Two Epi Riviera questions

rlw

P90s are a straight replacement for Epi Pro mini-humbuckers?  (albeit not without some difficulty..)

A Casino tailpiece would be a straight rep[lacement for the Frequensator?

Just pondering as there is a bit of a bargain to be had not too far away and this could satisfy my P90/hollow/semi-hollow urges.

chrisj1602

I’ve had a few Rivieras but never dismantled anything, except swapping the tailpiece for a Bigsby. I’d imagine swapping tailpieces would be no problem at all.

The Mini HBs on the Riviera are in surface mounted pickup rings as opposed to the rings that drop into the P90 route on a LP Deluxe, so therefore I’m not sure what the route is like, but shouldn’t be too much work.

stickyfiddle

You can definitely fit a diff tailpiece, but the screws might be in a different place

I agree with @chrisj1602 on pickups - it’ll depend on the routing underneath. My guess is you’d need to remove some material, as the current rings screw into the body within the outline of where the soapbar would be

Creed_Clicks

Could you not just get a Casino?

Philly_Q

I'm sure you'd need to do some routing for the P-90s.  A mini-humbucker fits inside a soapbar cover but the existing routing in the body certainly won't be soapbar-shaped.  I can't find a picture of a modern one with the pickups removed, but here's a vintage one:

rlw

Creed_Clicks said:

Could you not just get a Casino?

And fit a centre block?  I guess I could.

rlw

Otherwise, idea abandoned as I'm not getting into routing anything.

Thanks for the replies.

Gagaryn

rlw said:

Creed_Clicks said:

Could you not just get a Casino?

And fit a centre block?  I guess I could.

Would that be necessary to satisfy your P90/hollow/semi-hollow urge?

stickyfiddle

You could always get any semi with regular HBs and fit hum-sized P90s

Creed_Clicks

rlw said:

Creed_Clicks said:

Could you not just get a Casino?

And fit a centre block?  I guess I could.

Ah my bad! I missed that.

ICBM

rlw said:

P90s are a straight replacement for Epi Pro mini-humbuckers?  (albeit not without some difficulty..)

A Casino tailpiece would be a straight rep[lacement for the Frequensator?

Just pondering as there is a bit of a bargain to be had not too far away and this could satisfy my P90/hollow/semi-hollow urges.

No, no, and don't wreck a more unusual guitar to make a more common one. Just buy a Casino if you want one.

rlw

ICBM said:

rlw said:

P90s are a straight replacement for Epi Pro mini-humbuckers?  (albeit not without some difficulty..)

A Casino tailpiece would be a straight rep[lacement for the Frequensator?

Just pondering as there is a bit of a bargain to be had not too far away and this could satisfy my P90/hollow/semi-hollow urges.

No, no, and don't wreck a more unusual guitar to make a more common one. Just buy a Casino if you want one.

I like a centre block and P90s but apart from the Eastman T60 (which I just sold as I didn't love the finish) and a 335 with P90s (which are pretty rare and pretty expensive) I don't have a lot of choice.

I spent some time with a very nice looking ES-330 yesterday but, again, the setup was off with so many notes simply not ringing out.

So another Casino ordered (a Gibson exclusive no less and a price reduction) and we'll see how we get on.

rlw

stickyfiddle said:

You could always get any semi with regular HBs and fit hum-sized P90s

At a cost, both musically and financially.  I have a set of Sunbear HBP90s in another guitar and while they sound good, they don't have that P90 rip your face off growl that I like.