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need ideas to cover pickup over route mistake.

Arnie

Arnie

May 14, 2005
656
81
Kingston, NY
#1
I had a fight with my router today cutting my emg35 style pickups. The router bit guide left me short by about 1/8 or so, so I had to manually move move template and fix the difference. Well that didn't work so well with one of my opickup routes.

I assume I can make a pickup bezel out of wood, (really hate to do that) but I would rather see what you guys have done as I am sure this has happened before.

pickuproute.jpg


it may be hard to see but the gap is about 1/8 or more.
 
#3
Moving the pickup to center is the first thing I thought.

Or you could grind a 1/4" off the bass and glue a book matched top on it. This suggestion might be biased due to my preference for a figured top over seeing a racing stripe through the face of the body. However that is an expensive fix.
 
#4
You could rout the hole even bigger all the way around then glue a block of contrasting wood into the hole and rerout the pickup hole in the center of the new glued in block. Do this for both pickup cavities and it will look as if you intended to have an outline of contrasting wood color around your pickups. Yeah I know that that is a lot of work but then again these type of fixes makes you more careful the first time around, at least it does for me.
 
#7
Another idea is to line the sides of the pickup route with wenge veneer (I assume that's wenge on your bass). If you put a thin veneer around the inside edge of the route, when you sand it back, etc, you'll have a small, thin, brown detail inside your routes. If you put a 1/8" roundover on it, it would look pretty hot IMHO... :)
 
#10
chiselhead said:
You could rout the hole even bigger all the way around then glue a block of contrasting wood into the hole and rerout the pickup hole in the center of the new glued in block. Do this for both pickup cavities and it will look as if you intended to have an outline of contrasting wood color around your pickups. Yeah I know that that is a lot of work but then again these type of fixes makes you more careful the first time around, at least it does for me.
Click to expand...
I'd also go this Route,no pun intended.Also measure twice and take your time.It looks like you've put a lot of time into this.
 
#17
chiselhead said:
You could rout the hole even bigger all the way around then glue a block of contrasting wood into the hole and rerout the pickup hole in the center of the new glued in block. Do this for both pickup cavities and it will look as if you intended to have an outline of contrasting wood color around your pickups. Yeah I know that that is a lot of work but then again these type of fixes makes you more careful the first time around, at least it does for me.
Click to expand...

Boy, I like that idea! You are right its a lot of work and Im a Newbie.. A Paduak or Wenge? Man that would be cool.
 
#19
I would probably go for filling in the area, and using a wood or metal bezel around both pickups.

Although I also like the idea of putting a veneer edging strip around the inside of the route cavity and centering the PUPS within, you would have to make both routes the same size to pull that off, but with a contrasting wood would certainly highlight against the already stunning looks of those stripes.

Or if you are realy adventurous make Pickup covers from matching woods and carry the stripe through the pickups, obviously making both routes the same size.
 

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