EX kit

[Mr.Drifter]

Yeah, I had the same. Ended up moving mine back until the pickup fit, and just glued it in there. Whether I have intonation issues or not is yet to be found. Haven't set it up yet hah.

You could route out the hole a bit to get the width you need, which will work

[CascadiaGuitarGeek]

Yeah that's definitely too far into the pickup cavity. When I had a similar issue on a partscaster I built I just carved out the pickup mounting ring to suit, not sure if that would work in this situation though. Another option would be to enlarge the pickup cavity, although since it looks like the neck actually overlaps you might see some of it past the pickup ring. This could be a tricky one.

[djk7]

I am sure you are going to think this is crazy but we had a straw vote and are going to chop some mils off the end of the fingerboard so the pick up surround fits without a visible hole underneath. I think setting the neck so the pickup and surround fit the cavity would have put the intonation at the extreme end of the scale length but you should be OK Mr Drifter.

[Mr.Drifter]

I am sure you are going to think this is crazy but we had a straw vote and are going to chop some mils off the end of the fingerboard so the pick up surround fits without a visible hole underneath. I think setting the neck so the pickup and surround fit the cavity would have put the intonation at the extreme end of the scale length but you should be OK Mr Drifter.

I did triple check and make sure it'll be fine, but yeah, does look like it'll be very close to the end, but should be right.

So yeah, don't do what I did seems to be the case, haha
Would have done flush with the route, but decided to check the pickup surround clearance first, which is why it ended up how it did

[FrankenWashie]

I did a double and a triple check on mine before I set it, and there is just enough room, though the very front of the pup ring still jams hard against the neck end. It is one of the mods I am going to do to shave that end a bit to ease the in and out for the pup.

[djk7]

I did everything disastrous I could have done this time. I taped off the head to black the front, used black shed paint forgot to stir it, forgot to mask off the tuning peg holes so it dripped through then I tried to get it all off with a stanley blade and scored the back! It hasn't dried too bad. Looks like ancient Gibson. I am not sure where I am going. May sand the whole thing back and restain it. I was well pist off as the stain was looking great but I have recovered and it is quite funny now

[Joe3334]

That looks messy, I'm sure you can fix it up. We live and learn.

About the neck pickup surround/ring being too big, I know for a fact that there are pickup rings designed to jump around this issue but I don't know the actual name of them... I spent some time looking for an image to show what I'm talking about.
This is a genuine Ibanez part so it is expensive (holy **** $54 for a pickup ring?!) but I'm sure there's cheaper versions made in China that are more affordable.

$54 https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-IBAN...-/141745794551

$33 https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Original...-/282781619660

Cheers, Joe

[Simon Barden]

I feel your pain.

If the paint wasn't well mixed, it may not have dried as well as you think well and affect any more paint you put on top. So I'd sand it back and do it again.

There's nothing to stop you painting all the headstock black if you'd need to take too much thickness off to get rid of the paint marks on the rear. If you do this I'd mask a 'V' shape on the back of the neck with tape (so there's a black point that points down the neck), which is better looking than an abrupt cut-off line.

[Mr.Drifter]

The rear of the headstock should just sand off for the most part, unless it's stained fairly deep.
Don't know how much thickness you can remove before it's an issue though. In theory a light sanding to remove a top finish should be fine

[JohnH]

What a bugger!