Can’t insert the neck pickup!

[wazkelly]

That has come up really nice Zed. Colour and dark contrasting bits look great. Flip neck PUP and all done by the look of that shot.

[Simon Barden]

Great it's all working. The neck pickup with the screws that side won't make any difference to the sound, just the looks, so unless you've cut the pickup lead too short to turn it around, it's easy enough to turn it around at the next string change. And if you can't turn it around, then just say it was an intentional Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac) tribute.

[Simmo84]

Hi Forum members

I’ve just started my first build and have a similar issue to this post. Wasn’t sure if I should create a new post or add to this, I couldn’t find anything in the FAQ section so I thought I’d just add to this post, if I should create a new post instead please let me know.

Anyway I’ve just glued my set neck in place for my Explorer EXA-1 kit. I couldn’t find anything written down that told me the scale length of this kit but when I positioned the kit for a 648mm scale length the fretboard sat 20mm away from the neck PUP cavity. With the 628mm scale the neck sat with the fretboard perfectly flush with the PUP cavity. So I assumed it’s a 628mm scale length and glued her in.

And then after the glue dried I attempted a dry fit of the pickups and realised that because the fretboard is perfectly flush with the PUP cavity, there isn’t enough room for the PUP ring. The overlap is about 4-5mm.

Not sure what do to here, since the scale length seems to be correct.

My first thought is to just rout out the opposing side of the PUP cavity an additional 5mm so the whole PUP can slide back enough to fit the ring flush against the fretboard.

Or should I steam and pull the neck, and set it again with a custom scale length of around 634mm?

The guitar hasn’t been finished yet, the plan was to glue the neck, grain fill and sand the body and make a seamless join to the neck, then paint the body and neck white.

I’d appreciate any recommendations before I do anything permanent.

Thanks in advance for your inputs!

Simon

[FrankenWashie]

The issue here is that the scale length is correct, but that the Front PUP Rout is not in the right spot.

I would not attempt to pull the neck. Not on your first build. If you try and extend the scale scale length to adjust for the pup ring, then your intonation is going to be out, as the fretboard will be set out for the standard G company 24 3/4"/628mm scale.

There are three fixes as I see it:
1. Trim the end of the fretboard and neck to allow the PUP ring to fit, or,
2. Trim the PUP ring to fit either side of the neck, or,
3. Do away with the PUP rings, and direct mount the pickups to the body (Screws through the pickup ears directly into the body)

Steaming the neck off can be done, but it is a major op, you need to be able to direct the steam down into the joint on both sides and underneath.
Subject to whatever glue you've used this may or may not work.
The issue will be trying to get steam or heat all the way down the tenon/tongue of the neck. IF you don't get the glue to release you could really do some damage getting it out.

[Simon Barden]

You should only have needed to move the neck away from the bridge slightly, just enough to get the edge of the pickup ring resting on it so there wasn't a visible gap with the cavity not showing. If you do that, then you can happily intonate the guitar - at least my EX-1 did.

Sometimes the cut-outs for the pickup mounting 'ears' aren't big enough to allow the pickup to move much. I've often had to enlarge these a bit. I find a Dremel with a sanding drum bit works well for this. As long as you remove within the outline of the pickup ring and leave enough wood for the ring mounting screws to bite into, you can remove what you need to.

As you haven't got any finish on, then steaming could be an option, especially as the neck join area isn't particularly large. But this is only possible if you've used PVA or Titebond original (which is also the stuff Pitt Bull sell) or hide glue. Anything that's waterproof or has a higher melting point and it won't work.

The standard method is to inject steam into the joins using hollow needles, but this is generally used to preserve the finish as much as possible. So steaming the whole neck area can work, using a kettle or saucepan (but wear suitable gloves to avoid scalding yourself, preferably rubber over something more insulating). You'll need to take the lid off most kettles top stop the pressure switch from cutting off the power once it boils. Or you can try inserting a thin heated pallet knife into the joints (or a combination of both). Light pressure only when trying to prise the neck away from the body. When the glue's lose or melted enough, it will come away easily. Otherwise the glue joint is stronger than the wood, so too much force with intact glue and you'll tear out bits of wood. Once things start to move, the steam will penetrate the joins more easily.

But if you do this, then let the wood dry out thoroughly before re-gluing. It will swell up considerably, so it needs to be dry before everything fits. And check with the pickup in-situ that the chosen neck position allows the pickup to sit freely in the pickup rout.

Otherwise you can pick one of FrankenWashie's suggestions.

As you are doing a solid colour, then any marks you make can be easily filled in.

[Simmo84]

Thank you very much for your input!

I went with your first suggestion and trimmed down the end of the fretboard and neck very carefully using my fine tooth pull saw, chisel and some sanding.

The pup ring now fits perfectly. Crisis averted! Now to start grain filling and prepping for paint.

Cheers!

[Simmo84]

Thanks Simon for your reply, it looks like it came through after I had already gone ahead with FrankenWashie’s suggestion. And thankfully that seems to have worked out quite well.
I did add some photos to my post to show the finished result but they don’t seem to be showing now 🤷*♂️
But in any case, thank you both for your inputs, it’s good to know if I run into any other issues that there are helpful forum members around to share wisdom and experience.

Cheers!

[FrankenWashie]

Thank you very much for your input!

I went with your first suggestion and trimmed down the end of the fretboard and neck very carefully using my fine tooth pull saw, chisel and some sanding.

The pup ring now fits perfectly. Crisis averted! Now to start grain filling and prepping for paint.

Cheers!

That’s some nice work mate, well done!