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Ideas To Fill In Unused Pickup Cavity?


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Hi, I made the mistake a while back to make a cavity for a P90, which I am not gonna use...The guitar body and neck have nitro on them and both pieces are drying/curing now. FWIW, the p90 cavity is the neck and the bridge cavity is for a regular tele bridge pup.

I would like to fill in that cavity so I doesn't look ugly without anything in it...anyone ever had such an issue?

What would you advice me to do?

I guess I could buy an esquire pickguard, but since this guitar doesn't have exact fender dimensions, it probbaly won't work. The neck is very chunky, and is a little wider at the heel than your regular fender. Plus, the space between the bridge and control cavity may not be exactly the same as regular fender, which would cause a problem when trying to fit in the pickguard.

The only thing that is the fender size is the control cavity, bridge and scale length.

Anyway, I could also build my own pickguard, but I don't really wanna mess with something I'm not familiar with, especially if you need special tools for that, or if it's overly tricky...etc...

Thanks for you guys' advice, it means a lot! :D

Edited by hendrix2430
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I don't have any advice for filling it in, but if you decide to make a custom pickguard, the materials seem pretty easy to work with. Admittedly, my only experience is with re-shaping a 3-ply Les Paul pickguard, but I was surprised at how forgiving and easy to work with the material was.

Make a template of some sort (MDF would work) and then cut it using a 45 degree router bit. (I think they're called chamfer bits? I could be wrong about that one) and you'd be sorted.

It's an option, at least. Nothing to be TOO scared of in terms of tools required.

Greg

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is it a painted guitar? or a trans finish? If painted.. then you can glue in a block of wood, fill, and paint over. If it's trans.. there's not much you can do.. Unless you figured something decorative you could do with the hole..

Like Greg was saying.. pickguard material is not hard to work with. You jsut need a template then you can route just like you do the wood. It bandsaws very easily too.

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One of my customers has a cheapie Epi Paul that he 86'd the bridge pickup out of. He had me make a 1/4" thick figured maple piece. I used his p'up trim ring as a pattern. Drilled four holes in it and screwed it in place. Stained it yellow to match his burst. Looks neat. I think I charged him about $20.

I wondered why he didn't just replace the pickup but there's no accounting for taste.

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Thanks guys,

the body was stained in dark brown, then red, the sealed, and finally nitro-ed. So, it's not painted, you can clearly see the grain. I went to my wood shop today and picked up some spruce, and I sort of had the same idea as Doc. He cut me 3 footlong slabs of dark walnut (about 1/5 inch), which I may use as a decorative piece on the cavity. But I'm toying with the idea of buying a cheaper p90 and just stick it in there just for the looks...I'm not gonna use it anyway... :D

Ahhh...the looks are still important, aren't they? :D

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If it's just the P90 part that you don't like anymore (ie. you're not dead set against pickups in general there) you can get a humbucker in a P90 housing. Would a humbucker suit your needs better? If you're going to put something in there, it might as well be usable!

Greg

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