I just joined this group a week or two back to complain about the bad string balance on this electric mandolin. I got a bunch of advice pointing towards the Almuse pickups.
I decided that SINCE I WANTED TO SAVE SOME TIME, I would buy them pre mounted to a pickguard rather than soldering new pickups into the existing harness. This turned out to be a big mistake.
I took all the strings off, removed the output jack (you have to unscrew the mounting plate to do this), removed the bridge (so I could insert the grounding wire properly). Lined up the scratchplate and discovered that the neck slot was between 1 and 2 mm too narrow, and one of the predrilled holes was about 2mm off as well.
Sent an e-mail to the guy at Almuse who expressed surprise at the mismatch and suggested I use my dremel (which I told him I had) to trim the scratchplate to the neck slot. I didn't really have the right type of bits for this so I ordered a set of router bits for the Dremel, including a flush version that would follow the neck outline while trimming the plastic above, kinda like the edge of a countertop.
The router bit was actually too big for my Dremel, but fit fine in my drill press, which was better suited for that anyway. With this arrangement, I was able to easily make the cutout in the scratchplate PERFECT. I did, of course, have to remove the neck, which was a bit unnerving but ultimately turned out OK. Just don't lose those little shim pieces!
Then I went to put the bridge back on and found that about 1mm of material needed to be trimmed from the scratchplate in order for that to fit back on! So I took everything off again and did this one somewhat by hand as there's nothing in that area to ride the tool against like there was for the neck. Turned out OK, I did finishing touches with a utility knife. It's not exactly straight.
I still need to adjust the pickups which I'm hoping will work out OK based on reviews etc. from others. But I cannot recommend this "loaded pickguard kit" for its time saving properties because I had to:
a) remove the neck
b) remove the bridge
c) Purchase the router bit (it got here the next day from Amazon) along with 4 others I didn't need because it only comes in a kit of 5
d) Shave the pickguard at the neck
e) Take the pickguard on and off several times
f) Shave the pickguard at the bridge
g) Remove the output jack
h) Put all those things back together
i) fill and drill the misaligned hole
Most of which I would not have had to do had I just bought the pickups and soldered them in. Yes, my new pickguard is pearloid and has more extensive copper foil shielding than the original. However, that came at the expense of 3 to 4 hours of additional work, not really knowing what I was doing.
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