Lowering Junior action: strings hitting P-90 cover?

[Navigator]

Hi guys,

Just thought I'd check in here before going elsewhere since there seems to be so much love and knowledge of Les Paul Juniors here.

I just picked up a replica of a '58 LP Junior double-cut, which is great. But I'm having trouble getting the action low enough with the P-90 (Duncan Antiquity) pickup cover on.

When I lower the strings, they start to hit the front edge of the pickup cover. (Part of the problem may be that, like some Juniors, the pickup is slightly further from the tailpiece than some others and places the pickup's front edge where there's less clearance for the strings.)

I now have the pickup cover off, and the action where I want it (medium action really). I'd welcome any suggestions about how I might get a P-90 cover that would be lower profile so the strings don't hit it. I don't want to move the position of the pickup, since it sound fine as is. I was thinking about getting a neck P-90 cover since they're generally lower profile and have a slope to them.

At any rate, if anyone has dealt with this before, I'd appreciate any insight into a potential solution. Thanks much!

[murkat]

check the relief in the neck, truss rod prior to lowering the bridge.

you may have to procure another cover to take a belt sander to........

[Navigator]

Thanks for the suggestions Murkat. Affirmative on the truss rod. Took as much relief out of it as I could, then put a hair back in.

Interesting idea to sand down another cover. The Duncan Antiquity cover is slightly unique, but I think a standard cover can be made to fit.

My thought was to try to find a lower profile cover (perhaps a neck version), and try to make that work.

[hamerhead]

LIke this?:

In this case, it's just from bangin' on it. And I'll need to get a replacement at some point, but it's a good thing I like the action a bit higher.

Jay's idea could gain you about .05 -.06 worth of clearance, but you'll have to be really careful not to chip the lip off. Good luck!

[Navigator]

Oh that's hilarious hamerhead! I actually did a little double-take when I first saw the cherry-finished wood, since it looks so much like mine.

You've also got almost the same distance between the bridge and the pickup too. And I believe that's an Antiquity as well, since I can see the little bulges at the dogears.

I did try a higher action, which did clear the pickup, but it was a bit too high.

That's a cool look with the sustain block.

[hamerhead]

Not sure what the stock number was, but under that beat up cover now lies a piece of pure raw sonic art that Jay concocted in a lab somewhere in the mountains of Tibet.

.....or in his garage in Nashville. F*cker rocks.

[velorush]

1 hour ago, hamerhead said:

Not sure what the stock number was, but under that beat up cover now lies a piece of pure raw sonic art that Jay concocted in a lab somewhere in the mountains of Tibet.

.....or in his garage in Nashville. F*cker rocks.

Jay's garage (aka, the NTL La-BOR-a-tor-y) is actually the termination of a wormhole to a mountain in Tibet. 

He has a devil of a time keeping the Yetis out of his barn.  Dang Yetis.

[Navigator]

Nice!

[Hfan]

My Hamer Jr also had very little clearance from the cover to the strings. When I bought a Wolfetone P90 to replace the stock Duncan the cover that Wolfe supplied was too high, I had to use the original Duncan cover and had to carve some plastic from it for the new one's mounting brackets.