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I recently acquired a Squier VM Jaguar HH. Nice guitar, but the fugly tort guard had to go, and I decided to also add metal covers to the pickups to increse the chrome quotient. The pickguard's holes for the pickups had to be enlarged to accommodate the covers, so I busted out the dremel. There's an old saying amongst carpenters that goes "measure twice, cut once". To bad that like an idiot I measured the wrong thing: instead of using the neck pickup cover to measure for the neck position hole, I used the bridge cover which is wider. So now there's a 2-3mm gap on either side of the neck pickup. Although it would probably not be noticed by a casual observer I think it looks like ass and serves as a constant reminder of my ineptness.

So I'm considering putting pickup rings to hide the unsightly gap. I've noticed that in guitars with pickguards, the pickguards usually have a larger hole for the ring, which is itself mounted directly to the wooden body with little wood screws. Obviously I have no interest in attempting to cut up my pickguard again, since I would most surely end up fucking it up somehow. Instead, is it possible to mount the pickup rings directly over the pickguard? Can I just screw the ring's mounting screws directly into the plastic? I'm pretty sure the pickup cavity is too big in the body for me to have the screws go into the wood once they're past the pickguard. Anyone have any suggestions as to how best I should go about this?

Here's a close up of the hole:

are u kidding dont bother pickup rings look like bad and will make it very obvious that something is wrong with your shit



anyway the gap is not noticeable at all

I hear you, no one would notice it, but it would drive me crazy knowing it was there too. This might be a quick fix solution. A flat ring in chrome from GFS. They are flat I think.

cur wrote:I hear you, no one would notice it, but it would drive me crazy knowing it was there too. This might be a quick fix solution. A flat ring in chrome from GFS. They are flat I think.

These look like they would work well, not sure if if black would look better though. But can I screw these directly into the pickguard? That's the problem: I don't think there's any wood underneath the corners of the ring where they're supposed to screw into the wood of the body. The plastic of the guard would have to support the ring. I'm worried that the plastic would eventually strip and the screws (and hence the ring and pickup) would eventually come loose and fall out.

brainfur wrote:are u kidding dont bother pickup rings look like bad and will make it very obvious that something is wrong with your shit



anyway the gap is not noticeable at all

It's noticeable to me, and that's enough to really annoy me! I don't mind the look of pickup rings, and since they would cover the gap completely I don't see how it would make the gap more obvious.

the pickup rings would make it obvious that something weird is going on

anyway its your hot body do what u want

I much prefer the way pickup rings look compared to just a plain hole for the pup. I put them on my Jaguar and Strat even though neither of them actually needed them.

Thomas wrote:I much prefer the way pickup rings look compared to just a plain hole for the pup. I put them on my Jaguar and Strat even though neither of them actually needed them.

i couldnt imagine why you would do that but after googling it I COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND

Yes.

pickup rings on a fender is like when i was 19 i pierced my nipples. a personal aesthetic choice which I am now too old to appreciate

The pickups I put them on were hambackers, not the single coils. It's a personal taste thing. I hate plain buckers.

i am a very liberal man and pickup rings are a personal lifestyle choice that i respect

I would just pre-drill the holes for the pickup rings, then screw them in. If they hold decent, then go with it. If not, go to the harware store and pickup some small machine screws and nuts and just bolt them on from underneath.

whats that black stuff around the pickups?

While I'm tempted to say I don't like it aesthetically, I'm lying and FUCK I still wanna mod an MIJ Jag like teh Kurdtz's so bad, despite the fact they did a sig (don't like the fingerboard or headstock on it).
Was the Jaguar that started it all for me.

get rid of that fucking strat jack and put a god damn sticker over it for fuck sake

i put white pickup rings on my soap sonic for the same exact reason.

it was when i got my first dremmul and i didn' tknow what the fuck i was doing with it

I have now added Brainfur's nipple rings to the pickups.

They hide the botched dremel holes perfectly. I ended up drilling the pickguard with a bit just a little smaller than the diameter of the mounting screws, and they are holding the rings quite solidly. Easier than I thought, no big deal in fact!

robroe wrote:get rid of that fucking strat jack and put a god damn sticker over it for fuck sake

I don't like stickers on guitars. Maybe if I found a sticker that I liked enough I would consider it though. Otherwise, I haven't thought of a good way to hide/repair the strat jack hole in a way that wouldn't look weird or bad and end up looking worse. Well, i could plug the hole and do a whole refin, but I like the stock finish and I have no desire to change it.

I would love to put a chrome control plate too, but only if I can fit the concentric knobs in them (I like having the independent controls for each pickup) and also only if I could convincingly erase any evidence of the strat jack. Although, I'm starting to get used to the look of the strat jack, I think the chrome covers are enough of a visual distraction to keep me from looking at it. It actually is a lot less noticeable when there's a cable plugged in there too.