Pickup Cavity

[Ultramagnus]

Hey Guys, I hope some of you guys have had some experience with this, I'm planning on paintig my USA Production model & I want to remove the neck pickup and fill in the cavity. I read somewhere on line to cut a piece of wood slightly smaller than the cavity & glue it in, is this right? Also what else is needed in preperation for painting, some sort of wood filler to fill in the cracks then sanding?

Thanks

[DonP]

What has worked great for me (did this in 1990) was to take pickup covers (I had two singles to fill) and put them in the cavity then bondo over them. The good thing plastic has over wood is that it hasn't shrunk or moved in the 20 years since I did it.

Wood will work too, but you want something very stable that won't shrink over time. Use a hardwood.

Bondo over it.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

You'll see a seam eventually no matter what you do. If you care about that, sell the body and buy one that is routed single-hum from Musikraft or something.

[wilkinsi]

I believe RobRR filled the cavity with epoxy resin and refinished his guitar.

[DonP]

I believe RobRR filled the cavity with epoxy resin and refinished his guitar.

And he also routed a single hum RR24M to have a neck pickup

[Ultramagnus]

Thanks guys, I have a candy red sd that I've been thinking of painting like lynch's original yellow tiger but It would look goofy with both pickups.

[Axewielder]

If you have a bunch of old wire and rusted switches, you can fill it in with that kind of shit ala EVH.

[VitaminG]

You'll see a seam eventually no matter what you do. If you care about that, sell the body and buy one that is routed single-hum from Musikraft or something.

you can veneer the top before refinishing to take care of that. Lot of effort though

[DonP]

Thanks guys, I have a candy red sd that I've been thinking of painting like lynch's original yellow tiger but It would look goofy with both pickups.

You are following in my footsteps 20 years after

[dg]

You'll see a seam eventually no matter what you do. If you care about that, sell the body and buy one that is routed single-hum from Musikraft or something.

you can veneer the top before refinishing to take care of that. Lot of effort though

You don't have to do a wood veneer. Mark (mm2002) came up with a method using a 2-part automotive glazing putty (Evercoat) veneer that you can do over a Bondo or epoxy cavity fill. It works like a champ and seams don't show through. Mark did a bunch of projects with it, including Budman's famous neon pink Model 6 converted to one-hum. I only did it once, but it was 5 years ago and there are no visible seams at all on mine, and the veneer covers a pickup cavity fill, the edges of a trem cavity mod and filled holes for a switch & tone pot. Unfortunately, all the pic links are dead for Mark's old threads, but here's a shot of Dave's finished Model 6 project:

[Ultramagnus]

Thanks guys, to be honest I checked out that Musikraft site and wow that seems like a cheap and easy way to go. Do any of you guys have any necks or bodies from them? If so how is the quality and feel? I think their ''classic Charvel'' 1 hum body & a USA San Dimas pro mod neck off the bay might be the best way to go assuming everything fits, what do you guys think?

Thanks

[DonP]

I think sanding and repainting sucks. It took me three times to get the paint to look the way I wanted it. I'll probably die 10 years early from breathing in that dust.

[Ultramagnus]

That pink is badass!!.... If only it had a floyd.

[dg]

Mark & Dave both did a bunch of amazing projects and helped a lot of people. I miss seeing them around here.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Thanks guys, to be honest I checked out that Musikraft site and wow that seems like a cheap and easy way to go. Do any of you guys have any necks or bodies from them? If so how is the quality and feel? I think their ''classic Charvel'' 1 hum body & a USA San Dimas pro mod neck off the bay might be the best way to go assuming everything fits, what do you guys think?

Thanks

I've heard lots of good things about them, and some bad things, but someone's always got something bad to say about any company, you know? I'm about to find out firsthand on the bodies... At least somewhat soon.

Make sure you get the 2-1/4" neck pocket. They say in the description you can order that. I don't see it in the drop-down. I was going to e-mail them about that and see where it goes.

Not everyone will feel the same but yeah in the case of an easily-replacable thing like that body for $175 I'd much rather buy a new one than spend hours sanding paint off, filling, epoxying, skim coating, sanding, etc. before I even started on the paint job. :dunno: