Shimming a dogear P90 ?

[hamerican gigolo]

I have a guitar that has one dogear P90 in the bridge. It's quite far from the strings. Being that it isn't height adjustable, has anyone used a shim for raising the pup & what were the results ??? 

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 😀

[tbonesullivan]

Lots of people have shimmed them. So much that you can buy spacers / shims in several places.

https://www.mojotone.com/P90-Dogear-Spacer-Set

https://www.fralinpickups.com/product/dogear-p90-shims/

https://www.allparts.com/products/pc-0870-p-90-spacer-set-with-ears

Part of the problem is that some call them "spacers" while others call them "shims", and some don't mention "dogear" while others do, so finding them on a google search can take a bit. But they are pretty much necessary for using dog ear p-90s if you want to get a good string height over the pickup.

[Jakeboy]

You can also use a simple cheap mousepad cut to fit. I like p90s close to the strings….

[DaveL]

I bought a shim set from mojotone,   they give you 3 thicknesses...  the edges are black but the surface is

not... I colored it all black with a sharpie...   I picked the one that works best.    

 

  I agree Jakeboy,  I like a P-90 close to the strings and I prefer not to max out the screws. 

 

BTW:  always remembered Murkat's comment about tweak the pole pieces to mimic the radius,

has always worked for me.  

[hamerican gigolo]

I, also, tweak the pole pieces to match the radius. Same on HBers. 😀

[tbonesullivan]

I've encountered two main schools of thought on pickup pole piece adjustment, well aside from the "what? people do that" people. Some are for matching the radius, while others also throw in compensating for string thickness. If I recall, the original stratocaster "stagged pole piece" style pickups were designed for a wound G, which is why the G pole piece is so dang high, and this can be a problem sometimes with having too loud of a plain steel G string. Some people try to "adjust" for this by grinding down the pole piece and end up heating it too much so it demagnetizes.

Anyway, I send to use a little of both to try to get the most even sound response between strings.

[Navigator]

Just chiming in to say that I used a spacer/shim from Fralin to raise the P90 on my Les Paul Jr. and it worked out great.

I bought spacers of two different thicknesses thinking I might need both but the thicker of the two was just what I needed.

Good luck.

[hamerican gigolo]

I bought the Mojotone set of 3. The middle height was exactly what I needed.

Thanks 😊 

[tbonesullivan]

On 5/21/2025 at 4:47 AM, hamerican gigolo said:

I bought the Mojotone set of 3. The middle height was exactly what I needed.

Thanks 😊 

Glad it worked out for you! I think a lot of guitars with dog ears have the spacers installed at the factory, though depends on the maker and neck angle as well.