General Pup Installation Questions

[TwilightOdyssey]

Well, my Miracle Man and Irish Tour arrived in today's mail! (Hurray for me!)

I have run into a couple of  rather small problems right off the bat, though:

The first is the fact that the base on the Irish tour is just slightly wider than that of the the SSL-1, so I had to tap a new hole into the wood for it to fit properly, and even then it's a very, very tight fit into the guitar. It has the slightest tilt forward, which I think is more the cover than the pickup itslelf, tho.

My MAIN QUESTIONS are about fitting the Miracle Man:
With the nickel cover, this pickup just barely fits into the space provided.

1. I have noticed that the pickup slopes ever so slightly forward. In other words, the front of the pickup is about .5 -1mm lower than the back. Should I  put a small shim under the pickup to level it off? The pickups is too tight in the space for me to move it after the screws are down.

I measured the height of the pickup above the surface of the guitar, and came up with about 9.6mm. On my Wayne Rock legend the pickup is 10mm above the surface of the guitar, so with the Miracle Man all the way down into the cavity, it seems to be just about perfect.

I haven't done any soldering as of yet, tho, which brings me to next Question:

2. When soldering the wire for the Miracle Man, am I also soldering the outer braid from the cable to anything, or is this purely for shielding purposes?

Thanx in advance!!

PS: Since I can't attach any files in this forum, I will upload pics of the Kamikaze to the Players section. :)

[Tim]

OK Ben, re : Irish Tour fit, it's a vintage size bobbin so it may well be a little larger than the original pickup although as it's body mount you've done the right thing by tapping a new hole. As you screw the p/up down the cover should realign itself-I've never used those green covers before, I bought it in specially for the Kamikaze so it was a bit suck it and see-one tip, use a tiny piece of the neoprene tube between the pickup and guitar on each screw. It'll just give a very small cushion to screw onto and bed the coil down better. I advise this for all body mounting of pickups.

The Miracle Man has a cover whereas, from the sound sof things, the Kamaikaze has been routed for an open humbucker. The tolerance of a covered pickup is greater than an open coiled one hence the tight fit-again your guitar features direct body mount so I'd put a little piece of neoprene between the leg and the body before screwing down, a piece of foam from the box could also go under the pickup to allow a little adjustment as you screw down.
The neoprene tube should act as a shim to correct any forward pitch although the baseplate legs are perfectly level so I'm not sure why this is.

Soldering- when soldering the braided cable, strip back a section to expose the cloth inner conductor-this solders to the pot tag, the braided jacket then solders to the rear of the pot. You have to do this to ground the pickup or it won't work.

As always, go slowly and take your time. If you're at all unsure get your tech to check over what you've done.

Good luck :D

[TwilightOdyssey]

Thanx for the pointers, Tim!

Yeah, I'm totally not worried about a thing; I figured that the guitar was routed for slightly different pups, so the tightness of the fit doesn't bother me in the least.

I'm not sure what is causing the pickups to list forward ... it really has me baffled. Here's a pic of what the guitar looks like, tho
http://s42.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0I57OEL8FJLKM30T8RHZOCB72S

[TwilightOdyssey]

it was a bit suck it and see

LOL ... Shades of good 'ol GRIM REAPER!! \m/

[Tim]

Well done Ben, you got'em in. the fit on the humbucker does look toght-ESP have routed for an open humbucker only but there's nothing wrong with a tight fit-looks great and the green neck is 8)