First build GPB-4

[bgoulet]

i figured if there was one place to upgrade it would be with the pickups. i'd be curious to hear if anyone else has had the issues i did with seymour duncan. the pickups that came with the kit appear completely standard, the seymour duncan are decidedly not so.

the first thing i noticed is that the mounting ears are much smaller than standard. looking at the photo the SD is on the bottom compared to the kit pickup on the top. the ears are smaller and the screw hole does not line up either. this would not be good for replacing an existing installed pickup. the other problem is the screw hole is so close to the pickup body that there isn't even enough clearance for the head of the screw. this caused the screw to go in at an angle that you can see in the photo.

SD pickups sit on a piece of foam rather than using springs on the screws. the foam was too small which made the pickup sit to low. at first i thought this could be an issue with the routed depth of the cavity but after looking up fender specs, the kit was routed correctly. i end up screwing a couple 1/8" thick pieces of strapping into the bottom of the cavity to raise the pickups.

fully installed they don't raise and lower easily due to the screws being at an angle but i was able to get the properly setup

[bgoulet]

in another thread i mentioned the issues i had trying to get a replacement pickguard. the control cavities are cut in a way that no other fendor pickguard fits. before trying to order a custom PG i decided to experiment with making my own. i don't have a router and router bits in a drill press do not do clean work so i scrapped the plastic pickguard idea. i had an old dishwasher hanging around that was on its way to the dump so i decided to experiment making a PG out of the stainless steel from the body. the steel was a brushed finish on the dishwasher but became polished in the end. i rough cut with a nibbler, finalized the shape with files and grinding wheels, and then sanded and polished with increasingly finer grits. i still think i would prefer an all black plastic pickguard but i'm not unhappy with the results so i'm going to play it as-is for a while

this has been a fun and rewarding project and i'm already plotting my next build

[Trevor Davies]

The SS pick guard looks great - adds a nice contrast to the black body.

[DarkMark]

Agree with Mr Davies. That scratch plate, and the overall look, is pretty cool in my opinion.

[McCreed]

Nice finish, and good ingenuity with the old dishwasher!

Look forward to the next one!

[JohnH]

Scratch plate looks great! (as does the whole build, of course).