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NEED ADVICE: Mounting pickup with low action without weakening the neck??

Greets,

I am starting a new build, and I am facing the dilemma how how to mount the pickup without chopping deeply into the neck.

In the past I dodged this issue by using special ultra-thin pickups. Once I *did* notch the neck to fit the pickup lower, and it weakened the neck so bad the instrument wouldn't hold a tune at all, and I had to add metal straps internally to strengthen the neck in order to rescue the guitar.

There must be a better way!

Darn pickups are easily 1/2 inch high, and that makes it hard to achieve low action. I really want the high frets to be more usable, so low action is a must. As it is, if this pickup is mounted right against the neck with no notching, it will be a good 9 or 10 mm high!

I really want the neck all the way thru the body for strength. And I don't want to weaken it by notching a slot for the pickup. How have you guys worked around this?

Pics are attached...

Thanks and blessings,

/Mark

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on August 6, 2016 at 2:51pm

Notch it to suit Mark,then glue/screw another piece under the neck to stiffen it up,or even 1 piece on either side if box is not deep enough

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Permalink Reply by Jonno on August 6, 2016 at 6:05pm

I will take a pic and post showing the approach I took to insert a transformer into neck. Hint. Its what Darryl said he he

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Permalink Reply by Titch the Clown on August 6, 2016 at 6:42pm

I have seen some people mount a pickup over the top.

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Permalink Reply by Jonno on August 6, 2016 at 11:34pm

Here are a few pics that show buttresing around a very deep notch. Your pickup doesnt require as deep a notch as is required to stick a trannie as a pickup in but you can get the idea.Build as much depth as you can and buttress sides too I guess.

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Permalink Reply by Fomhorach on August 7, 2016 at 3:00am

I have to track down some old phone chargers for these things and try it out

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on August 7, 2016 at 8:26am

Always funny.

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Permalink Reply by Fomhorach on August 7, 2016 at 3:39am

Yeah. Have a third piece of wood running under the second inside the box.

Glue and clamp real tight. And only go down as far as needed.

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Permalink Reply by Skeesix on August 7, 2016 at 5:25am

Add a second board under the neck inside the box and possibly also a "heel" of 2 inches or so outside the box.

This depends on where you place the pickup. The closer the pickup is to the neck, the more you need to go outside the box.

You need to have a minimum of about 3 inches of reinforcement on either side of the pickup notch.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on August 7, 2016 at 6:33am

This can be done by adding wings to the neck in the box or a piece along the bottom like others mentioned.

When I build a CBG with pickups, I put a through piece into the bow with supports underneath to keep it from flexing and bolt a neck to the through piece. That way, there's plenty of space for pickups without cutting and weakening the neck/through piece. Here are a couple of pics of a build that shows what I'm talking about.

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Permalink Reply by Fomhorach on August 7, 2016 at 10:56am

There's some great ideas in this one build. Thanks for sharing.

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Permalink Reply by Jonno on August 7, 2016 at 12:23pm

Lol. And a vintage Hoover. Had it for years and never missed a beat. Hmmm. Oversized gear on a cbg. What about a door knob for a vol knob.

Hmm. Must try the nethod of screwing/gluing neck outside of box to piece of wood that runs thru box. Frees up a lot of space inside. I must get around to trying a bolt on type neck attachment that provides lots of extra box space too.

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Permalink Reply by Blues Frog on August 7, 2016 at 3:25pm

I build my necks like the picture shows. This is what the replies have been saying, and now you have a visual as well.

The extra piece of wood is the length of the box. I also try and set the depth of the neck so that it touches the bottom of the box, and I glue it in place when I mount the neck in the box. Just another thought to throw out there.