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So, I have this guitar here- stratish style, one humbucker, no pickguard. It was given to me, and it's in pretty rough shape which makes it a great guitar to 'experiment' on. I recently made a pickguard for the neck side of the body, which came out well. Now I want to install a neck pickup in it. I have a p90 template and everything I need to do the routing. What order would you guys typically do this in? Figure out the pickup position on the pickguard, route or cut out the pick guard (while it's removed), and then use that to line up the template to route out the body?

Another thought: Since I'm going to put in a p90, and the route for the pickup and pickguard are the same (as opposed to say, a humbucker) is it a really bad idea to just route the pickguard and body at the same time? I'd have to put the pickguard on with some smaller, flush-mount screws to make sure the router base doesn't snag... I don't know, it feels like a bad idea for some reason, just thought I'd bounce it off you guys.

Thanks in advance -Mike

I always routed the wood first, then the pickguard... but you could do it the other way, I suppose. Just don't do both at the same time..... doesn't seem prudent.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I feel the same way... I just cant think of why.

I was figuring the pickguard before the body, because I could mark the body where the cutout is on the pickguard, and line up my template according to that. Which would ensure they were exactly lined up. Tougher to do the other way around.

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Mike Hoenerhoff
Elderly Instruments

For most pickups and pickguards, the routs for the pickup in the body are going to be larger than the routs in the pickguard. Never used p90s, so they may be different.
Usually the rout in the body is shaped to fit the base of the pickup, with the parts of the base that the mounting screws are attached to. The rout on the pickguard is just to allow the tops of the pickup to come through, and to mount the pickup to, as well as to hide the screws and springs used to mount it.
It normally requires a different kind/size/shape of rout on the body than on the pickguard.
I'd center my pickup rout template on the body and rout that, then locate and center the pickguard rout template on the body and rout that. You'll need two templates. One for the body and one for the pickguard. MHO.
Edited to add: Did some research. If the P90s are the soapbar variety, you definitely could rout the pickguard and the body at the same time. I don't see where there would be a problem doing that.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

First rout the body the normal way with your jig. Then position the pickguard on the body, drill an access hole through the pickguard and then rout the pickguard with a bit with a matching bearing on the bottom using the body rout as the template. Then the holes will match perfectly