Filling A Pickup Cavity

[gibsonboy]

hi to one and all, me and my son have another little project on the go , we have an sg copy we are thinking of customising, its a set neck and my son wants to remove the neck pup so he only has a bridge pup, what would be the best way to fill the cavity left at the neck position ?? i thought a block of wood and resin would be ok but thought id check first. many thanks.

[ihocky2]

Glue in a block of wood and then fill any gaps with auto body puty. Wood puty shrinks back over time, once dry auto body puty doesn't. It is well worth the time though to get the block of wood to fit as tight as possible. The less gaps the better the end result will be.

[Workingman]

Depending on the type of SG copy, you could make a new pick-guard that covered the old pup route and leaver it otherwise as is. That way you could change it back should your son choose. Practically there is no reason to remove the neck pup, just set it on the bridge and leave it.

[Svento]

Depending on the type of SG copy, you could make a new pick-guard that covered the old pup route and leaver it otherwise as is. That way you could change it back should your son choose. Practically there is no reason to remove the neck pup, just set it on the bridge and leave it.

If humans were 100% rational yes, but I understand the desire. There's something special with only one pu.

No, that became wrong - Specials are actually the ones with two pu:s...

However, making a pick-guard covering the cavity should be a good solution.

[gibsonboy]

Thanks for the replies guys, my son wants the cavity filled, smoothed over so when we Respray the guitar (neon green!!!! His choice) it won't be seen.so the block of wood/epoxy resin/auto putty seems the best method. Keep you informed on the progress.

[ScottR]

I filled a pup cavity and tremolo cavity on a painted guitar a few years back. I took a 4" wide by 1/2" thick piece of cocobolo and routed a 4"x.5" path down the center of the entire face of the guitar. I contoured the surface to match and routed new pup cavities. Polished and oiled in a pearl white body it looks quite striking.

SR

[RestorationAD]

Make sure you use the same species wood if possible and get the grain oriented the right way or else it shrink/swell at a different rate.

If it was me I would get a block of Mahogany an route a channel from the fretboard to the other pickup and fill the whole center section. Having the rear pickup cavity as a cutoff for the fill block. This would keep from having an endgrain joint that would almost certainly reveal itself over time (yes even under autobody filler).