Wizard
I'm gearing up for my next Strat body build ... and about to make the templates for routing.
The plans I have show the traditional pickup rout as a very tight shape around each pickup.
The "universal rout" has a "groot gat" that accomodates all of the pickups with ease.
When I made my last body I discovered my plans were a few mm out and needed to make the "tight shapes" a little bigger.
Now I find myself pondering what I should rout for the pickups ...
Is there an advantage to the "tight shape" rout?
e.g. if you were to use copper shielding tape in the body, would it isolate the pickups better if they each had their own little "box" ... compared to the universal rout?
AlanRatcliffe
I've had good bodies with all the different routs (I usually go tight SSS, but my current Strat is a universal). As usual, it's down to the individual body. Universal makes the body lighter and leaves you with enough space for any pickup combo with a simple pickguard swap. HSH is nearly as good.
costafonix
Just out of interest, does the density or amount of wood affect the tone at all? and if it does would it not make sense to have smaller cavities?
AlanRatcliffe
Everything has an effect (to a greater or lesser degree), but there are way too many cumulative factors to make any generalisation like "SSS sounds better than universal".
