ES5V first build

[DarkMark]

Does the p90 pickup sit balanced on the apex of the curved surface with gaps under the screw holes?

[Simon Barden]

Does the p90 pickup sit balanced on the apex of the curved surface with gaps under the screw holes?

No. You'll need to put some sandpaper (I'd suggest P180 grit) on the top of the guitar by the pickup hole, and rub the cover on it until the base has a curve to it that matches the top. Only sand until the base under the raised part of the cover is curved, not the 'wings'. There is a bit of flex in the plastic so the 'wings' should then sit flat on the guitar once screwed down.

I haven't any experience with archtop bridges, so don't know if they have different acoustic properties, but again, sanding down to match the curve of the top will give best results. The split bridge base is there partly to accommodate different radius tops without sanding, but it's always better to sand it and have the best contact between the bridge and the top.

[Andy123]

No. You'll need to put some sandpaper (I'd suggest P180 grit) on the top of the guitar by the pickup hole, and rub the cover on it until the base has a curve to it that matches the top. Only sand until the base under the raised part of the cover is curved, not the 'wings'. There is a bit of flex in the plastic so the 'wings' should then sit flat on the guitar once screwed down.

Not knowing anything about these, I just assumed from looking at the un-assembled kit photo that the wings went under the face of the guitar. It comes with a hole routed to the rectangular shape of the pick up implying that the pick up would sit in there. If it just got screwed onto the top of the guitar, why route a hole?

[Simon Barden]

No, they sit on the top of the guitar. The pickup baseplate also has metal wings and the cover has shallow indents in the wings that fit over the metal.



The hole in the body is to accommodate the main body of the pickup. Dog-ear P90 pickups are not height adjustable and screw directly into the wood of the guitar. The pickups are built to the approximate height required by altering the depth of the legs on the wings, and providing a matching height pickup cover. You can get shims to raise the whole pickup up, or adjust the pole piece height accordingly, but generally most dog-ear P90s are left as factory standard.

The above photo is of a bridge position P90, so the pickup sits a lot higher above the body than the neck one (at least it does on Gibson-style guitars with a significant neck angle). As there is generally less distance between the body and strings at the neck position, neck pickups have shallower covers so more of the pickup extends below the cover and into the body cavity (as the basic pickup height doesn't change).

[DarkMark]

Hmm, ok. Thanks again Simon, I doubt I would of figured that out left to my own devices.
Andy123, the routed hole is smaller than the black cover which sits on top of the body, and larger than the metal section which obviously pokes through the hole.

[Simon Barden]

Here's the cover of a bridge pickup that I sanded using that method. It now sits nicely on the top of the guitar with no gaps. Carry on sanding until the curve reaches start of the ears, but no further.

[blinddrew]

I'm not convinced that approach will work with this kit Simon. If you pop the pick up into the hole the dog ears are floating about 4mm above the body. I think some kind of spacer will be required.

[Simon Barden]

There's always the option of widening the pickup rout so that the pickup sits inside it and just the ears rest on the edges.

It looks more like a couple of mm on DarkMark's guitar, about the same as I had with my bridge cover. The ears are never going to naturally lie flat on a curved surface, so will have to be pulled down a bit by the fixing screws. I have a slight gap at the ends of the ears if I just sit the cover on the guitar, but can press them down flat easily enough.

You also need to consider the height of the pickup from the strings. A spacer will raise the height, sanding will lower it. I don't know how much clearance you have with the kit, but neck P90s normally sit away from the strings. You don't want the pickup sitting too close to them.

[blinddrew]

Will get the tape measure out after lunch and get back to you!

[blinddrew]

Of heights and measures...
Some approximate measures from my kit as follows:
The wing tips (as it were) have about a 3mm gap above the surface.
The plastic cover is about 10mm high.
The end of the fretboard will be about 15mm above the surface of the top.

How do these numbers compare with your kit DarkMark?