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Headless Mods - Pickup Replacement/Modification (video included)

Posted by Jonathan Beals on 2018 Oct 12th

Sometimes things just don't go as planned.  I had an old set of Dimarzio pickups I wanted to swap into my cheap Chinese headless guitar that I'm playing with.  Unfortunately, the pickup routes are far too shallow for the height of Dimarzio pickups.  So, I was left with three options.

 - Route the cavities deeper (not going to happen since I no longer have a shop space)
 - Replace the baseplate (cheap people don't spend money on cheap gear)
 - Bend, cut, and re-drill new screw holes in the mounting tabs.  (seemed like a great idea at the time)

Unfortunately, a little too much bending and a tab broke right off.  I was just going to scrap the idea and put the stock pickups back in.  They weren't that bad, just a little too high output for my taste.  Our super-frugal, ultra-DIY specialist warehouse manager Kamil came up with a unique solution.  So, I got the camera, and we got rolling.

Would I recommend this mod for others?  No.  Maybe if you're in a pinch and either don't know how or don't want to do one of the other (better) options.  But it worked out ok in the end for me.  More videos/demos of the custom wiring job and playing will come later.

Mod safe, and mod awesome!