Sanding down pickup to fit cover.....will it break the pup?

L

lewisstorer89

New member
Basically I have this Dimebukcer laying around and wanted to fit it to a guitar, Its blades so basically is larger to be a trembucker and a regular.

The Guitar is a V with a pickguard and I wanted to put EMG style plastic covers over the Dimbucker...........BUT they go on but dont stay on because its slightly to big for the covers....the sides like slightly pop out when its on and thus the reason force just pushes them off.

The Holes in the pickguard are already made for the covers its just getting this done...

IS it doable if you dont sand to far.....OR will it really mess the Dimbucker up by sanding it at all?.

It cost £30 off ebay so I didnt pay full price and it wasnt new either SO Im not as bothered about it breaking BUT its still a great pup and clearly dont want to break it if its avoidable?

anyone got any experience with sanding/file'ing pups to make them fit covers?. Would really appreciate some feedback
 
Re: Sanding down pickup to fit cover.....will it break the pup?

I've sanded down 2 pickups.......they were both done 'carefully', but I ended up with a 100% non working pickup ratio.

be warned
 
Re: Sanding down pickup to fit cover.....will it break the pup?

I guess that pretty much confirms it then :( thats a shame....May have to try somthing like a SH-6 or SH-5 in the bridge....I know the covers will fit that fine as they are like regular size
 
Re: Sanding down pickup to fit cover.....will it break the pup?

Far smarter to enlarge the opening in the pickguard.
 
Re: Sanding down pickup to fit cover.....will it break the pup?

the pickguard hole is not the problem mate, the hole in the pickguard now fits the plastic humbucker COVER fine. Its getting the cover itself to stay on the pickup thats the issue...the Pickup is clearly some sort of Trembucker/F spaced and the cover is not so therefore is a tight fit to the point it just pops off?
 
Re: Sanding down pickup to fit cover.....will it break the pup?

why don't you just try getting a trembucker cover?

alternatively, sand down the inside of the cover, if its not too thin already.
 
Re: Sanding down pickup to fit cover.....will it break the pup?

^^ EHm, no.

A TB cover will rattle, way too much air in the corners and along the length. Almost impossible to secure properly, especially with the smaller than TB-sized base that is epoxy to boot. You can´t just pop it on and solder it in place, unless you somehow know how to solder epoxy resin to brass, in which case you should be earning multiple hundred dollars an hour contracting yourself out to do so :laugh2:

Sanding down a Dimebucker, L-500 or similar EXTERNALLY SHIELDED pickup WILL destroy the tone if not the pickup itself.

BTW, the hole in the pickguard was never the problem to begin with. though it too would likely also be a tight fit for the extended coils of an l-500:smack:
 
Re: Sanding down pickup to fit cover.....will it break the pup?

Zerberus said:
^^ EHm, no.

A TB cover will rattle, way too much air in the corners and along the length. Almost impossible to secure properly, especially with the smaller than TB-sized base that is epoxy to boot. You can´t just pop it on and solder it in place, unless you somehow know how to solder epoxy resin to brass, in which case you should be earning multiple hundred dollars an hour contracting yourself out to do so :laugh2:

Sanding down a Dimebucker, L-500 or similar EXTERNALLY SHIELDED pickup WILL destroy the tone if not the pickup itself.

BTW, the hole in the pickguard was never the problem to begin with. though it too would likely also be a tight fit for the extended coils of an l-500:smack:
Click to expand...

are you aiming the "BTW, the hole in the pickguard was never the problem to begin with" at me??....

becuse I can assure you it was. The EMG pickup covers are square and the holes in the pickguard were perfectly rounded for the humbucker shape so therefore they didnt fit in at all....eiter in the cover or without as the Dimebucker is F spaced and was too big for the standard holes anyway......

as this picture shows you of what i had to do -
17092011169.jpg



Not only did the Dimebucker not fit in these holes, but DEFINATELY doesnt fit them EMG covers either.....hence this thread
 
Last edited:
Re: Sanding down pickup to fit cover.....will it break the pup?

GoldenVulture said:
The bobbins are plastic?
You want to flatten the round ends of them so it not quit as wide?

Plastic can be moulded with things like hot knives.
Click to expand...

its just people have said that removing some of the plastic messes up the tone, shielding or anything else that could ruin a pup.....

that was my point, Would cutting some off the pup in this way REALLY do no harm?...
 
Re: Sanding down pickup to fit cover.....will it break the pup?

Again, not sure how thick the EMG covers are, but do you have enough thickness to sand the inside of the cover, where the dimebucker is sticking/making contact?
 
Re: Sanding down pickup to fit cover.....will it break the pup?

The Dimebucker and also the Diablo have bobbins that are as long as the bridge single coil on a strat. Maybe you could find two that would fit those and pop them on? Like two EMG single coil covers? You'll still have to enlarge the pickguard though.
 
Re: Sanding down pickup to fit cover.....will it break the pup?

If you want a cover so badly, why don't you just get one custom made? You could probably get a machine shop to mill you one based on dimensions you provide them.
 
Re: Sanding down pickup to fit cover.....will it break the pup?

the cover thickness is about 1.2 mm on the sides that sit over the pup so not alot at all really....and where are these machines shops that can do this for you?
 
Re: Sanding down pickup to fit cover.....will it break the pup?

i dunno, do some research. Look hard enough, and you can find anything!
 
Re: Sanding down pickup to fit cover.....will it break the pup?

could you get the dime to fit by angling the mounting screws and forgetting about the unnecessary black plastic cover..?
 
Re: Sanding down pickup to fit cover.....will it break the pup?

I'd narrow the walls of the EMG cover and see if it fits.
 
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