[caseynbenson]

Background Info
Hey there. My name is Casey Benson a 21 year old University student in Ontario, Canada and I've been playing guitar for about 8 years. But this isn't about me, rather this is a little story, (with some pics), about the trials and tribulations in modifying my seven string.

I've owned my Schecter Hellraiser 7 Black Cherry for about 15 months, and over this time I have come to the decision that active pickups are not my bag. For this reason I also recently sold an EMG-equipped Jackson Kelly that I had owned for about 4 years. I have come to love and appreciate the versatility of passive humbucker. I constantly use coil-tapping, and the insane variety of passive pickups on the market allows for some GAS relief. The "Extended Bass" pickup housing is ridiculously limiting, although it looks badass. I found EMG 707s sterile, and too "high fizz sizzly" for my tastes. It didn't sound bad, I'm just finicky about sound and the 707s weren't doing anything for me.

I will now get into the meat of this operation...



Goal
Install Passive pickups in a way that is aesthetically pleasing and functional as well as being 100% reversible.

Options
1. On this site I have seen a couple of approaches to this problem. I have seen custom pickup rings that can be fastened to the top of the guitar; Sized to cover the length difference between standard and EMG sized pickups.
My beef with these huge pickup mounting rings is that there is too much plastic, (or whatever material), and it looks strange to me. Also this ring must be mounted to the top of the guitar, which means either drilling, or double-sided tape. meh.

2. I also discovered that a sevenstring.org member installed his pickup, and wedged dark-grey foam around it to fill the extra space. Simple...works... but also not the prettiest thing.

3. Do something totally different.

My Design
I took option 3 and I decided to make use of the ridiculous assortment of tools/equipment that lies in my garage, and use a medium that I am comfortable manipulating- wood, (My dad is a talented carpenter hobbyist).

After measurements, various sketches, and a prototype, I designed a system that would work for me. From wood I was to create a pick-up ring/box that would mount WITHIN the preexisting pickup cavity. The passive pickup's ears would be bent inwards to make it a touch smaller, then this pickup would be tacked upwards into the sides of the wooden housing. Only 4 discrete holes would be drilled in the guitar for the screws to mount these custom pickup boxes and to allow for height adjustment. These holes are within the pickup cavities, so it does not affect the finish, and causes no damage to the guitar, if I so wish to return it to its active state in the future.

"Sweet!"

Pickups Pickups Pickups
I originally intended to purchase Dimarzio pickups to put in my Hellraiser, but I soon discovered, (after purchasing a Dimarzio Air Norton 7), that they would not fit. In order to fit standard 7 string pickups within the EMG-size routing, the ears, (where the screw is threaded into the pickup), would need to be bent. Little did I know that 7 string Dimarzios do not have metal base/ears, but rather their base is composed of a plastic/acrylic or something. "Shit," I say, as there was no way I was going to carve/route out my guitar just to compensate for the stupid ears of the pickup...

On to plan B-> Seymour Duncan. Through both personal experience and research on sevenstring.org I decided to to get a JB and a Jazz. These Seymour Duncans DID have metal ears that were bent with ease. Now that I had pickups that will fit, onwards to the actual build!


The Build and the Result (photos and commentary)


-Planning stage


-After some measuring, planing, sawing, cutting out some veneer pieces with exacto knives (with aid from the lovely girlfriend), some sanding and gluing, we begin to assemble and clamp.


-This process continues...


-After drying, I sanded these pickup mounts a bit, and here I am testing out the fit. "Just right!" The pickups fit in the mounts, and the mounts fit in the EMG-sized routing.


-The non-finished housings testing out their new home


-Same deal, just a broader perspective


So now knowing that everything fits lovely, I applied a couple coats of a dark "Ebony" wood stain to the pickup mounts. After drying, everything was assembled. Here are some photos of the final product.


-Nice and close


-Less close!


-In this photo you see my preference of knob-wiring configuration, which is a single volume, and a single push-pull tone knob that acts as a coil-tap. This is the same set-up I use on my Ibanez RG 550. It's nice, simple, versatile, and comfortable for me. You probably notice that I have just an extra hole there, (which used to be a tone control), and I haven't done anything with it. My response- True. I'll end up putting a "dummy" knob in there likely, or perhaps I'll put something nifty in, like a gain boost, or extra eq sweep or something. who knows! But for now, I'm cool with the missing potentiometer.


-My mistress on the table. Enough said.


-"hyaaarrgh!" = "death comes in 7s!" in the language that exists in my twisted reality.

Issues with this Whole Process
~You likely saw the little wire running across the body, from the bridge pickup to the bridge post; This is something that I am not too happy about, but I will have to live with until I get a chance to do otherwise. Passive pickups require grounding to the bridge/strings, and since this guitar is designed for active pickups which do not require such grounding, there is no simple/hidden way to connect a ground wire to the bridge. I will eventually drill a small hole from the electronic cavity to the bridge posts, but while I'm away at school, no-can-do.

~Since the scale of this project is small, working with small measurements and pieces is tricky and a bit frustrating.

~I can't use Dimarzios because of their non-metal ears. This fact is lame, but with the help of my friends JB and Jazz I've already gotten over it.


In conclusion
I really like how this looks. The mounts aren't distracting at all and I love being able to see the pickup face. Looks heavy.

Sound. Is. Great. I'm really impressed with the JB and Jazz. They are capable of doing just about anything, and sound so clear, warm and full of life. Also the coil-tapping is sooo handy and inspiring for me. I'm very happy with my pickup choice, but being realistic about the nature of guitarists, myself included, who knows how long my current state of guitar/pickup satisfaction will last. All I know is that it will take some great convincing, and fantastical leaps in active pickup technology for me to rely on them in my main axe.

Rock on,
Casey Benson

[Jongpil Yun]

Hey. Nice one. I was never a fan of EMGs either. I've got to say the wood pickup ring thing does look quite a bit better than the gray foam

The Hellraiser's a great guitar too.

[Miek]

Great job dude
It's a shame theres not a way to put passives inside old EMG covers, that'd look great, but what you did is the next best thing.

[djpharoah]

Nice - necessity is the mother of invention.

[Lee]

Very nice work That's creativity at it's finest.

[mnemonic]

that looks awesome!

[D-EJ915]

That looks pretty killer man, nice work!

[technomancer]

Looks freaking awesome

I only looked at the pretty pictures as I'm tired, but I'll read the whole thing tomorrow

[yevetz]

nice work

[bulb]

wow dude, and i used to think that there was little you could do if you had the emg routes...im glad you proved me wrong, it looks amazing!!