Pickup Routing/Shielding Question

[giglawyer]

I am replacing the pickups on my Bass Company Jazz Bass and removign the active preamp. I also want to improve teh shielding with a few coats of Stewmac shielding paint.

The good news is that the new pickups fit just as well as the old ones (new ones are Stan Hinsley Hot J's). The Bad news is that both set of pickups fit so snugly that there is no room for any additional sheilding paint (yes, its that tight ).

How tight should the pickup route be? Is this normal? I am going to use a dremel tool with a sanding bit to widen the routes ever so slightly. I just want to know how much room I should make.

Your thoughts?

[spudmaster34]

It is pretty impressive that they got the routes that close, if it were me, I would sheild everything but the pup cavities and reassemble it. If it still needs that extra little bit of sheilding you can do it, but it won't look as nice, and it very hard to undo modifications to the actuall wood

[giglawyer]

Originally Posted by spudmaster34

It is pretty impressive that they got the routes that close...

Impressive, indeed. I had to use pliers to remove the old pickups!