Routing Pickups And Control Cavity

[GuitarMan686]

I have this BC Rich Innovator bass coming to me and I need to do some routing on her to bring her to life. I was thinking about maybe scoring some jazz style pickups for her. I was going to use the templates from stew mac to make things easy. I also need to route the control cavity and I was also going to use the stew mac templates for this as well. Ive never done this before so I plan to practice on scraps before making a move on her. Shes going to need a bridge. Any reccomdenations? Lastly, I have to do the imput area. Whats the proper way to do this?

Let me know what you guys think of the project! Im still uncertain if I should put jazz pickups or go more with some other pickups. Once I have all the routing done, I can worry about finishing. What do you guys think of this layout? Any tips for the rotuing would be helpful.

Here some pics

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg217/CatalystofThought/P1010609.jpg

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg217/CatalystofThought/P1010611.jpg

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg217/CatalystofThought/P1010612.jpg

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg217/CatalystofThought/P1010613.jpg

[guitar2005]

That's a sweet bass. Personally, I'd put a precision bass set in the middle and a jazz bass pickup in the bridge.

[GuitarMan686]

I want this bass to be able to cover metal to jazz so im unsure of what pickups to go with.

Im also a little afriad of doing the routing that why I want to keep it something simple that I can use a template to practice before ever hitting the bass

[SwedishLuthier]

Pickups are very personal so a good recommendation is hard. Althou one thing strikes me. You mention going from Metal to Jazz. If the "Metal" part includes using overdrive/distortion you might considering using humbuckers of any type. P-bass pickups are humbucking, as is the musicman pickups and most EMGs. If you need something unique there are a few pickup winders here (Restoration AD and myself among others)and elswere that might be able to do something interesting for you.

[GuitarMan686]

I am definitly interested in handwound stuff. I have some bill lawrence pickups on my guitars and they always surpass the dimarzio or duncans by far. My only issue with getting custom pickups would be getting templates to do the routing. Are your pickups a standard size that I can get a template for? Or maybe you could possibly create one for me?

[SwedishLuthier]

My only issue with getting custom pickups would be getting templates to do the routing. Are your pickups a standard size that I can get a template for? Or maybe you could possibly create one for me?

For my LowRider pickups (the bass line of pickups) I have recently switched to casting them, inspired by this thread. I use the same formats as EMG. For a standard bass the same template as a EMG 35 can be used. If it is a 5-stringer I might switch to the same foot print as a EMG 40 and for the 8-string custom bass I'm building right now the EMG 45 size was used.

[GuitarMan686]

Are your pickups active or passive? Id be interested in trying out your line

[SwedishLuthier]

They are passive and humbucking. The bridge is a mix between a P-bass and a MM and the neck is like a beefed up J-bass, still humbucking. If you are intereseted we might continue this with e-mails as it is a bit OT. You find me via peternaglitschnuthier.com or you can PM me