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I am in the process of making my first electric guitar from my own design. I have built a tele copy and it turned out quite well, and I am very pleased with it (I'll try to post pictures soon). Anyway my question is where on the body should I route for 2 humbucking pickups and where is the correct placement. I know that there is physics that require them to be positioned properly for them to function best, but I don't know where that is. Any advice is much appreciated and thanks in advance!

Mitch,

Some persons may argue this a little differently, but this is essentially what I do: I put the neck pickup as close to the neck as possible within geometric constraints, and put the bridge as close to the bridge as possible within geometric constraints...Obviously, with a vibrating string with a certain number of standing waves, you will have nodes - points where deflection is zero. If these are placed directly above the pickup, your output will not be as high. However, humbuckers have a fairly large aperature, meaning that they cover a lot of string distance - i.e. it would be impossible to eliminate its output even if it was positioned directly under a node. Secondly, nodal positions change with each note played, in each hand position. So if you wanted to, you could do a statistical analysis of how often you play in each position, then calculate the corresponding nodal positions relaying to those individual notes in each chord, and position the humbucker accordingly. But then by optimizing for that particular position, you de-optimized for the next position.

I believe you could follow that rabbit hole a long way, but I do not think you will necessarily come to any enlightening conclusions as with all engineering, you will face a tradeoff analysis...

Hope this helps,
Stephen

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www.ziegenfussguitars.com

Stephen makes a lot of great points, and I think what's above is really the key (although Ed Roman might disagree ). I personally like the back edge of a bridge humbucker to be about and inch or so away from the scale length line. Any closer and it's just too bright for my tender little ears. It's really subjective. There's no magic spot to put them.

I built a test body several years ago that allows me to easily swap out different pickups and slide them around to any position. The differences between small distances are actually even more subtle than I would have thought before I made it.

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Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

Thanks for the input. So as I gathered from your replies is that there is no way to totally eliminate dead spots with pickup location. It's more of a matter of preference as to how bright or warm you want your tone in relation to how far towards the neck or bridge they are located. There will always be certain places where you will be noded out. This is what I gathered so correct me if I'm wrong or if you have something else to add. Thanks again for the insight!

The only issue with pickup placement that really shows up is on a standard telecaster where the thin single coil neck pickup is exactly under where the 24th fret would be.
Try to play a stopped harmonic at the 5th fret with the neck pickup only and there is no sound, switch to the bridge pickup and the sound is back.

Thanks Jeff. Good to know for future builds. This one is going to have humbuckers. I've been doing a lot of research and I think I met spend the extra cash to go with either Lindy Fralin's or Lollars. I expect this guitar to be very bright as the body is made from maple with a carved redwood cap. Any suggestions on pickup outputs to purchase to get the most from this unusual wood combo. The body weighs about 4.5 pounds right now with only the outer limits carved.

That's 4.5 pounds without any cavaties routed as well.