Mounting pickups directly to body...?

[halenfan83]

Hi, how's it going?
Excellent site; the Van Halen-like axe section is particularly cool.
Anyways, I'm about to put a seymour duncan JB trembucker in a kramer focus 6000 that I have. I want to mount the pickups directly to the body to get as much tone and sustain as I can. I've heard in order to do this you would want to take a strip of wood that's long enough to stretch to both screw clips on the side of the pickup but just only as wide as those clips so that the wood doesn't obstruct the pole pieces sticking out the bottom of the pickup. Do I have the right idea here, or would it be wiser to just use two smaller pieces of wood: one at either end of the pickup for the mounting screws to go through before they go into the body?
Another idea that I've heard is to not have the mounting screws go through the wood spacer but rather to just have the mounting screws going from the pickup directly into the body with the wood spacer there to merely have the correct spacing from the strings.
It seems like having the strip of wood rather than having two small pieces would allow more vibrations to pass into the pickups.

Sorry to be so long winded here, but having looked at your site I know you guys are the ones to ask a question like this.
I would certainly appreciate any input that you might have, and I'll look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks for your time
-David

[BrownSound1]

I've done this experiement on several guitars and I'll be honest...I couldn't hear a damn bit of difference. I know Edward does this, and of course he was the original reason I tried the experiments in the first place. However, like I said...I couldn't tell a dime's worth of difference in the tone.

However, if you're hell bent on this, then I would recommend you not have the screws go through the spacer, and just have the spacer compensate for the difference in height. Good luck...

[Nitro Express]

I did the same experiment and agree. No difference in tone. Mounting a pickup to the wood is a big pain in the ass. With a bezel you can fine tune the distance of the pickup to your liking. Eddie Van Halen has caused so many people to do stupid shit to their amps and guitars. Granted Ed is a great player but not the best source on equipment advice. I always thought he got his jollies fucking with peoples minds. He's a loon. A smoking loon who drinks smoking loon. You don't need no wood mounting or quarters screwed into the wood. You don't need cigarettes stuck in the strings either.

[BrownSound1]

You're right, a lot of people have done stupid shit because of him...me included. There have been many a good Marshall fucked up because of his ass. People just knew they had to have them modified, and come to find out his was STOCK.

Guitars...well other than painting, his guitar really wasn't anything super special. I do remember getting yelled at for melting wax on the stove to pot some shitty pickups I had...because of Edward. I also remember boiling strings...because of Edward. And yes, when I did smoke I put my cigarette on the headstock. Clapton did that too. LOL

[Nitro Express]

I'm guilty too. I tried to make my own Variac by using a light dimmer. Blew the circuit breaker. Painted some cheap shit guitar like Ed's and my parents thought I was nuts. We're all guilty of Ed groaking. LOL!

My advice is look at the mans playing and technique. That's where the magic is and just make or get a guitar and amp you like for yourself. I mean a guitar neck that Ed likes might not be right for your own hands.