Pickup Cavity Filling?

[RacaBass]

Not sure if I worded it right but does anybody have experience with filling in the void where a pickup used to be?

Should I use wood filler? or maybe epoxy + microbubbles?

I have an old, what looks like mid 90s, Ibanez bass body. I think it's a sr400 if it makes a difference. It's routed for p+j pickups and I'm thinking of sticking in a Bartolini or two.

And sorry no pics.

 

[DopplerShift]

You can use a pickguard to cover a pickup route that is too big. I think you'd have to get a custom pickguard made for an SR series though.

 

[Musiclogic]

Properly filling a pickup rout is generally doe with wood and maybe some filler for seam fill. A good fill will be cut and shaped to the hole and carefully fit and glued into place.

 

[RacaBass]

Should the wood be some sort of tone wood or does it really matter? Since most of it will be routed out anyway due to the Barts being wider then the jazz style/total different shape then the P style.

And for the filler just regular elmer's? I have loads of that stuff lying around.

 

[Musiclogic]

Elmers filler is fine, if you don't have a matching wood to what the body is made of, you can buy a small piece of poplar from Home Depot, good hardwood that is easy to work. Do not use pine, ply, or mdf...try to stick with a similar hardwood, alder, poplar, basswood, or walnut

 

[RacaBass]

Alright thanks for the help.

 

[blendermassacre]

elmers is fine, but two part epoxy is way better, IMO.

 

[Musiclogic]

Actually it isn't, as most epoxies gum up router bits and spread when heated by spinning tools, thus for this fill and re-rout situation epoxy is vastly inferior to an actual wood filler.

 

[dblbass]

I'd make the peice of wood bigger than the pickup hole. Just make a rectangular peice that covers up the whole hole and route that shape into the body. Inlay a peice of hardwood which I'd glue it in with wood glue. Then reroute the pickup cavity. You could even use a contrasting peice for the inlay and make it look like a pick up ring.

 

[Musiclogic]

I'd just build a new body, but I have the shop to do it in...LOL

 

[Rocky McD]

If this area will be covered by a pickguard, the same type of wood insert, glued in place will be ok. If the area will not be covered by a pickguard you will probably have a problem over time with shrinkage/expansion of a dissimilar wood and it will show thru the paint.

 

[Rickett Customs]

Properly filling a pickup rout is generally doe with wood and maybe some filler for seam fill. A good fill will be cut and shaped to the hole and carefully fit and glued into place.

+1, I did that to an Ibanez not too long ago. I used poplar to fill the pickup routes and kahler cavities.

 

[Son of Magni]

For cavity filling it's best to see a dentist.

 

[vbasscustom]

OOOHHH HE SAID DENTIST.

 

[mikeyswood]

For cavity filling it's best to see a dentist.

TRY THE VEAL!!

 

[RacaBass]

rickett thats exactly the same bass or well looks like it minus the tremolo. great pictures and did you just use glue to fill in the gaps? and in the J it looks like you put a dowel rod or something correct?

 

[Rickett Customs]

Raca, i didn't use glue to fill the gaps, I got the pieces tight as I could, just put a shallow pool of glue (titebond II) in the bottom and rubbed a little on the walls of the cavity and tapped them in with a small mallet, the glue on the bottom tends to seep out a bit. Once it's surfaced, I apply a small amount of bondo with a squeegee over the entire area, then sand it later, when it's dried. Then much like the same body work technique, draw pencil lines on the bondo, until it's all level. Re-route out the desired cavities and time for paint....

 

[Son of Magni]

OOOHHH HE SAID DENTIST.

TRY THE VEAL!!

sadly I don't understand either of these responses

 

[mikeyswood]

Invalid Link Removed

 

[tjmdetroit]

Kewl post Rickett....especially with the pics.....Like Rod Stewart said a long time ago, "Every picture tells a story don't it?"
Peace,
tjm