Question on routing pickups

[L0ckett]

This may seem like a silly question. When you are routing the body for pickups how do you determine the depth of the route? I’m taking on my first real bass project and am using 2 Delano Xtender HE/S pickups. I couldn’t find anything definitive to my question but saw anywhere from 12mm to 19mm. The Delano’s are 20mm in depth so 19mm sounds like it’d be way too deep.

 

[bobdabilder]

Generally, I go 5/8 on pup routs. It depends on the neck geometry and bridge some but I start at 5\8.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

5/8”, which is just under 16mm, isn’t a bad place to start. Some of that does depend on the neck / body relationship and any angle there. Keep in mind that typically there will be foam or springs or both under the pickup so even if the pickup itself is 19mm and you route to 19mm the pickup probably won’t actually lower that far.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

This calls for.....Taking measurements and figuring out what it needs. The highest the pickup needs to be is right about even with the surface of the fingerboard. The lowest it needs to go should be about 1/4" below that. measure the height of the fingerboard above the surface of the body, and the height of the pickup including the wire connections underneath. Figure out how much depth it needs.