Replacing pickups in a Vigier Excalibur Special 7. Pickup height difference 

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Bucketbot
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05 Oct 2019 03:02

I recently received a Vigier Excalibur Special 7 in a trade. I'd like to swap out the pickups to Bare Knuckle Juggernauts. It currently has Dimarzio Blaze pickups in it. My issue is that the Juggernauts are 1.75 mm less tall than the Blaze pickups meaning that the Juggernauts will be that much farther away from the strings once I install them. What Can I do to bring the Bare Knuckle pickups up 1.75 mm?

yuri1973
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07 Oct 2019 11:56

My two cents with a few options:

- penny washers (cheap & easy to get)

- plastic/silicone tubes (some pickups bring them). Example here (uncut):

https://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_Electronics/Pickup_Kits_and_Parts/Pickup_Kits_and_Parts_for_Strat/Pickup_Spring_Tubing.html

- foam underneath the pickup baseplate (very common to see too)

In all cases, be careful with the screw going into the wood, as it'll need to be slightly longer if you want to have it gripping in the wood same as before , ... but not too much longer as it would risk cracking the body's wood !

Bucketbot
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07 Oct 2019 23:42

Thanks for the reply. Wood shims or metal washers are a great idea. Being that normally the pickups are in complete contact with the wood of the body. That would continue to transfer the vibrations from the body. I'm not really sure if there is a difference in sound when a pickup is screwed up against the body or suspended by springs.

yuri1973
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08 Oct 2019 11:10

Bucketbot wrote:

Thanks for the reply. Wood shims or metal washers are a great idea. Being that normally the pickups are in complete contact with the wood of the body. That would continue to transfer the vibrations from the body. I'm not really sure if there is a difference in sound when a pickup is screwed up against the body or suspended by springs.

Yes, wood shims would also work to raise the pickup of course, ... or any material for that matter (credit cards, etc). The advantage of the foams is that they allow easy heigth adjustments just by turning the screws (foam will be compressed when lowering height, ... or expanded raising the pickup).

BTW, when I suggested metal washers I was thinking on using them to raise the pickup by placing them right where the screw goes (so both screws would be going through the washers). In that case the pickup baseplate wouldn't be touching the wood, which btw I have to disagree when you said is the norm.

About the vibration transfer/sound differences of direct mount vs. springs/suspended, well .... there are countless discussions around ... IMHO it doesn't affect at all (to a noticeable extent).

 

Bucketbot
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08 Oct 2019 18:08

Funny you mentioned the foam. When I played bass, the Spector Euro basses I played used dense foam under the pickups. I actually did the same thing on the single coil picku on my Vigier because it was so far away from the strings. I'm a metal player so I don't actually ever use it but it was bothering me because of my OCD. I'll just use some foam under the Bare Knuckle pickups. 

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