This is how I ended up doing it after disastrously trying to follow the directions and other vids. Mirror and drop a flashlight in was 1000% more effective, thanks for spreading the word!
Ive got an old Alvarez by Yairi and the installation approach from K and K is the same as JourneyTek)...Didnt like that I could not see what I was doing. Also my bridge was tucked up close to the X brace so just enough room for the 3 pickups. This worked flawlessly and I was able to see exactly where ea pickup was installed! Bravo!
I think your mirror method is great! I've been researching these pickups and was concerned about the "suggested" method. You've given me the confidence I needed to know that my install will be fine. Thanks!
You method makes sense and I'm glad you share it. I think I could do with without the jig and without looking in with a mirror. But your way is so simple to setup I will probably do that. But 2/3 the people I see demonstrate the jibs are fumbling with them.
It does appear better and easier. I bought the same pickup (it looks like a JourneyTek) and am getting ready to install it and was worried that I might glue the pickup sensor too close to where a string peg is supposed to go, so, I like your way.
Thanks for this video, I tried this mirror method as well because I feel the ordinary way is too tricky and complicated and I wanted to really see what's going on inside the guitar with that frightening superglue on bare wood XD It went smooth, you just need to break the ice by glueing the first element in, but first you just need to practice a little bit beforehand for the coordination required to work precisely with a mirror in that small and crucial space. You just need to put each guy really close between 1st and 2nd hole, 3rd and 4th hole, 5th and 6th hole, just leaving a tiny space for the bridge pins and string ball ends. Just be careful the superglue produces even a subtle steam that goes in your eyes and nose when you look through the pin holes while glueing the guys in, just awful. Moreover I felt the need to put the jack inside the body already in the first place (connected), leaving it loose and attached to a thin jack cable from outside though the endpin hole: for each of the three elements, first I pulled back the whole thing towards the soundhole in order to comfortably put the glue on, and then quickly pulled back the jack cable in the opposite direction when putting the element in place. And then of course fastened the jack in the end.
My bridge doesn't have the peg style one so, there's no holes for me to look into. I insert the strings at the back of the bridge on the outside. Kinda like How a nylon string guitar bridge. What's the alternative way to do it on that one?
Well, NOPE. On a "throw-away" guitar, I tried this. And perhaps it is my UN-fine motor skills, but when using super-glue, you only get ONE TRY! So 2 things contributed to this "mirror" idea to not work well for me (but again, it was a junker guitar...oh well). 1. When one has their arm awkwardly stuck inside the guitar, looking thru a mirror (that is reversing everything), there is plenty of unexpected perspective and motion things that can go wrong, 2. I had a little jerk of awkwardness right at the moment of contact, and landed a wee bit off. The result: the 1st pickup location caused the next 2 glue points to be off as well...and when I play a scale now, I can actually tell that 1 or 2 of my strings have noticeably wee lower volume. So, I am gonna try the golf-tee standard install approach next time (and probably find it is awkward in other ways).
