Anyone here ever cut or modify a plastic pick up cover?

[Norrin Radd]

If so, I’m wondering what the best tools might be to do such a job or any tips or tricks on doing it without making it look homemade! Can pickup covers be filed and sanded? Or will that kind of treatment just completely destroy the plastic? Cut it with a dremel? Xacto knife? What I’m looking to do is basically cut out almost the entire center of a jazzmaster pick up cover, like with a centimeter border all the way around. If anyone has any ideas or experience, I would greatly appreciate any tips or advice!

Thanks!

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

What I’m looking to do is basically cut out almost the entire center of a jazzmaster pick up cover, like with a centimeter border all the way around. If anyone has any ideas or experience, I would greatly appreciate any tips or advice!
Thanks!

Yeah! Another person who likes open pickup-covers! Welcome to the club!
I‘ve been looking for such covers for quite a while and there is no such thing (yet). The only ones that come up are such to fit humbuckers in them (and therefore have screw holes).

If you want to make both covers equal - my idea would be to use some kind of punch/die cutter.

A dremel could work too. Just take care that you don‘t burn the covers...

But as you’re on it already - I might do some inception here... since I‘ve seen Mike Adam‘s video about them... I’ve got a crush on the Thunderbird for Jazzmaster pickups... (but that would be almost 500 bucks for pickups ) and they inspired me to build (well one day) an open frame chrome cover that also already contains the screw-holes on the baseplate. Because why mess with plastic if you can have chrome?
Grey & Black Bobbins beauty show off!

Do we have people here who could make such a thing?

[Gordon]

Dremel, or x-acto knife. In both cases, draw the shape of your opening, get close but not on the line, and finish with a file for a smooth cut. For straight lines, tape a metal bar (or ruler), and follow the edge.

There's also 3D printing options.

[Lost In Autumn]

Chris Dipinto from DiPinto Guitars does it quite a bit, I believe he uses a either Dremel with a router base or a trim router. https://www.instagram.com/p/CKhAE8IsakG/

[Norrin Radd]

Chris Dipinto from DiPinto Guitars does it quite a bit, I believe he uses a either Dremel with a router base or a trim router. https://www.instagram.com/p/CKhAE8IsakG/

That’s so cool! That’s exactly the kind of “frame” I’m looking for too.

[epizootics]

The easiest way would be to do it with a router table. If it was a one-off I'd simply stick strips of MDF of whatever width I'd want to keep at the sides on the inside of the cover, get rid of the center with a chisel (you don't want a chunk of plastic being hurled at your face, no matter how thin) and use a flush trim router bit with the bearing at the bottom (that is, at the top once it is in a router table) to trim it up.

If you plan doing more than one, it might be worth it to make a template that fits exactly into your covers and use that

[Norrin Radd]

The easiest way would be to do it with a router table. If it was a one-off I'd simply stick strips of MDF of whatever width I'd want to keep at the sides on the inside of the cover, get rid of the center with a chisel (you don't want a chunk of plastic being hurled at your face, no matter how thin) and use a flush trim router bit with the bearing at the bottom (that is, at the top once it is in a router table) to trim it up.

If you plan doing more than one, it might be worth it to make a template that fits exactly into your covers and use that

Great idea! Now I’m off to tell my wife that I need a router, and a router table! Wish me luck.

[timtam]

Dremel, or x-acto knife. In both cases, draw the shape of your opening, get close but not on the line, and finish with a file for a smooth cut. For straight lines, tape a metal bar (or ruler), and follow the edge.

That's the simplest way. Plastic often does not cut cleanly with non-pro tools. Hence the suggestion to first just get the edges "close" with whatever cutting tool you use (but not too close) . Then file/sand clean to finish. The wider the file/sanding block, the straighter the edges will be. Corners may need a thin round file or the corner of a sanding block. How good it looks will depend on how careful you are and how much time you give it.

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

I just stumbled across these (Magnetodesignlab) yesterday... and man, I want exactly such covers just out of brushed steel or unplated whatever...German silver? And either show the vulcanized fiber (Grey or Black PUs could both look good) or put a sheet of parchment between it...Those normal open covers look weird in a Jaguar with the hole to the side... and I'm not willing to order another anodized pickguard to my specific needs just to avoid this...

[epizootics]

I just stumbled across these (Magnetodesignlab) yesterday... and man, I want exactly such covers just out of brushed steel or unplated whatever...German silver? And either show the vulcanized fiber (Grey or Black PUs could both look good) or put a sheet of parchment between it...Those normal open covers look weird in a Jaguar with the hole to the side... and I'm not willing to order another anodized pickguard to my specific needs just to avoid this...

I have been on the lookout for full metal strat covers for a while and no one seems to be making them...Apart from one seller who offers them in aluminum, which is a bad idea.

They would have to be nickel-silver, ideally - thin steel would probably create too much microphony and brass (or aluminum, whilst we're at it) would create too many eddy currents for the resonant peak not to drop dramatically. You'd have to design the pickup specifically for a brass or aluminum cover, making sure you're starting out with a really high resonant peak so the drop doesn't result in a muddy pickup.

However, Duesenberg/Göldo make those : https://www.emma-music.com/-wd-c2x32756932?PGFLngID=1

Not a full cover but maybe enough for your purpose? Or is that what you mean by 'normal open covers'? Making a parchment top plate would be easy with basic tools.

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

I have been on the lookout for full metal strat covers for a while and no one seems to be making them...Apart from one seller who offers them in aluminum, which is a bad idea.

They would have to be nickel-silver, ideally - thin steel would probably create too much microphony and brass (or aluminum, whilst we're at it) would create too many eddy currents for the resonant peak not to drop dramatically. You'd have to design the pickup specifically for a brass or aluminum cover, making sure you're starting out with a really high resonant peak so the drop doesn't result in a muddy pickup.

However, Duesenberg/Göldo make those : https://www.emma-music.com/-wd-c2x32756932?PGFLngID=1

Not a full cover but maybe enough for your purpose? Or is that what you mean by 'normal open covers'? Making a parchment top plate would be easy with basic tools.

Damn. Than I might have to buy some german silver and find a way to do them myself!
And...Yeah, that‘s exactly that „normal“ open cover I was talking about!

[PorkyPrimeCut]

There's something rather appealing about those off-white pearloid covers. I'm not feeling the others.

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

There's something rather appealing about those off-white pearloid covers. I'm not feeling the others.

I'm not feeling any of those inlays - but both the off-white and the black speak to me... with either a grey vulcanized fibre visible underneath or a off white top layer (or a sheet of brushed metal) for the black one and either a grey or black pickup visible for the white one...

[Beebe]

I've been liking my Dremel Moto Saw for stuff like this.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Dremel-Moto ... lsrc=aw.ds

[ARAMP1]

I used a dremel and cut out humbucker openings in the stock jazzmaster covers. Cut a little bit undersized from what I wanted then sanded the opening edges smooth.