How to Direct Mount your Guitar Pickups and why you should | I opened a can of worms! 

My theory on the tone debate is if you think it sounds better, you're gonna feel better and in turn, play better. Doesn't matter if it actually sounds better.

It is insane how difficult it is to find direct mount wood screws for pickups. The companies are lacking.

If you drill out the screw connection you can reverse it by soldering a proper nut to the bottom of the ear . I have done it several times and it works

This is one of the best videos on this topic that I've seen. Very nice work!

I like this. I'm in the middle of a solid body build and very likely will change the way I was going to mount my pickups. Thank you!

Fantastic video! So very clear and concise. Thank you for sharing your expertise.

Thank you very much~The doctoring of the screws was simple and elegant! Very helpful.

Nice to have information on pickup mounting.

Brilliant! I have a guitar that I have been wanting to do this to but wanted to find the proper way! this is it!

I've always preferred direct mounting, but I can't say it makes the tonal difference a lot of players think it does. It makes a slight difference. It doesn't hurt.

I have seen two other methods for direct mount.The first is actually a brass bar that mounts at the bottom of the pocket, there is a high adjust screw in the middle, and the end screws screw into the bar to adjust height. The second is to drill the bottom of the pocke ton each end and screw in a brass insert. You add a pice of foam between the pickup and the bottom of the pocket. You adjust the height screwing the srews in and out.

Thanks for providing smart solutions !

Great video brother, you are correct I believe on the tone that direct mounting produces which I prefer as well.

LOVE IT!! I was guilty of the pickup damaging method. Never again!

great explanation, thanks for sharing!

This literally has been on my mind recently I normally use mounting rings

Thank you from the bottom of my heart my friend Jeff. A little difficult for me but I will learn something from it. We, as you know, have a celebration in Greece, the Holy Easter and the Resurrection of Christ ... I wish the best for you and your family but also the good friends of the show that we watch with joy ..😎

Thanks, I will get me a scrap piece of wood to practice before trying my guitar.

This was very helpful, thank you!

thank you for this very interesting vidéo obviously not applicable on all type of guitars but I'll definitely try your method on the occasion, especially because I like sometimes to carve the instrument, to the point that having a mounting ring cann really become unesthetic to say the least Take care and keep it up

Brilliant!!!

Nice content. Thanks.

Hell yes what a genius ❤

Wow! I never thought of doing it that way. I always drilled out the holes on the pickup. I'm gonna try your method on my next build. Great video!

Ingenious.

Great tips here. I would like to mention though that your pickup mounting is still floating the pick up above the body and not actually making direct contact (unless the screws are bottomed out). Although I do not know if this matters. I have built several guitars and I used EMG pick ups in all of them. They were truly a direct mount, screwed solidly to the body. I am looking to replace them in one of my old builds though with passive pick ups. I do not have room for the rings, so need to still direct mount them. I like your method, and will most likely be giving it a try. It is nice to have some adjustment to get the pickup the correct distance from the strings.

This really isn't a question about what you just posted but more of a question about guitar building in general. Do you radius all your guitar necks? I know I've heard most people do but some don't. Is it absolutely necessary? I love your channel I have learned so much I've done two guitar builds and you have directly supported that. I love making guitars and love that I can refer back to, you thank you so much

Great method!

Thanks!!!

No stripped holes in the wood yet? The threads on the original pickup screws are pretty tiny singe they're machine threads.. I suppose you're using pretty lightweight foam though and the mounting springs. I have a method on my channel that can use more rigid foam (or rubber), but it requires installing an extra part... However, it also uses the technique of taking down the threads near the heads to make the screws spin freely... Your method seems much easier, but I'm still worried about reliability, especially if the guitar is made from a soft wood like basswood or something.

Thanks for the video. Interesting what you say about aesthetic. If you mount that on a solid body guitar directly I imagine you;d get more dirt and dust ion the cavity (you example is closed off so it's not a problem). I did a PU replacement on a guitar where the cavity for the humbuckers seems shallow compared to other guitars. Even though they are mounted on plastic trims I think the pickup screws are in contact with the bottom of the cavity. The result is more of a microphonic effect from body noise than I have with other guitars. Can I reduce this effect by just adding foam or insulation under the pickup, should I cut off the excess on the pickups screws, or try something else.

Best video ever!!!

I'm doing the same thing but with a threaded insert with 6-32 threads, which are the threads on your HB height adjustment screw. With the insert threaded into the wood your HB screw is threaded into the insert instead of the wood. Of course the body of the guitar has to have enough room for the insert behind the pickup. You can get threaded inserts that are 3/8" long but don't have to thread completely into wood.

Do you use tone foam under the pickup?

Yeah decades ago didn't understand the need for the foam and the length of the screw.... Still feel bad about everything I did to that bass that was just wrong..... it deserved better, lol!

dude that cigar guitar,,,great

I've never been into pickup swapping but I had a pair of gibson 57 classics sitting around. I got a little reckless and widened my carvin h2t's pickup holes with a Dremel. The gibsons are still mounted using the plastic pieces and are adjustable but I was worried that they were too snug against the body now.... possibly killing sustain/resonance. It's a chambered guitar. I'm rewiring it today with new electronics. It seems fine. Chime in if I'm neutering my guitar this way please.

When you think about it. Technically the pickup is still floating the same as if you used pickup rings. There is no direct contact between the pickup and the body unless you mount it flush. Its still a nice look though.

I just ordered Filtertron pickups for my Gretsch electromatic solid body guitar. If it has the deeper wells routed in the sides of the pickup cavities to accommodate the screws for a ring mount will I need to fill those with say a wooden dowel to wood mount the new filtertron pickups?

Great tip Jeff I like it 👏👏

hey man i think you just reinvented the wheel. you can get wood screws at any hardware store. They are pointy an have a flat surface towards the head. Also you can get them any size you need

Instead of mounting into the wood a threaded metal insert could/should be used for threading the pickup height adjustment screw.

Thanks a lot for the video! Quick question: If i'm not mistaken, i could technically still use these exact modified pickup screws and the pickup on another guitar together with a pickup ring, right?! Or am i thinking wrong here? 😅

Nice way to mount pickups. I'm gonna roll with personal preference on what is a clean look so as to not fuel that debate. I will however reiterate that unless you are using those super old and REALLY microphonic pickups there will be zero tone / sonic changes from doing this as its ALL electronic / magnetism producing the sound and ZERO to do with string vibration in regards to sound. Many people confuse resonance with all that and that comes from the wood working side and how everything is put together and either aids or detracts from that.

I do the same

Van Halen did it on his ugly frankenstrat for the improvement in sound, not for looks.

I will need to direct mount the covered Sat Night Specials I want to buy, since the rings won't fit, but when you file off the top threads of the mounting screws, won't it still make the pickups wiggle, since the screw wiggles? The pickups won't be tight in the cavity... Your's are a snug, tight fit because it's custom cut box...?

Why don't you drill from the back of the body and do the adjustment from the back of the body that way the pickup screw can thread in to it's original pickup plate (just a thought )

Great video and under-valued topic. A humbucker is a (relatively) heavy object compared to the springs that isolate them from the body. String signal comes from movement - whether it's the string vibrating but also the movement (even micro) of the pickup in relation to the body/tailpiece/strings. Hit the back of your guitar and part of that sound is the bounce of the pickup. Might be very small... but this is definitely a topic more worthy than caps, pots and cloth insulated wire (head slap). Direct mounting of pickups to bodies (and therefore the tailpiece) SHOULD have an effect .... admittedly only if you play like Townshend.

To me, the direct mount is not about this. It is to use as much material from the pickups bottom to touch the wood. And if possible the sides of it too. The foam should not be used. Better to use silicon tubes on the screws. The thing is only that you add the mass of the pickup to the total density of the body, and may have an impact on sustain or tone that is so subtle that it is neglible. If the pickup "hangs" in frames it wobbles more - the magnet and copper wires inside it wobbles back and forth although not detectible by the eye. It oscillates. If kept firmly, by secured to the body, you keep it SLIGHTLY more steady and not "rockin" back and forth so much, but keeps it still. But that comes with a concession. Not all pickups benefits from this. If they are wax potted the "keeping-it-still" is solved already. No diff there. If they are open it might. Also if they are open, the chances are that they are just slightly microphonic, and will transfer mechanical wood vibrations from the body into the pickup and add a slight flavor to the sound. For some time. However if they are too microphonic the will just squeal, and this added vibration into the coils will slowly make them even more microphonic down the road. It adds mechanical vibrations. Not magnetic.Then what to do? Wax pot them, of course, but then you get no benefits at all from the direct mounting, and in the end it defeats its purpose. Yes, a can of worms. If there was some design that made you be able to WEDGE your pickup into your guitar so it is hold steadfast by all the sides of the pickup touching the guitar body, it would have made some more sense, but once in there, you wouldn't be able to adjust any height at all, and to take it out from there would be a major chore.

I definitely can hear a difference with direct vs rings you right on that

Just drill out the pickups and use a nut under them if you want to go back to a ring. This is a lot of work for some day over the rainbow and no functional benefit ( the threads aren’t really needed in any scenario )

Tried leaving a comment about a company that sells a brass plate to mount the pick up to yhe body and it keeps getting deleted...

Maybe it's an idea to use threaded inserts instead of using machine screws (bolts) to screw into wood. Those threads are not suited for reliably screwing into wood. Especially when you use them to adjust things. Plus I wouldn't call your method direct mounting. The pickups are still suspended on springs/foam. It does look good, though.

Have you considered that you might actually be hearing your pickup height difference after swapping from one to another and not how it’s mounted ? On another note I encourage anyone who believes that the type of wood is responsible to an electic guitars tone or sustain to go and watch Jim LIll’s video :Tested where does guitar tone come from in an electric guitar. There are 2 videos with the same name. Watch both. I

FU-Tone PMS... 🤘

do what you like far as nobody gets hurt but uh... pickups pick up electromagnetic interference. No amount of vibration in the body will translate to even a peep out of the pickup.

Common sense explains that a plastic pickup ring, regardless of the pickup hanging off of it, would have zero effect in any tone change as plastic doesn't ring out.

does it improve tone? NOT a lot otherwise everybody would be doing it don't reinvent the wheel after all e van halen did it back in the 80s

2:31 in and you demonstrate that you don't understand how pickup mounting works.

I pretty much did say, "What the hell is direct mounting a pickup??"

It gives it more sustained

This is really fishy.....you cannot grind a point with no threads into a "machine screw" and expect it to thread into wood, period! It will strip and come loose. The only way to do it properly using machine screws with "NO" modification of the screw or pickup is to: sorry, not sharing this genius method. What he is doing is not the correct way that will last the life of the guitar.

but doesn't the foam dumpen the resonance even worse than the plastic ring?