Pickups not high enough

J

JazzSinger

New member
I have an Epiphone ET-270 (early Nirvana) and the plastic of the original pickups perished away over the years. I recut a new scratchplate with Strat pup sized holes. But:

I have now tried the lil 59, duckbucker, vintage rails and coolrails, and none get anywhere near the strings, even with the pickups screwed up flat against the scratch plate! There's still nearly another 1/2 inch to go!

Is there a higher pickup available?

Or perhaps some sort of raised mounting bracket into which these would fit?
 
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Re: Pickups not high enough

This might sound silly, but are bridge pups taller than a neck pup, or vice versa? I mean as far as the mounting screw holes go? If one is taller than the other, maybe you have it in the wrong position?
 
Re: Pickups not high enough

It looks like the ET-270 has really tall mounting rings for the pickups, but it's hard to tell.
 
Re: Pickups not high enough

Ok, here's the pictures.

The first shows the new scratchplate. The dimensions of the original pickups wouldn't have fitted any standard pickup shape.

The second shows the problem: The pickups are screwed flat up against the scratch plate with no rubber spacers or springs. I still have a large gap, too big to really do sensible adjustment.

The third shows the bridge. It is already pretty low. The little bit of adjustment left wouldn't make much difference.

Yes you are right, the original ET-270 pickups were a lot higher, but they didn't have mounting rings. The housing had a two-tone color scheme. I don't have them anymore, unfortunately, the plastic was crumbling away.

If Seymour Duncan doesn't make higher pickups, can anyone suggest alternatives?
 
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Re: Pickups not high enough

It's a tough one. Either it would take some reconstruction, or you could just try super hot pickups, and hope it works.
 
Re: Pickups not high enough

You could probably get it a little bit higher by cutting the mount springs in half.
 
Re: Pickups not high enough

I've not used any. The pickup is flush against the bottom of the scratchplate.

I could file down the top of the tubes in which the brass threads are, but even that won't bring enough height.

I was hoping for something like the raised mounting rings you get for humbuckers or soapbars on Gibson semi-acoustics, except shaped for strat single coils. I found someone that sells flat ones, but no-one that has raised ones.
 
Re: Pickups not high enough

What about mounting it totally on top of the pickguard, running the mount screws through the pickup ears down through the pickguard, with springs between the pickup and pickguard?

It would look a little weird but it might work.
 
Re: Pickups not high enough

Zhangliqun said:
What about mounting it totally on top of the pickguard, running the mount screws through the pickup ears down through the pickguard, with springs between the pickup and pickguard?

It would look a little weird but it might work.
Click to expand...

That's a cool idea.
 
Re: Pickups not high enough

Turns out the bottom of the pickups have a rectangular block that is larger than the rounded shape of the pickup hole. I would need to re-route the scratchplate, something I don't really want to do.

Guess I'm not having much luck - but thanks to all for the help!
 
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Re: Pickups not high enough

That just makes it easier to mount it on top of the pickguard, it won't fall through or have any gaps.

Another thing you can do is shim the neck so the string angle brings the strings closer to the pickups.
 
Re: Pickups not high enough

Zhangliqun said:
That just makes it easier to mount it on top of the pickguard, it won't fall through or have any gaps.

Another thing you can do is shim the neck so the string angle brings the strings closer to the pickups.
Click to expand...

Yeah , thats a good train of thought. Whats the action like on this thing? If its way high maybe it needs a good setup. I dont think I've ever seen that much space on a regular solid body.
 
Re: Pickups not high enough

The action is very low. I spent some money having the frets redressed and they did a fantastic job, very playable. That's one reason I want to get the best from it.

The neck is thinner than a regular strat but the way the heel and cutout is built, the fretboard is a bit higher than a strat. But the bridge is about double a strat's height even when set to it's lowest setting! It's just the way the guitar is designed.

Setting the pickups on the rectangular base would mean they are now too high. Anyway, it's butt-ugly. This guitar deserves better.

Guess the pickup aftermarket is fine if you have a strat, tele or gibson. Anthing else, and you're up the creek without a paddle.

I still think a selection of pickup rings for single coils (like for humbuckers), whilst perhaps not a million seller, can't be too expensive to make. After all, the toys in cereal packets are more intricate. And guys in a position like mine would be very grateful, and people with semi-acoustic guitars might be tempted to experiment.

Perhaps someone at Seymour Duncan is listening...
 
Re: Pickups not high enough

If it's a bolt on, lower the bridge and then shim the neck to compensate for the lower bridge.
 
Re: Pickups not high enough

If you look at the photo, you will see that the bridge is at its minimum. It doesn't go much lower.

The neck design is physically higher than a strat neck, too. I would have to shave off wood from the back of the heel, not shim it.

I will post a photo tonight.
 
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Re: Pickups not high enough

I've got the same problem in my LP! The Custom has short legs and when the springs are totally compressed, it's barely above the pickup ring which is too far from the strings. Bummer. Guess I'll do the "cut the spring" thing.
 
Re: Pickups not high enough

So placing the pickup on top of the pickguard brought it up tooo high? If you want it to work, you would have to either make som more major changes to the guitar to get it to work, or you could go on a quest for original ET-270 pickups.
 
Re: Pickups not high enough

I just fitted a neck pup to my L.P and noticed the mounting brackets are approx half the length (depth) of the Bridge pup... are you sure you haven't got a neck pup? Then again, 'coz it's a single which is generally fitted to a scratch plate I guess they are probably the same?
 
Re: Pickups not high enough

Well, w.r.t. this neck pup/bridge pup idea: - none of SD's dimensions diagrams makes mention of different heights for neck/bridge variants. At least not for lil'59/duckbucker/vintage rails/cool rails.

Unless I'm looking in the wrong place? The difference seems purely to be that bridge pickups are slightly hotter to compensate for less string vibration.
 
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