Official Luthiers Forum!

they do look pretty, but pickup covers do take a quite a beating, as they are just underneath the strings and get a lot of pick attack, especially the bridge area. my hunch is that the cocobolo would be pretty fragged after a couple years of pro use/pro sweat.
but, plenty of high end guitars end up just basically hanging from a wall, too, so i'm sure folks would buy them.

i agree, plastic is soft/can't hold up to heat.....i'm not a fan per se. BUT, in doing battle with plastic/"tortex" guitar picks and fingernails and sweat, it seems to really hold up well. i've had an american standard strat since '87....the nickel plating on the bridge has worn thru, the pickguard has been replaced, the rosewood fretboard had some deep troughs in it so i re-radiused it, and the fret tangs were pretty rotten with corrosion so i redid those with the radius job. pickguard screws are heavily rusted. the pickup covers? perfect. look like they are a year old. and they get pretty hammered on.
i see 50+ year old strats and the plastic pickup covers are usually the newest/cleanest item on them. so i'm just making an observation, and for now i'll stick with it. show me a 25-50 year old wooden pickup cover that has been mounted on a guitar that has been played daily, then i'll be impressed.
and i'm not saying that pickup covers need be built, or should be built to last 25+ years....but the plastic ones do it without breaking a sweat, and they do it for cheap, thats my only point. nice work on the cocobolo, looks nice. FWIW i tried to make some ebony pickup covers a couple years ago but i had a hard time getting the polepiece holes perfect so i gave up.

Dang Filippo. That's really clean. I've made pickup covers before, but never that nice. I like 'em.

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David Morris

Digress? I thought you were finally getting to the point!

I'd encourage you...of course...to make steps toward using a cnc. With one....you still have to imagine and plan but the outcome becomes more certain. That's probably the best way to describe it.

I think those covers look great though. They really tie all the wooden elements together aesthetically. I'd cover the plastic faces of my P-Rails if I could make it work out. The only thing on yours is the depth of the pole pieces in the holes. When you unscrew the pole pieces such that they come up, like you have them in the guitar shot, does that detrimentally change the sound? I always imagine it would when I think about doing this myself.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

If you ever work out the CNC programming for that one, let me know!

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David Morris

Without the imperative of financial ruin I might not have pushed myself to learn cad/cam/cnc. I HAD to do it....or die. I mentored a builder here in Spokane in the software and the hardware...and he acquire many thousands of dollars of stuff...but I can see the fundamental difference between us. He already knows how to do everything he wants to do....a different way. When I learned to use the stuff...there simply wasn't another way to do it. He's real smart...but he's busy building and there's no imperative to learn for him. Like you say....it's a toy in that situation. He's been to my shop many times but never when I was making necks...I think it would light a fire under him to see that.

The rail on the P-Rails is set more or less flush to the plastic. If I make a cover for it the rail will have to be either entirely covered or it will sit down into a slot.....unsightly like. It might work to cover the rail but I'd want the pole pieces to stick out. I could use the area over the rail to scribe a nice little SK Guitars logo...eh?

Don't want to hog your thread, F. You should be proud of that look. It a very cohesive artistic design.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

It's a molded plastic facing that is one single unit. The two bobbins are glued directly to it. It's glued too well to disassemble safely. The whole idea of my pickup caps is leading to the idea of winding them myself...then I could design the whole assembly. That would be a project and a half. I'll tell you what though...the way these are put together is less than impressive. If I did this it would be a tidy little package at the end of the process...not the disheveled heap that it actually is under the pretty facing...lol...and they'd cost $300 each.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

i was thinking about this last night- i would LOVE to see stone pickup covers...slate, granite, etc....is it even possible to machine stone on CNC mills.....? im sure they would cost a couple bucks, but they'd last about as long as the next lava flow got to them

That's a great idea...haven't seen anyone do it.

You can't really machine stone but Dupont makes Corain in dozens of simulated stone flavors(?) and THAT machines very nicely.

Not sure if you can buy it thick enough...stuff I have is maybe 5/8".

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Hijacking the thread here...

I think the most elegant solution devised for the P-Rails thing is what Vox did on their "CoAxe" pickups. They basically buried a single coil between two rails and wrapped the whole thing, so the second coil for the humbucker is on the outside of the other coil.

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David Morris

Those covers look good , looking forward to seeing them on the guitar

The pup covers are outstanding!
I wish I had more time and much more talent.
Very nice sir.
Thanks for sharing.
Dan

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

As usual Fillippo knocks it out of the park. Gorgeous work.

Really nice work, both the covers and the guitar shown. Lovely.

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Mike

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