Wood supplier for pickup rings

Electro_Ham

I replaced pickups in a guitar which means I really need to make custom pickup rings. I'm willing to have a go at making them out of wood and have the use of a router. I've already got templates.
Does anyone know where I'd be able to buy wood that would be suitable? Perhaps up to 5mm thick, to make rings roughly humbucker sized?

Electro_Ham

Found something on ebay that might work. I'll post a progress report as I work.

TTony

It's actually quite tricky making wooden pickup rings - unless you're going to make them noticeably bigger (thicker) than the normal plastic variety.   The wood gets quite brittle when its that thin, and you've then got to attack it with a high speed router cutter ... and then fit the pickup into it - the plastic has a bit of flex in it so it doesn't snap whereas the wood will tend not to flex.

You'll probably need a template for the outer shape, and then another template for the cutout for the pickup.

That said, if you can do it reliably, I'll have a load - I hate the normal plastic rings!

WezV

what templates do you ave already?

as Tony says, this will be a two template process for predictable results

You need to cut the opening for the pickup and screw holes first whatever you do.  this needs to be done with a router.  You then need a stepped template.  the raised centre should fit into the pickup hole, the bottom tempalte should be the final size of the ring.   if you route this to final shape is will almost always break being so thin.  much better to use a template bobbin sander after cutting close to final dimensions

you can do the second stage completely by hand, but you will break a few

Electro_Ham

Just an update guys. I spent a few hours doing this yeasterday. The finished result wasn't bad. On a flat top juitar it would be fine. I will need to sand it to fit the arch top guitar it's meant for. Unfortunately, my choice of wood has made things a bit too dangerous for me to build the second ring without a router table. Laburnum is pretty tough material.