The problem: a 1964 Gibson EB-0 which was missing the neck mudbucker.
I found a good mudbucker with a nice 60's chrome pickup cover complete with Gibson script. The problem I ran into was that the pickup cover was so deep or high (front to back) that it stood taller than the fretboard - and the strings hit it. I needed to grind it down.
Original depth was about 7.5 MM. I figured that a good target would be about half of that, or somewhere around 3.5 to 4 MM.
How to hold the cover safely and securely? Screw it to a hunk of 2x4 with one side of the 2x4 aligned with the bottom edge of the cover so I could measure it and check progress as I worked:
How to grind it? Mount the sanding disc on the good old Shopsmith!
How to hold it in position? Clamp the saw guide in position so that the cover extends past the edge of the saw table:
The Shopsmith doubles as a drill press in vertical position - but the rotating quill also extends horizontally when the motor is horizontal. So in effect, it's a horizontal drill press and I could move the sanding disc TO the cover:
And the working process (taken while wheel is rotating with fingers kept clear), during which I reduced the cover depth to about 3.5 MM:
The sanding disc left a slight concavity in the cover edges, so I squared them up by rubbing the cover along 120 grit sandpaper glued to a marble slab, which provides a flat surface. Incidentally, this is also a good surface for sanding down nuts while maintaining a flat surface:
And the result - installed and now clearly sitting lower than the end of the fretboard.
I have some testing to do, but I think it's low enough. If not, I know how to modify it further.
