There is some hype in small circles about directly mounting pickups to the body giving more sustain & increased harmonics... any truth?

This is one of those postulations which is argued ad-nausiem. The bottom line is, if one understands how an electric guitar pickup works, bolting it directly to the guitar has no intrinsic advantage whatsoever. Having said that, in terms of more sustain and increased harmonics, this MAY happen due to the pickup being further away from the strings than usual in most direct mount cases where the magnetic pull from the pickup on the strings is less. Consequently, sustain will be increased and due to this same decrease in the magnetic pull, harmonics can oftentimes be achieved more readily. Note the difference though: It is not the bolting of the pickup directly to the body. Rather, it is the increased distancing of the pickup from the strings.

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You dig?

I've been waiting on your response to this post Martian!!

(inserting into memory banks)

Actually, I wasn't going to answer it on GP but then I decided I would, just in case some impressionable minds would be taken in by yet more, "infallible web dogma".

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You dig?

I've been following you around on different forums. Not hard to spot your reasoning my friend!!

PS not stalking!!

I'm flattered! By, "different forums", I presume you mean here in the Fender Forums as this is the only place I post. I do use a few other sites but strictly for sales of parts, etc.

I just try to take all the mystery and hype out of this stuff and try to present it in a logical, understandable, down to earth manner. Surely, I don't claim to be infallible and if I'm proven wrong about something, believe me when I say, not only will I be the first to admit it but I'll gladly thank the person or persons for smartening me up.

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You dig?

G.E Smyth tele has direct mounted pickups.

Check out this video where he talks about why he chose to direct mount the pickups:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnQYoRYedF0

I read somewhere though that there are rubber bushings between the pups and the wood in his signature tele, so any benifit of the direct mounting is lost, although i have never played one, so im unsure of how accurate either claim is.

If you have an issue of May 09' Premier Guitar they talk of how Atomic Guitar use direct mount systems to improve the harmonics and the sustain. Here is Atomic's web site.
http://www.atomicguitarworks.com/Atomic_Custom.php

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Been a little busy with tech work after December but still not enough my friend dropped off fast.. Does not look like getting job doing tower/rigging work is going to happen. One offer overseas that's its. Wife told me to buy a trailer and equipment and do grounds maintenance with my tech work and stay around home. Son wants me to open a tech shop but that is not going to happen in this economy. I prefer going to other shop or having it brought to me at home by them, no cost to me.
I will email you latter tonight fhop My Brother in Arms.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson