Gibson LP pickup placement / spacing

[aon]

Hi,

Long time no see.

I was visiting my dad and his old Gibson Marauder came into discussion. He doesn't play electric anymore so he told me to "toss it into a landfill", but I managed to persuade him to give it to me to bring home instead. I play lefty, but occasionally get righty visitors so it'll be nice to have something they can play as well.

The most obvious problem with the guitar is that the current pickguard is completely trashed. It looks like it's been handmade by someone to fit a bridge humbucker along with the non-standard stock neck humbucker, and the pickup placement is all over the place. But the biggest problem is that the pickguard is broken around the input jack - there is a significant portion missing. Since the previous pickguard isn't stock either, there are a lot of mounting holes from both the original guard and the new one, and a stock guard of any generation would reveal several of the mounting holes. So an off-the-shelf guard isn't an option.

So I've been designing a new guard in CAD based on templates found online, the existing pickguard, and the guitar body.
It's still not sure who will make it - I'm open to economical suggestions.

The only thing missing from the guard is the pickup mounting holes. I will put in standard humbuckers, and use the uncovered rout dimensions from the Warmoth site:



However I don't have any idea what is standard pickup placement on Gibson Les Paul-style guitars, and do not have any guitars of that style to check from.

Any chance some of you either have these dimensions already or could measure - I'd say from the 22nd fret top to the centerline of both the bridge and neck pickups is a dimension I could work with?

Thanks

 

[fitz]

The only thing missing from the guard is the pickup mounting holes. I will put in standard humbuckers, and use the uncovered rout dimensions from the Warmoth site:

However I don't have any idea what is standard pickup placement on Gibson Les Paul-style guitars, and do not have any guitars of that style to check from.

Any chance some of you either have these dimensions already or could measure - I'd say from the 22nd fret top to the centerline of both the bridge and neck pickups is a dimension I could work with?

Marauder pup spacing (even a HH version) is nothing like a standard Les Paul.
Distance from the 22nd fret looks to be irrelevant.



Do you have a pic of the marauder with the PG off?
Is it routed for standard humbuckers, or some sort of bathtub rout?

 

[aon]

Marauder pup spacing (even a HH version) is nothing like a standard Les Paul.
Distance from the 22nd fret looks to be irrelevant.

Yes - but my plan is to see how LP pickup spacing fits with the existing routs, and then either adjust the pickup placement or increase the routs to match - or probably both to some extent. But it'd be good to have something as a starting point.

My understanding is that there has been no official dual-humbucker version - the middle pic is probably also an aftermarket guard.

Currently it's routed for the stock (non-standard) neck HB and - sort of - for a standard PAF-style HB in the bridge, although the bridge route is a bit tight and in an awkward slight slant. So I'll probably clean up the bridge rout a bit in any case.

 

[fitz]

Here's some pics of the spacing on my Tribute.
Neck pup center looks to be about 1-5/16", bridge about 5-1/5", from the 22nd fret.

Neck pups are typically located with the standard mounting ring tight against the heel of the fretboard.
Bridge pup placement has varied from year to year, and model to model - and I've read a few discussions regarding what is better/best.

If you are planning to rout the body to accommodate a different pup configuration, you could also use your router to make your own custom PG from a blank sheet.
I've made a few PGs with my router table and a ply template cut to the desired shape.

 

[aon]

Thanks @fitz !

Completely DIY is certainly one option. However it's a different thing to do slight alterations to the body in places that won't be visible, than to route and bevel the whole pickguard that people will then have to look at