To cover or not to cover?

[herbychimp]

After years of trying I have finally managed to snag a RY bridge humbucker for a very reasonable fee from a nice chap on E.bay. I have wanted one for ever and in my quest to snap it up I managed to ignore the following things:

1) I want to put it in my Tokai loverock (LP style) but the p.up is 53 mm rather than 50m - having researched here in the forum I dont think that that is too insurmountable a problem - but what about legs?

2) When I saw the pic on ebay I saw a zebra p.up. I assumed cream and black but on arrival (the p.up is in excellent condition) the colour is black and white which will create a tasty clash with the neck p.up (SD pearly gates) in cream and black.

Do I go ahead and fit it anyway and have a funny looking guitar - and hope to get a MQ or VHII neck in black / white zebra sometime in the future? Or can I get the bridge p.up covered by BKP? (I rather like the burnt chrome effect) Alternatively, I could just put it in the bridge of my Corgan strat which is already black and white.. which would then free up a black VHII?

What a conundrum.

Stef 

[darrenw5094]

I assume you could send it and a neck pup to BKP for covers, like chrome etc. Cost a few quid, but it should be possible.
I would throw it in the Tokai anyway, to see what the tone is like.

[herbychimp]

So I bit the bullet and had the Rebel installed in the bridge of my Tokai LR - a vast improvement on the SD custom custom. However, the RY is not yet in the sweet spot as I seem unable to move it as close to the strings as I would like. From previous threads that I sought out I gather that this particular pickup is very sensitive to height / distance from strings. I have found an older thread from Jonothan@ Feline which gives a useful technique / formula of the right kind of height - but the p.up won't move any further up. I checked with my local music store (who installed the RY) and they said that the springs were too long. If I wanted to raise the p.up further towards the strings all I would need to do is to cut down the lengths of the springs.. Does this sound correct?

Finally, has anyone ever paired up a Mississippi Queen neck with a RY bridge? Sorely tempted to try.

Stef

[Kiichi]

Yeah, the height is important with all BKPs, but the RY almost overdoes it. It is so much that there are basecally multiple pickups in the RY.

That thing with the springs should perhaps work. Dunno how much but it will do something. Since when the pickups are raised the springs get compressed shortening them, or better getting smaller ones to not possibly damage the integrity of the spring, should help you out.

I had the MQ briefly paired with the RY bridge. Issue was that it was in the wrong guitar for the MQ (Ibanez S Series), so I had to change it. In another guitar that is a combo that should be really nice. The basic character fit well and output worked too. There is a shared midrange character to be found.