Direct mounted pickups / converted

[Predator1]

Im thinking of picking up a used #7 Wildcard but simply do not care for the look of direct mount pickups. What does it take to convert these Pro Mods to the adjustable type of pickup?

[Nightbat]

Hammer, chisel, drill, 2 pickup rings and a bit of finesse

[DonP]

JackHammer

Fixed

[Nightbat]

Fixed

Only if you want that pro-"Relic-ed" look

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

It's really easy. Just drill a 1/4" hole right where the little screws go in for the direct mounting. Drill it about 1/2" deep. Mark the bit with tape, Alder is soft so it will be there before you know it (and if you go at it hard you will be all the way through the body.)

Put your pickup in the bezel and line it up. I like to use a piece of tape parallel to the neck/strings and another across the body at 90 degrees to line it up straight. Get the ring & pickup right where you need it and mark the 4 holes with something straight and sharp like a small file or nail or whatever. Drill your mounting ring screws and that's it.

[Chief_CrazyTalk]

You could also just glue, tape, or screw a pup ring around the direct mounted pups. I just bought my first direct mounted pup guitar and wasn't crazy about the look or not being able to adjust pup height but I'll be damned if the guitar doesn't sound perfect.

[ginsambo]

Can you not just fit long, higher tensioned springs and swap the screws out for extra long ones to adjust pup height? And put some foam backing under the pups to stabilize them. Or are the pups glued in? I kind of like the look.

[GuerillaPete]

You could just draw PU rings around the route with a sharpie.

[84sups]

Last time I got a pickup that was hard mounted the holes in the pickup were drilled out. I would say just put a set of pickup rings in place. Use doublesided tape from 3m and go to town. You can put it back to stock anytime and you get the look you want.

[Rich#6]

I did this with a japanese promod body. I did use the original pickups. I screwed the rings in using the existing pickup holes made sure they were strait and drilled the ring holes. Because the pickup tabs are longer on a regular pickup compared to direct mounted ones I had to drill out enough space for the tabs also.