Time to route the body for the pickups. The neck pickup template is for a tiny 1/4″ bit and a 3/8″ collar, which makes it a fairly easy route to do. Above is the end result, really starting to get a feel for how it’ll look!
I used a 12mm drill bit to get rid of some of the wood (and the router bit doesn’t have any centre plunge, so it was needed). The route is cut to a depth of 16mm, so that with spacers, the pickup should sit 6mm above the surface. As the bottom of the pickup routes won’t be seen, I didn’t worry about the drill bit leaving centering marks.
The bridge pickup route is more trouble. My template router bit is too long to cut the route, so I had to cut it 2mm deeper than I needed (18mm instead of 16mm) and float the template 6mm above the body – which makes precise alignment all the harder.
My cheap P-90 has a lot tighter corners and won’t fit this route, however I know Lindy Fralins have a wider radius edge that should fit (well the last one did!).
Pickups have been ordered, Blues Special in neck with P-90 Soapbar in the bridge, but will be 4-8 weeks. I remember being hugely disappointed with my last guitar’s bridge pickup last time, *until* the Lindy Fralin arrived. I was really surprised how much difference it made, as previous pickup changes have been far less noticeable (especially when shifted from stock pickups to Seymour Duncans on my 7-string, the difference was pretty small to almost not gain). I liked them so much, I’ve gone for them again.