to go for this job. Just use a template bit and guide it off the existing rout. Remember to tape off the face of the guitar so you don't scratch it. If you don't have/can't borrow a router, it's probably cheaper to just take the guitar to a tech rather than buy a router. You can save money on the job by disassembling/reassembling the guitar yourself. For a flat-top bolt-on guitar, the actual "work" shouldn't even take 15 minutes.

[bhuether]

I was checking out the Dremel stuff. I take it you had the oscillating tools in mind? I can't imagine how a rotary tool would be able to get the corners...

If so, do you get the oscilating tool with an appropriate tip?

I am totally brand new to this stuff.

thanks,

brian

[HeavyMetal4Ever]

If you want to make the whole pickup cavity deeper, listen to fookgub. A router would be much easier than the Dremel. Sorry about the misinformation. My bad.

I thought you wanted to deepen only the part where the pickup "feet" meet the body. I used the high speed cutter tips to do this on one of my guitars. The rotary Dremels are great for this kind of finer work.

Again, sorry about the wrong info. I hope you get the results you want.

Rock on!

[bhuether]

I just want to deepen the part that the pickup rests on so that I can lower it down further than I can at the moment. So given that, you think a router is the way to go?

thanks,

brian

[Rich]

I just got a BL today the guy wanted installed in his 1570 [bridge]. I took one look at it and said, that's a full rout, requires the removal of both of the other pickups just to rout it, and because the wiring leaves straight out of the bottom, the rout has to be at least 1/4" deeper than the deepest depth for the pickup alone. WTF designed these things?! [redundant question].

[fookgub]

Rich, I know the feeling. I had to deepen the rout on a RG321MH just a few days ago to fit a Rio Grande Tallboy (it's called Tallboy for a reason, btw). Annoyingly, the 321 has the neck pickup wire going through the bridge rout before entering the control cavity. This would have prevented the Tallboy from fitting all the way down into to deepened cavity, so I had to drill a new wiring channel going directly from the neck pickup to the control cavity, too.

Anyway, even if you're just deepening the "feet" area, I still think a router is better. It will be faster and cleaner than using a Dremel. The Dremel will surely work, though. I just don't really trust those things... it's too easy to catch something and have the tool go spinning off across the face of the guitar.

[Rich]

Dremel is fine for small work like routing the feet deeper, especially in basswood. Mahogany, not so good.