Filling pickup cavities?

Nsatke81

Nsatke81

New member
Hi all,

I’ve got a carvin dc747 7string guitar that I originally ordered with a Hsh configuration. Only problem is that 15 years later I realized I hate middle coils because my pick gets caught on the polepieces and the neck position is more or less unused. I wanted to see if anyone had success filling unwanted pickup cavities and how they did it? Could acrylic work? Thanks!


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Re: Filling pickup cavities?

Depends on what you want to do.

Just want to have the hole filled physically and don't care how hideous it looks - pick any material you can shape easily and fill the hole. You might even be able to find some plastic sheet that looks similar to a covered pickup, and with 2 screws install it to level with the body in any unused pickup cavity.

The professional/permanent way involves routing the cavity to get to fresh wood, and shaping a block that exactly fits the hole, gluing in and then doing a re-fin over probably the whole body.
Done right this will look like the guitar was only ever routed for the pickup(s) you leave in...........very costly though
 
Re: Filling pickup cavities?

Screw them down a low as possible and you are good. Everything else looks weird.
 
Filling pickup cavities?

grumptruck said:
Dc727 is all direct mount isn't it?
Click to expand...

Yes all direct mount.

With the middle coil as low as it will go my pick is still getting caught on the pole pieces anyhow.

Thought I could do something creative with the acrylic as the guitar is a green burst.


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Last edited:
Re: Filling pickup cavities?

I looked up that guitar so I could see what you have to work with aesthetically.

Cover plates or filler blocks will look bad. A pickguard would look great, but would require some less than straightforward design to get around the controls.

I would pull your neck and middle pickups and see if there's any foam, springs, etc. underneath them that you can pull out to buy yourself an extra 1/8" to lower the middle pickup. If so, pull it and see what you get. If there's nothing there to pull, or if pulling what's there doesn't get your pickups low enough, then I would slightly deepen your pickup cavities.
 
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Re: Filling pickup cavities?

those Carvin singles may be a bit taller than other brands

get just a a solid single coil pickup cover with no holes
and a no holes humbucker cover as well

remove the real pickups
just mount the covers
 
Re: Filling pickup cavities?

I had this problem but learned to pick in other places. Are you sure you can't back that pup down and learn to live with it? If not, pickguard is the best choice.
 
Re: Filling pickup cavities?

hamerfan said:
Screw them down a low as possible and you are good. Everything else looks weird.
Click to expand...

+1


I'd just screw the middle pickup as low as possible. Then you're not banging into it with the pick and it won't look funny or be lots of extra work.



If you're still hitting the middle pickup with it as low as it can go, then you might want to work on picking technique. You're using way too much pick if it's going more than 2-3 mm below the string.
 
Re: Filling pickup cavities?

The "right" way to do it? plug with wood cut to shape and blend in to the original finish. Sounds like that isn't an option, so a dummy pickup is probably the "best" option.
 
Re: Filling pickup cavities?

GuitarStv said:
+1


I'd just screw the middle pickup as low as possible. Then you're not banging into it with the pick and it won't look funny or be lots of extra work.



If you're still hitting the middle pickup with it as low as it can go, then you might want to work on picking technique. You're using way too much pick if it's going more than 2-3 mm below the string.
Click to expand...

This is what I'd do. It helps to have a more powerful pickup in the middle than you think you will need. But I do this on Srats as I have the same issue.
 
Re: Filling pickup cavities?

GuitarStv said:
+1


I'd just screw the middle pickup as low as possible. Then you're not banging into it with the pick and it won't look funny or be lots of extra work.



If you're still hitting the middle pickup with it as low as it can go, then you might want to work on picking technique. You're using way too much pick if it's going more than 2-3 mm below the string.
Click to expand...

I already use jazz IIIs so there isn’t a lot of meat on the pick underneath the strings. It’s more like it gets occasionally stuck enough to be annoying and I only use middle coils on my strats.

I have a duncan distortion in there that I’m not thrilled with so I figure I’ll get a EMTY or Retribution set. I’ll lower the middle coil and remove it from the circuit.


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Re: Filling pickup cavities?

I've been using Jazz IIIs for years, and when I started playing a strat had the same issue as you. Turned out, even with the Jazz III I was picking too deep. Lowering the middle pickup and a couple months of focusing on better picking technique sorted me out.


:P
 
Re: Filling pickup cavities?

Several people are telling the OP to lower the middle pickup. Didn't the OP already state that he lowered it as far as he could?

He should check underneath it to see if there is anything below it that can be removed. Surgical tubing/springs, foam, etc.
 
Re: Filling pickup cavities?

Find a cheap rails pickup to put in the middle to cover the hole. No polepieces to hit with pick and less effect on strings.
 
Re: Filling pickup cavities?

If it were mine, I'd fill it with Bondo or wood dough or even spackle and then put a girly sticker over it, maybe a skull sticker.
 
Filling pickup cavities?

80's_Metal said:
If it were mine, I'd fill it with Bondo or wood dough or even spackle and then put a girly sticker over it, maybe a skull sticker.
Click to expand...

My guess is that skulls have been done so I’ll do a pipi longstocking or rainbow brite sticker


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