Steel Guitar Builder

Guys
The method used to mount the pickup can affect the tone of the guitar!
What is the most common ways? If anyone has insite into this, don't be
shy and please do just chime in!
Thanks
Wayne

Wayne,
If you have a full wood neck(running from keyhead to changer pillow blocks), what you do is mount your pup on a piece of aluminum plate and then drill 4 holes in the corners of the plate and thru into the woodwork. Then you put the plate on springs between woodwork and plate and there is your height adjustment.
If you have an aluminum tail piece(changer cavity)drill 3 holes in your tail piece - 1 on one side and 2 on the other side of the pup hole. Use springs again, this time between the pup plate and the tailpiece and there's your height adjustment again. As for those adjustment screws, when you have it together, ready to mount on the guitar, make sure you give each screw a powerful squeeze where they come thru the plate so that there is no possibility of the screw coming out of the hole. Hope this helps

I usually mount the pickup directly to the neck , i make sure the top of the pickup is about a quarters thickness to maybe right at 1/8 or so away from the strings , no adjustments needed this way(permanently fixed ) ,( you might have to route out the neck to get at that measurement or add a thickness spacer ) i think this way the guitar sounds better to my ears that is .the reason i do it this way is i made some expeirments mounting with springs and a solid mount , well to my ears the solid mount sounded better , ive used goerge E 66 pickups and they have little tabs on the sides to put small screws through , or the pickups i made mounts the same way 4 little screws one each corner, the wire going down through the body and neck directly under the pickup. There are alot of ways you can mount them. I have an old ShoBud and a MSA Classic and i think they both are mounted in a solid fasion,hope this might help you a bit . Russ

Guys, i understand the methods you are both describing! When using springs the pup
would be somewhat damp'd or buffered from 100% contact with the guitar body.
If mounted 100% right to the body, then the pup may pick up body noise and ad
a muddiness to the sound. This muddier sound may be preffered by some and not
by others! I prefer a brighter tone with good string separation and so will probably
use springs!
Thanks
Wayne