i am getting ready to do my first build up of a new set of Tex Mex pickups on a new pick guard. I realize that I will need either springs or tubing to mount them with. (not removing old ones). is there a sound preference between the two? Any good ideas for sourcing such small items? I know Stew Mac has them, and screws, but with a $30 min order.

Thanks

Howdy!

Personally, I very much doubt there's any difference in sound, but I prefer the tubing as I find it levels the pickup better than springs which can occasionally bunch up on one side.

WD Music sell tubing which you can then cut to size.

http://www.wdmusic.com/latex_tubing.html

Hope this helps.

Andy

Edit: Spelling mistake

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Pending Greatness

Hi Cambo: a lot of people here prefer the springs because the tubing perishes over time. However, the way springs sometimes cause the pickup to tilt forward or backward a bit secretly annoys me the way it does Andy, so I have sometimes used tubing for that reason.

It is up to you, but if you decide to go for the tubing I found you can buy yards of it vastly more cheaply than the guitar parts sellers charge for it. I bought about three feet of it from a wine makers' supplier for pennies, and I've also seen it sold off big spools in a large hardware store.

On the other hand, springs don't cost much either.

I'm damned if I can tell a difference between the two, but no doubt there are those that will go to the barricades claiming their ears are so marvellous they can hear vital tonal distinctions. Trust your own ears, is my suggestion.

Cheers - C

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Guys, thanks for the quick response. I think I will try the tube if I can buy some locally. I know I don't need much. Funny, I just bought the cream pearlized pick guard from WD and never thought of the other stuff at the time. I'm new to this. I am rebuilding a 2003 MIM strat with a body in what I believe to be ice blue metallic w/ rosewood neck. Should look cool. Not sure yet if I will do it with white knobs or cream until the pick guard arrives. It is so good to have a strat project almost ready to go.

Cheers

I have tubing on my Strat (MIM Standard). It came with springs but the SCNs I installed came with tubing so I used that.

On the other hand, I have springs (actually, doubled springs) on my Tele, and a piece of foam wedged between the body and pickup to straighten a slightly crooked neck pickup.

I can't really tell the difference between the two. If you opt for tubing, buy it someplace where you can check it out. I bought the StewMac tubing but the inside diameter was too small for the screws in my Tele. I then bought the Fender precut tubing but I got lazy and didn't feel like swapping the springs for it.

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Bill

Springs have better resonance because the tubing has no resonance at all and in fact works as a damper, killing tone. Hence you will get FAR FAR superior tone using springs. These kinds of performance enhancements are routinely pooh-poohed on this site but there are plenty of other guitar boards around the world which can help you select just the right blend of sustain and resonance by way of purchacing a wide range of aftermarket pup springs made of various materials and wound to varoius tensions. One popular hot-rod-mod is to put stiffer springs on the bass end of the pup and softer springs on the treble end. This is especially helpful on the Telecaster as it greatly improves the "spankiness" of the guitar without adding any ear piercing treble. I personally use springs which are diamond-cut titatnium plated with uridium on all of my guitars. You'll have to send away to Switzerland to order them though. The diamond shaped cross-section of the spring wire adds 16 levels of even order harmonics and cancels out ALL odd order harmonics. This is one of the best kept tone secrets in the industry so I'm only going to keep this post up for 2 days and then I'll delete it.

Did I really just type all that with a straight face? I surprise myself sometimes.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

I almost thought you were serious.

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Bill

Shhhh!!
I'm trolling here.
Yer gonna scare all the fish!!

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

I use springs on the bass side and tubing on the treble side of my pickups. Find it removes a little harshness and adds some sustain at the same time. Then again what do I know?

how wonderful it is to have such a fine group of scientists and technical adventurers in the forum. As a mechanical engineer, I can see a million ways to screw around with spring combinations adjusting for such things as spring rate, modulus of elasticity and tortion - and then someone mentioned TUBING Holy crapola , elegant! Plan #1

The adventure continues

BMW-KTM - I got to "diamond cut titanium" before I caught it. Lovely story. Perhaps sometime we should start a post for the greatest guitar design BS stories. I can just imagine what we all could come up with.

I didn't use tubing or springs at all. I custom-made my own pickups using parts from an old doorbell. I laser-measured the string to pole piece clearance first then mounted my pickups solidly in specially machined blocks of chrome moly steel. When I got through, man, those pups ain't goin' NOWHERE! And it's the absolute ultimate in sustain. I once held an octave 'B' at the 12th fret for two days, until my fingers got tired. Three of my neighbors moved away. Every dog for two miles around went berserk. My girlfriend's hair curled up so tight that it saved her $20 on a new permanent.

Now if this ringing in my ears would just go away . . . .

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"It's about sound and sound alone. Looks are irrelevant. You can have the best-looking guitar on earth, but if the sound isn't there it is nothing more than a beautiful piece of trash. The sound it makes is the soul of any guitar."

I wonder if Eric Johnson uses


That must be the secret to his tone... thanks for the tip... I'll be a rockstar by tomorrow.

Now that's what I'm talking about. Unfortunately I would be incapable of such sustain as my onboard midrange booster and laser lite pickguard are powered by a wind turbin located in the headstock. The screaming of the crowd would probably drive it overload levels.