Pup Ring Help

[Gitterman]

Problem with the neck pup ring. Installed new pup's. The neck pup ring seems to be bunching up? The front edge of the pup ring (facing the neck) lift's up above the fret board, so the strings fret out on the pup ring when I play up in the higher octave's. don't have the same problem with the Schaller rings. I bought Allparts pup rings. They're slightly greenish, as well. I can use them for something else. Just wondering why I'm having this issue? the holes line up properly. Is the another brand I might try? Preferably a bit more cream and less green, but ultimately I could care less if they fit correctly.

[TalismanRich]

Is the pickup ring significantly thicker than the original?   It can easily be sanded down a few hundredths of an inch, plus you might need to add a bit of a curve to the bottom.  If the pickup ring was flat to start with,  you need to add some curve to match the carve of the top.   That will lower the middle while keeping the ends the same height.

 

[DetroitBlues]

the curve of the rings do not match the curve of the top.  Some rings are flat and others are curved.  A lot of the original 140's have cracked pickup rings because the carve to the top was more pronounced than a pickup ring.

Now I've heard of some people using double sided tape and sand paper to correct this.  

Here is a paraphrased cliff-note version:

• Remove the pickup.
• Use a strip of double sided tape to cover a space larger than the pickup cavity, as much as you can cover.
• Place some 120 grit or higher sandpaper on the tape.
• Slide the pickup cover back and fourth over the top of the tape until the curve of the pickup ring matches the top.

It went something like that, does that make sense?

[yoslate]

1 hour ago, DetroitBlues said:

• Slide the pickup cover back and fourth over the top of the tape until the curve of the pickup ring matches the top.

Sorry Josh, but as someone who used to teach technical writing, to clarify:  Remove the pickup from the bezel, or ring.  Move the pickup ring back and forth parallel to the neck, over the sandpaper secured to the top.  Press down lightly on the center of the ring's two thin sides to give the back side of the ring the same contour as the carve of the guitar's top.

There's no room to move the ring back and forth above the neck pickup cavity, and the cavity itself will not provide a solid surface on which to sand.  I'd secure the sandpaper on the top, between the pickups and work on that.  Also, being judicious, I always get a little head start by shaving just a bit of plastic from the middle 2" of the roughly 3 1/2" wide ring with an X-Acto knife (not cutting, but shaving the plastic, with the blade perpendicular to the ring's edge).

[DetroitBlues]

1 hour ago, yoslate said:

Sorry Josh, but as someone who used to teach technical writing, to clarify:  Remove the pickup from the bezel, or ring.  Move the pickup ring back and forth parallel to the neck, over the sandpaper secured to the top.  Press down lightly on the center of the ring's two thin sides to give the back side of the ring the same contour as the carve of the guitar's top.

There's no room to move the ring back and forth above the neck pickup cavity, and the cavity itself will not provide a solid surface on which to sand.  I'd secure the sandpaper on the top, between the pickups and work on that.  Also, being judicious, I always get a little head start by shaving just a bit of plastic from the middle 2" of the roughly 3 1/2" wide ring with an X-Acto knife (not cutting, but shaving the plastic, with the blade perpendicular to the ring's edge).

Yep, just read that again.  I was wrong about the cavity.  

[Gitterman]

So, just not enough curve? I got it. Ive done several Les Paul's and never run into this before. Thanks Guys I will try that once the new non-green pup rings get here. Just surprised. I bought curved rings, but there really isn't much of one there.

[DetroitBlues]

On 3/19/2020 at 8:18 AM, Gitterman said:

So, just not enough curve? I got it. Ive done several Les Paul's and never run into this before. Thanks Guys I will try that once the new non-green pup rings get here. Just surprised. I bought curved rings, but there really isn't much of one there.

This is because Gibbons doesn't do as much of a deep-dish carve anymore.  Heritage, for a long time, had some spectacular carves.  They've gone away from that in recent years.

[rockabilly69]

4 hours ago, DetroitBlues said:

This is because Gibbons doesn't do as much of a deep-dish carve anymore.  Heritage, for a long time, had some spectacular carves.  They've gone away from that in recent years.

not true DB, both of these came with serious deep dish carves...

I've sanded many pickup rings on LP guitars to make them fit perfectly. I also had to do it on one of my H150s. It's easy enough, and will give you something to do in the self isolating mode.

[DetroitBlues]

19 hours ago, rockabilly69 said:

not true DB, both of these came with serious deep dish carves...

I've sanded many pickup rings on LP guitars to make them fit perfectly. I also had to do it on one of my H150s. It's easy enough, and will give you something to do in the self isolating mode.

Those are custom shop, are they not?  They still believe in the carve.

[Kuz]

The honest answer is that Heritage doesn't sand any arch at all and quality of rings aren't very good so they eventually crack.   The quality of the pup rings aren't to the same quality as the Gibbons Historic Pup Rings.  I have used those on several guitars with minimal sanding (DON'T over sand the arch because when you screw them down tight to the body you might have a see-through opening under the arch, where the ring isn't making contact with the body).

My Collings City Limits and McInturff Carolina Custom both had the rings "massaged/slightly sanded" for a perfect fit and the rings feel more substantial/thicker.  

Finally, and they are expensive, but Jon at Throbak re cloned the exact material composition of the Gibbons '50s pup rings and they are guaranteed not to break.

[rockabilly69]

2 hours ago, Kuz said:

The honest answer is that Heritage doesn't sand any arch at all and quality of rings aren't very good so they eventually crack.   The quality of the pup rings aren't to the same quality as the Gibbons Historic Pup Rings.  I have used those on several guitars with minimal sanding (DON'T over sand the arch because when you screw them down tight to the body you might have a see-through opening under the arch, where the ring isn't making contact with the body).

My Collings City Limits and McInturff Carolina Custom both had the rings "massaged/slightly sanded" for a perfect fit and the rings feel more substantial/thicker.  

Finally, and they are expensive, but Jon at Throbak re cloned the exact material composition of the Gibbons '50s pup rings and they are guaranteed not to break.

Yep!

[rockabilly69]

3 hours ago, DetroitBlues said:

Those are custom shop, are they not?  They still believe in the carve.

Yep!

[DetroitBlues]

2 minutes ago, rockabilly69 said:

Yep!

R4 and R7's?

[rockabilly69]

4 hours ago, DetroitBlues said:

R4 and R7's?

Yes, and my R0 has a nice top carve too, but it's hard to see with the flametop, goldtops always show it better! 

Of my Heritages this one has the best carve, but if you notice it has the smaller neck pickup ring with the black screws, I had to extract one of the original screws because it broke when I was trying to get it out. So I need to fill the little extraction hole and replace the screws to match the bridge pickup. The black screw went in a bit deeper, and it's more than secure, but my OCD won't let that go:)

...