Question - Ric bass pickup in a Bronco bass?

[rbrcbr]

I've got a Bronco bass that sits in my guitar stand that I bought for my girlfriend as a christmas present a couple years back. Hardly gets used and she's even suggested that I take it as my own, so naturally I've been thinking about mods.

I've had this random Ric hi gain bass pickup lying around in my parts bin for years...I think I got it from the clearance bin when I worked at GC, who knows why it was there but I got it for super cheap. I think it would look badass and probably sound pretty great. I noticed this one is a surface mount and the current route would fit the bottom of the magnet that pokes out, with the rest of the pickup sitting on the pickguard. Only problem is the pickup is rather large and I'd have to raise the saddles significantly. Do you guys think I could pull this off with a shim and raising the saddles? I'm not even sure if the saddles are capable of going that high. Would routing it out more be necessary? Or is this a terrible idea overall?

[Domm]

Route the pickgurd for the pickup and surface mount it to the bass body!

[beauzooka]

Not a pro here, but it would look (and sound) awesome if you could pull it off. The string spacing would be correct I think.
I'd be hesitant to raise the bridge up too high. If you routed the pickguard out around the pup (so you could mount it directly to the body) would it buy you enough space?

[Shadoweclipse13]

Definitely would be a cool look. My first thought was if you routed the guard to hold the pickup (routing for the vertical part of the pickup) and mount it with springs under the guard between the guard and the top flange edge of the pickup. That way you could adjust the height of it easily and keep it off the strings.

[BTL]

That looks like a lot of fun!