Mounting dog-ear P90 to curved top?

[Verzila]

Any ideas about how I should do this? I'm looking at mounting a dog-ear P90 at the bridge of a 335-style guitar, so it has to work with the carved top. For example, how do Gibson mount their flat-bottomed dog-ears onto the ES-330?

I imagine the base of the pickup cover needs to be curved to match the top of the guitar - much the same as the bottom of a humbucker mounting ring is curved - the top routed in the usual dog-ear fashion, and the 'guts' of the pickup will just drop into the slot . Does this sound about right?

 

[maxvintage]

Any ideas about how I should do this? I'm looking at mounting a dog-ear P90 at the bridge of a 335-style guitar, so it has to work with the carved top. For example, how do Gibson mount their flat-bottomed dog-ears onto the ES-330?

I imagine the base of the pickup cover needs to be curved to match the top of the guitar - much the same as the bottom of a humbucker mounting ring is curved - the top routed in the usual dog-ear fashion, and the 'guts' of the pickup will just drop into the slot . Does this sound about right?

I've never done what you are describing, but I imagine you would do what you'd do to fit a "floating" bridge, which I have done.

Tape coarse sandpaper to the top, face up of course, and move the cover back and forth on the sand paper, making small movements towards the neck and the bridge, until I'd worn away enough to get a flush fit.

This guy is doing it using a jig from Stew mac. I made a similar jig out of wood, but you would not need a jig and he video shows the idea



Alternatively get some carbon paper, put it face p on the guitar, and press the cover down, then file away the carbon marks. But if it's a black pickup cover, this isn't going to work well.

 

[samuelmorrissey]

I've never done what you are describing, but I imagine you would do what you'd do to fit a "floating" bridge, which I have done.

Tape coarse sandpaper to the top, face up of course, and move the cover back and forth on the sand paper, making small movements towards the neck and the bridge, until I'd worn away enough to get a flush fit.

This guy is doing it using a jig from Stew mac. I made a similar jig out of wood, but you would not need a jig and he video shows the idea



Alternatively get some carbon paper, put it face p on the guitar, and press the cover down, then file away the carbon marks. But if it's a black pickup cover, this isn't going to work well.

Yep that sounds like the best thing to do! Had an idea to fit dog ears on my Goldtop LP but gave up on the idea. Who knows, sometime in the future maybe!?

If I ever do decide to do it, I'll do this. That will get the perfect curve on the back of the cover. Pickup should fit right in!

S

 

[Verzila]

That's the way - many thanks!

 

[TRexF16]

My sense is your pickups might be too low if you just remove material from the middle part of the covers as shown in the technique above. I have an Epiphone Riviera with three Dog Ears and each one's cover sits on little bases that are curved on the bottom where they meet the guitar top. But they are very narrow covers also. If you have very deep covers you might not need any such thing.

 

[Vizcaster]

My sense is your pickups might be too low if you just remove material from the middle part of the covers as shown in the technique above. I have an Epiphone Riviera with three Dog Ears and each one's cover sits on little bases that are curved on the bottom where they meet the guitar top. But they are very narrow covers also. If you have very deep covers you might not need any such thing.

The bases are actually spacers used to adjust the height, and more importantly the angle, of the pickups beyond what you'd want to do with the ajustable polepieces. I've made them out of scraps of pickguard material and yes, it's best to shape the bottoms to fit the curve of the top but ES guitars don't always have as much of a dramatic belly as a LP (maybe because the curves aren't as abrupt they're spread out over a larger body... hmm I may have stumbled upon a lyric there...)

 

[Zepfan]

A wood spacer carved to fit the body. My avatar guitar had one from the factory for the original large single coil pickups.

 

[Jack Clayton]

Anyone have a suggestion as to how to do this with a metal dogear? I've got a set of nickel covers for an Epiphone casino, and the neck pickup is a slight mismatch. I'm guessing trying to do it by this method will require about eight years of sanding.

 

[crazydave911]

How about a mounting ring below the pickup? Just a thought

Dave

 

[Freeman Keller]

Edit - I just realized this was a necro-thread after I did a bit of lookup in my P90 files. Maybe it will help with the last question, probably not

 

[crazydave911]

Edit - I just realized this was a necro-thread after I did a bit of lookup in my P90 files. Maybe it will help with the last question, probably not

So very nice