Installing P90s

[BillyJ]

Hope I've posted in the right place here. Can anyone suggest where I might find a tutorial on mounting P90 soapbar pickups? The wiring side of things is not what I'm looking for just how to cut cavity, depth of cut and actually screwing them in (on foam maybe?) and adjusting height. This will be done on homemade axe. I have some humbucker height springs could I use those?

[guitar2005]

I'm working on a P90 project and intend on screwing them into the wood with a piece of foam under the pickups.

In terms of how to cut the pickup routes, just cut them the way you'd do any other route: Template and router.

[BillyJ]

Thanks for that.

[Ripthorn]

Depth can be done one of two ways. The first is to use the foam like a spring. This lets you adjust the height somewhat, though you will always be limited in adjustment relative to other pickups. The second is to use wood shims (or just have serious depth routing skills) and screw the pickups down tight. This provides more direct coupling with the body, though whether you want that or not or whether you can hear the difference or not is up to you. On old Les Paul's they never used foam, they just cut a channel for the pole pieces to sit down in and the rest of the pickup sat on wood to which the pickup was screwed.

My recommendation for routing is to do some tests in scrap first, as a good fitting P90 cavity is a must aesthetically. The slightest bump in the router's path will show for all eternity, and a gappy cavity is not a pretty thing. Make a good template, then test on scrap with the pickups you will be using, as covers can differ in size slightly. I think this is the most important part of installing a P90, as height can be adjusted with shims, wiring can be changed, etc., but once the cavity is cut, it's there to stay.