Installation Help/Suggestions

[Malius]

Hey guys,

I ordered a pair of Emeralds last year for my PRS Custom and I've finally got round to installing them, but when I went to put them in the body cavity the mounting blades don't fit. i.e. the pickups are too wide. I don't want to rout out the guitar, so do you have any suggestions?

Apologies if the terminology is not quite right, let me know if you need me to clarify anything.

[Kiichi]

Is it direct mount or with rings?

[Malius]

Ahh good question. It's with rings. The screw holes will fit that fine and the pickup housing itself fits in the ring, it's just the metal mounting blades (correct term?) at the sides which are too long.

I could use a dremel to sand them down, but I was wondering if this is normal?

[Dave Sloven]

People have had problems with PRS guitars before, I thought it was the corners of the baseplates though that were the issue.  Are you saying it's the legs?  Is the pickup long or short leg?

For example, does it look more like the one on the left or the one on the right of this photo:



Is it the end of the 'feet' on the legs or the corners on the baseplate (i.e., under the magnets) that are hitting?

[Malius]

It's the legs, again me using wrong terminology. The pickups are short leg.

I've taken a picture to show the problem. Hopefully it shows up. But the pickup in the picture is resting on the body.

[edit]

[PhilKing]

It's not ideal but you can bend the legs in a bit.  As long as the pickup fits in the main rout, it will work fine.  The other thing ive done a couple of times is to snip the corner of the 'foot' off with a pair of wire cutters.  That gives you more clearance.  Did your guitar have covered pickups originally?   If it didn't, you might have more issues.

[Dave Sloven]

What are the actual pickup rings like?

If they are as large as Gibson pickup rings one would assume that you could rout the body slightly to enable the pickups to fit without any visible problems, but if they are smaller then I wouldn't take that option.

I guess you could grind the edges of the 'foot' down, but you would want someone who really knows what they are doing to do that because if you slip and scratch up the covers you won't be happy!

[Malius]

I've bent the feet back and they now seem to fit. Hopefully they will move freely and fit with the pickup rings still.

Thanks for your advice guys, I may very well be back for wiring advice if it doesn't work :)