Routing out a vintage Gibson SG for P90's

The owner of this 1971 Gibson SG Special picked it up as a husk that needed hardware and some work. These shipped originally with Gibson Mini Humbuckers, the same as the Les Paul Deluxes, but they used a different route so you can't just swap out to P90s or minibuckers in P90 cases. That doesn't work with what the owner wants, so he brought it to me to get routed to a typical P90 route. 

After removing all the hardware and lining everything up, the template was positioned over the existing route. Being from the Norlin era, the routes are ever so slightly off. If I put the template in the center line of the neck and body, then it would leave some gaps on the side, just enough to be noticable and annoying. The template is lined up with the forward part of the route, getting the 4 screw holes inside as much as possible. They'll still be slightly visible, but this is a players guitar so it's not super critical. 

As with every routing job I do, the template is attached using masking tape and superglue. It's a tried and true method that's easy to remove with no damage but simply using naphtha to release the adhesive from the tape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately to do the neck pickup, I had to use this sacrificial template as the neck's in the way. Ain't pretty, but works fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's one other thing these needed to finish the job, and that's somewhere for the pickup screws to mount. Because the routing for the original pickups goes to within a few mm of the back of the guitar, you can't just put screws in unless you want a bloody stomach. To save the customer some money, a few pieces of mahogany offcuts were quicky trimmed down and glued into the cavity. Once again, not pretty, but if you're the kind of person to critique and admire the inside of your guitar, then you're not practicing enough. The end result, perfect fit for a pair of Dimarzio mini buckers in P90 covers. The setup and wiring was left up to him as he wanted to enjoy the project. Routing was a bit beyond his comfort level.