There is no good way to direct wood-mount pickups

[Mincer]

There are a few options. You can drill out the holes on the baseplate and use wood screws with foam underneath. You can buy something like the expensive FU Tone Pickup Mounting System, which is a piece of brass screwed into the floor of the pickup cavity (and $50 per pickup).

On my new Warmoth, I used brass inserts in the pickup cavity's floor, with smaller machine screws that fall right through the normal holes in the pickup's tabs. I then used dense foam to provide upward pressure. I could have used springs, too, I guess. The foam is a little clumsy and difficult to get the pickup sitting parallel to the guitar top.

But man, there has to be a better way. Plastic or metal pickup rings don't look good to me, and screw up the aesthetic of a nice top (and the curves of the guitar). If we took 'tradition' out of it (or..This Is The Way It Has Always Been Done), it would be awesome to come up with a solution that looks great and still allows easy height adjustability.

Pickup tabs on the new Rails series don't look as clumsy and unfinished as the regular production models. But regular pickups are designed to be used with rings, so it doesn't matter if the regular baseplates' tabs look 'unfinished'. They are never seen under most circumstances.

I get that pickups are designed to be compatible with the largest amount of guitars. But finished black baseplates combined with a better system of direct mounting would be cool, too.

 

[AdrianSD]

My RG470 uses the springs under the pickup approach, works quite well to be honest. For increased stability, so that the spring won't travel sideways when installing the pickup, they did some extra routing so that the spring sits nice and snug in there.
I find much more frustrating the pickup ring mounting system, always end up with the bloody springs flying around and having to friggin' hunt them!

 

[Seashore]

I thought the plastic plugs that hold the wood screws on the Synapse did a nice job of covering the tabs unobtrusively. If I still worked at one of my old shops I could make my own... oh well.

I hate the plastic covers on EMG-style 7 string soapbars but it's a nice clean look when they're in. Maybe a 6 string version of that, instead of tabs. It would look similar to a P90 soapbar but with the screws out to the sides. That combined with the threaded inserts would be a nice package. I like the flat baseplates of the 7-string versions, too.

Of course that would be a different route and it would look terrible with standard pickups, and if you couldn't find the right pickup match in the right size for your guitar you'd get frustrated pretty quickly. I have been through this with the different 7-string sizes and it's annoying as heck. But if there was enough variety, and if the new models actually looked good... maybe it could get a foothold?

 

[orpheo]

I use springs instead of foam, and not the thin ones you use to mount a humbucker in a ring, but 22mm tall, 6mm wide springs. I drill two holes in the pickup cavity and the pickup balances on that. Sometimes I do the springs underneath the 'feet' of the pickup, with the screw in the center. direct-mounting is a pain, plain and simple.

 

[80's_Metal]

Set it to height and fill the cavity with clear epoxy! .. should look stellar. (And you'll never have to worry about changing pickups ever again .)

 

[jeremy]

haha, hell no

i dont direct mount often, but when i do i use small diameter wood screws that pass through the threaded holes without issue. its served me well for many years, but the brass insert method is really the way to go. as far as height adjustment, i usually use the foam that comes with a duncan pup. i use a big chunk so it actually applies good pressure

 

[ehdwuld]

I use the silicone tubing like fender uses on single coils
get some with 1/4 inside diameter

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BLZ47M3Y?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

and some 5/8 long #4 screws

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNRP68K3?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

 

[beaubrummels]

My Jackson uses a combination of foam with two springs under the pickups.

 

[ErikH]

I've used foam under the pickup base, springs, silicone tubing, heck, even nuts larger than the screw for it to pass thru as standoffs. Can even make shims that fit in the cavity to raise it up to the desired height and then screw it all down in place.

I don't have any direct mounts now. Mine are either pickguard mounted or ring mounted.

 

[Mincer]

I thought the plastic plugs that hold the wood screws on the Synapse did a nice job of covering the tabs unobtrusively. If I still worked at one of my old shops I could make my own... oh well.

Yeah, these don't look too bad. It is a better idea than just exposing silver tabs on a guitar that otherwise has all black hardware.

I use springs instead of foam, and not the thin ones you use to mount a humbucker in a ring, but 22mm tall, 6mm wide springs. I drill two holes in the pickup cavity and the pickup balances on that. Sometimes I do the springs underneath the 'feet' of the pickup, with the screw in the center. direct-mounting is a pain, plain and simple.

I never thought of that, thank you! I have to dig through my spring collection now. Yes, it is a pain, and it shouldn't be. This isn't like curing a disease. A simple, elegant, and cheap solution should be as easily available as buying magnets.

 

[donaldr]

A big magnet screwed on the bottom pickup cavity will hold you pickup no problem :haha:

 

[Chistopher]

Gibson did a reverse wood mount thing a few years ago that never caught on where you adjust the height of the pickup from the back of the guitar. I liked it, but the blues lawyers didn't care for it

 

[Mincer]

Gibson did a reverse wood mount thing a few years ago that never caught on where you adjust the height of the pickup from the back of the guitar. I liked it, but the blues lawyers didn't care for it

I remember that. It did look elegant. Of course the design of the guitar has to change, which is why people hated it. It was a good idea.

 

[Chistopher]

I think it looked really cool on the SG HP. The others I could take or leave.

 

[RanchManSandy]

Yeah, these don't look too bad. It is a better idea than just exposing silver tabs on a guitar that otherwise has all black hardware.

A bit o' black nail polish on the tabs will do the trick.

 

[Mincer]

I think it looked really cool on the SG HP. The others I could take or leave.

See, that looks fantastic to me. Rings would disturb the curves!

 

[Mincer]

A bit o' black nail polish on the tabs will do the trick.

Well, I am going for elegant, really. Or more like an indy car, vs nascar.

 

[Ascension]

There are a few options. You can drill out the holes on the baseplate and use wood screws with foam underneath. You can buy something like the expensive FU Tone Pickup Mounting System, which is a piece of brass screwed into the floor of the pickup cavity (and $50 per pickup).

On my new Warmoth, I used brass inserts in the pickup cavity's floor, with smaller machine screws that fall right through the normal holes in the pickup's tabs. I then used dense foam to provide upward pressure. I could have used springs, too, I guess. The foam is a little clumsy and difficult to get the pickup sitting parallel to the guitar top.

But man, there has to be a better way. Plastic or metal pickup rings don't look good to me, and screw up the aesthetic of a nice top (and the curves of the guitar). If we took 'tradition' out of it (or..This Is The Way It Has Always Been Done), it would be awesome to come up with a solution that looks great and still allows easy height adjustability.

Pickup tabs on the new Rails series don't look as clumsy and unfinished as the regular production models. But regular pickups are designed to be used with rings, so it doesn't matter if the regular baseplates' tabs look 'unfinished'. They are never seen under most circumstances.

I get that pickups are designed to be compatible with the largest amount of guitars. But finished black baseplates combined with a better system of direct mounting would be cool, too.

Yes, there absolutely is. Washburn did this right with the old MG USA series guitars that were built under the leadership of Grover Jackson. On those guitars, they use a brass insert into the body, then a machine screw for height adjustment, just as you have and did this in the 1990's. They hand cut a specific typer of foam to fit the pickup baseplate, then used rubber tubes over the screws.
Tip on the foam under the pickup, Washburn drilled holes for the poll screws to slip in so the pickup set flat on the foam on every guitar. It's bulletproof looks great, gives a good range of adjustment for the pickup height and actually enhances the tone of the guitar. Why no one else has used this system on production guitars, including Carvin Kiesel is a big question for me.
Own several of these guitars, and they are truly something very special for more reasons than just the pickup mount system!
My 95 MG 120.

 

[Ascension]

Yeah, these don't look too bad. It is a better idea than just exposing silver tabs on a guitar that otherwise has all black hardware.

Grover ordered all the Duncan humbuckers with black baseplates while he was running the Washburn Chicago Custom shop just for that reason. My 120 I swapped pickups in (Had a PG plus in the bridge stock now has a JB) but my orange MG 102 still has the stock JB/ 59 set with black back factory Duncans.
Those guitars were on another level brass inserts and machine screws for the control covers and pickup mounts, metal control plates, the factory locking tunes that were unique to those guitars, the list goes on and on. Those were the equal of something like today's high end Suhr and Anderson guitars back in the day. I think they are the absolute best of all the 90s bolt on superstrats, but he was only there from 92 to very early 96 and those guitars were discontinued when he left. Most have absolutely no idea how special these truly are, in particular the 94-96 MG II US guitars.

 

[Ascension]

The Kiesel system looks great. However, they use wood screws to mount don't use foam under the pickups and their pickups have the mount tabs straight off the side of the baseplate on the new Kiesel pickup designs. A number of folks have punched the screws through the back of these guitars by using the old screws to mount other pickups like Duncan's not realizing they needed shorter screws because different place the tabs.sit. Love the look though, and really like the Kiesel / Carvin pickup combos I have in both of these DC's.