Cramming foam under the pickup?

[Donovan]

In the search to get my new MIM ProMod to sound right, I had some foam and an extra trem block that I had replaced with the Floyd big block. I stuck the trem block in the body under the bridge pickup just as a place to keep it really so it won't get lost and placed some foam padding on top of that so it wouldn't move around then put the pickguard back on top of the guitar. The PU now presses down a little on the foam. For some reason this seems to have greatly improved.. something on the guitar. It's really come to life for me. It seems that when I switch to the neck PU now I hear a subtle "openness" I guess, the sound the guitar makes when you tap on the pickguard where there is a rout under it. This may be partially mental and feel but I swear it has affected tone as well. Am I nuts?

[Chad]

That would be similar to what they are going for with the product discussed in this thread:

http://www.jcfonline.com/threads/138646-NEW-Tone-Upgrades-from-FU-and-Mike-Learn

[84sups]

They did that on J/Cs for a long time on the single coils on the model series and the early Jackson imports. Thought it was weird but it made sense to me after a while. Much easier to screw the pickups down not having to hold the springs

[straycat]

You put the old trem block under the bridge pick up and foam? Or just the foam?

[xenophobe]

I've used foam to position EMGs in non-recessed guitars. Sometimes it's hard to get them the angle you want. Foam corrects this. I don't recollect hearing any improvement in tone from it, but I wasn't paying attention for that.

[Donovan]

You put the old trem block under the bridge pick up and foam? Or just the foam?

I put both under there. I put the old block directly onto the wood and the foam on top of that. Then the pickguard went down so the pickup now has the block and the foam directly under and the foam holding it in place.

I tried it again last night and I can definitely hear a difference in the resonance between the neck and the bridge PU. I don't think the block is really doing anything but the foam and closing up that air space under there changed something and maybe the big metal block is doing something.

[Chad]

If the block is well coupled, it could be adding mass to the body. Kind of similar to what a "fat finger" does on the headstock.

[straycat]

I'm not sure I'm buying the hype on the Floyd FU site.
How many times over the years have we had to deal with hype?
Not saying it doesn't work but I would have to hear it.