Custom Pickup Ring? Looking for suggestions.

[Steve Baker]

Hi all,

A client is looking for a pickup ring to fit a humbucker and a single coil like in the photo below. This one was a one-off made by Ibanez and he wants us to convert a similar guitar with only neck & bridge humbuckers to one like this. Wiring scheme and whether or not one ought to do this are not the issues at this point. But the sticking point is really the bezel/ring. If we can get one, we can make this happen for him.

So any ideas if there's a source for either a three coil size pickup ring or if there's someone who can custom make one? Cost appears to be no object and ultimately we can make one out of heavy black pickguard material but it would be nice to have a real ring. 

Thanks for any thoughts!

-Steve

[Joshua Levin-Epstein]

Mike Doolin wrote an article for American Luthierie about casting custom rings for his seven string guitars. I'll try to dig it up tonight.

But I would make them out of wood. The hardest part would be matching the contour of the body.

[John]

I've made custom mounting rings by gluing up two thicknesses of pickguard material and then cut it on a drill press using an x,y vise. It could be done with a router and a template too.

[Russell Vance]

Steve,

Spend the money and avoid looking cheap or "handmade" if the client really wishes to pay.   

CNC the blanks in plan, leaving webs across the pickup space, sand the bottoms of the individual  blanks to conform with the curved top (sandpaper onto the face of the guitar top and then hand sand/conform the complex curves) and then CNC cutout the webs/ drill the screw holes .   Anodised aluminium or ABS plastic.   

Rusty.