Ibanez JEM Forum banner

Converting your Ring/guard mount pups to Direct mount

40K views 77 replies 17 participants last post by  AlaskaBat 
#1 ·
I've been promising to get this thread going for a while now, so here is a start.

Many of us have guitars that we love, but wish they had direct mount pickups. My RG760 is one of them, but any guitar with pickup ring or pickguard mounted pickups can be converted to direct mount.

My process is a little different depending on how each guitars pickups were originally mounted. I'll be concentrating on the ring mount for now, but will expand this to pickguard mount in the near future.

The main goal here is to first open the original pickup route to fit in a new "tone block" that will have the correct dimensions for a direct mounted pickup.

You can use any wood you like as your tone block, but I highly suggest Maple for a guitar that was ring mounted. I say this because the new mount must be strong enough to hold a screw under spring tension. That said, any hardwood will be acceptable.

Getting started; here are some pics of the original route being opened up for my new block:

Original route:





No more Ears!!!



Getting deeper. You need to get rid of the entire recess for the original pups.......we'll add a new recess into the new block.



Full depth!!! Scary ehh?????................



A rear view.



lk
 
See less See more
6
#3 ·
Yup, I sure did. It's necessary to go to the full depth of the original pickup screw recesses.

The hole you see will be 100% filled in by my solid maple block. unfortunately, I can't find the block I already made for it and I have no more maple to make a new one. I'm going to pick up more tomorrow morning so I can continue this. It will make a LOT more sense by the end of the day tomorrow.
 
#14 ·
Looks really great, Ryc! Seems like you could have stood to remove even more wood than you did, particularly on the treble side. I can still see the mounting ring holes there. I can also see the dents in the wood where the pickup ring indentation is. If it were me, I'd probably remove a bit more wood on the bass, treble and neck side of that cavity.
 
#17 ·
Your absolutely right.......when I'm hand routing, I always leave about .5mm material on each side so that I can go to the final measurement manually with files and/or sanding blocks. For me, it's the best way to guarantee a nice square fit.

I was hoping to get further on this today, but life and a leaky toilet got in the way............so tomorrows the day.
 
#20 ·
I've had some problems with my camera, so I have a LOT more progress than whats in these pics. I thought you guys would like to see where things are now:

I'm actually doing two bodies at one time. They're both white 760's. One is getting the traditional '93 770 direct mount route (not my guitar, this is what my friend requested) and mine is getting the more updated route to match my RGT3120.

When I get a new camera (this weekend?) I'll post more of the progress and finish pics.

Anyway, here is what I had saved before the camera went kaput.

 
#28 ·
That is far too much effort and requires far more wood working skills and tools than I possess, when I could possibly buy an after market body with far less hassle. Not to say it doesn't look good and it should be exactly what you want. Looking forward to the finished product.

-Wolfram
 
#32 ·
Unfortunately, for what I wanted an aftermarket body was not an option. The two extra covers are stock covers from an RG2120X. I looked into the possibility of getting an aftermarket body made with what I wanted:

1. HSS configuration with direct-mount bridge pickup.
2. Square heel RG body with standard input jack.
3. Routing to match the RG2120X covers.

I couldn't find anyone to do this. I even talked to people who would supposedly do custom work and I was basically ignored.

I'm much happier with this anyway. I'd way rather have a genuine Ibanez body and I'm sure that once Ryc is done with it, it will look totally factory.
 
#33 ·
I test fit the sustainer system today....everything fits great and looks correct. I've finished cleaning up all the routes. I'm going to work on the rear cover fit tonight and a bit tomorrow. After that I'll do a quick primer coat and she's done.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top