Putting Fluence pickups in a StingRay

[modgen]

I want to swap out the stock pickups in my StingRay RS. Has anyone done this successfully? I'm curious where you've managed to fit a battery. The control cavity is really small and is going to be tight for just the cables. I thought about getting the battery that replaces the tremolo cover on the back, but the Ernie Ball covers are more than an inch longer than standard strat covers and a bit narrower so the screw holes wouldn't work and would drilling new ones. I took my cover off and put a spare strat one over it just to see and it's not even big enough to cover the hole itself.

I guess I could live with drilling a couple new holes and having the cover be under sized if I had to, but I'd rather not. Anyone have any other ideas that would require major drilling or routing of the body?

 

[dave1812]

I don‘t like to unscrew covers or backplates to change batteries
If it was my Guitar I‘d buy an Allparts EP-2929-02 battery compartment, make a Router Template and rout it into the back of the guitar, behind the Trem.
Same place the Battery is located on JP, Luke and other MM Guitars that use Batteries.
You don‘t necessarily need a router to do it, a Forstner Bit and a sharp Chisel would work just as well if you‘re careful and score the paint with a scalpel before chiseling.

 

[modgen]

Thanks for the reply. I have done mods like that myself before. As I said, I'm really trying to avoid any major body mods. This StingRay is a Ball Family Reserve, so I'm trying to leave it in (or be able to return it to) original shape as much as possible since it's a collector's item.

 

[GWDavis28]

Thanks for the reply. I have done mods like that myself before. As I said, I'm really trying to avoid any major body mods. This StingRay is a Ball Family Reserve, so I'm trying to leave it in (or be able to return it to) original shape as much as possible since it's a collector's item.

Modgen, Dave's idea is a good one, but I clearly see where your coming from and agree that's a really good call. Lets see the guitars and the pics you take when your making the mods.

Glenn |B)

 

[modgen]

Thanks Glenn. I'll take some pics tonight and upload here.

Racer X. I already have the pickups and they were in a cheaper guitar. I know I like them and they would really make it so this StingRay would cover all my bases live (I don't play out all that much, so I'm okay using this as my main axe even though it's a collector piece) and be the only one I have to bring. I plan on keeping the original pickups and electronics so I can easily restore it to how it was sold.

I was considering just adding coil splitting, but since EB uses circuit boards for their wiring and the pots are tied to it, it's not just as simple as swapping out one of the pots for a push/pull. I figure if I'd need to completely rewire it anyway, I might as well do it with the Fluence pups if I can make them work.

I suppose I could drill a toggle switch into the pickguard since that's easy to get an exact replacement for.

 

[skelt101]

Is there enough room in the tremolo cavity if you bought a spare cover from EBMM and attached the Fishman Universal Rechargeable Battery Pack to that?
EBMM Tremolo Cavity Cover
Fishman Universal Rechargeable Battery Pack

 

[TripHazard]

I might be wrong, but I think Ryan “fluff” Bruce has those pickups in his Stingray

 

[skelt101]

I might be wrong, but I think Ryan “fluff” Bruce has those pickups in his Stingray

He does have Fishmans. However, his guitar was routed for a battery from the factory, similar to a Dustin Kensrue model.

 

[DrKev]

Could it be powered through a TRS cable? 9V on the ring, you could plug into a battery pack on your guitar strap, or power off you pedal board, make a small power box at the beginning of the chain.

Failing that I would have the body routed for a battery. If correctly done by an expert it will be as good as factory, and honestly the hit to potential resale value would not be on my radar at all.

 

[dave1812]

Could it be powered through a TRS cable? 9V on the ring, you could plug into a battery pack on your guitar strap, or power off you pedal board, make a small power box at the beginning of the chain.

Failing that I would have the body routed for a battery. If correctly done by an expert it will be as good as factory, and honestly the hit to potential resale value would not be on my radar at all.

Thats actually a really good idea, all you‘d have to do is to replace the guitar jack with a TRS Jack and make a small patchbox that‘s attached to your guitarstrap.
One short stereo cable from the box to the guitar, and your regular cable to the amp plugs into the output on the box.
My only concern would be plugging the cable into the guitar, if you use a TRS Cable with 9V on the Ring, you‘re gonna connect 9V to the sleeve of the jack before it‘s all the way in. No idea if the Fishman Electronics are sensitive to power on the negative/ground connection.

 

[beej]

Another option might be to make a new backplate (or buy a spare from EB), and mount the Universal Rechargeable Battery Pack (mentioned above) to it. You could recess it, stick it on top, etc. That's probably the route I'd go.

That said, I've put batteries for Silent Circuits in a few of my guitars and have routed for battery boxes, stuck the batteries under the pickguards, in control cavities, etc. So there are lots of ways if you're creative.

If you're going to fully re-wire it, then you have tons of options for switching.

 

[modgen]

Another option might be to make a new backplate (or buy a spare from EB), and mount the Universal Rechargeable Battery Pack (mentioned above) to it. You could recess it, stick it on top, etc. That's probably the route I'd go.

That said, I've put batteries for Silent Circuits in a few of my guitars and have routed for battery boxes, stuck the batteries under the pickguards, in control cavities, etc. So there are lots of ways if you're creative.

If you're going to fully re-wire it, then you have tons of options for switching.

I couldn't find any info on how Fishman's "Universal" battery pack actual works. There are almost no specks and basically no pictures. I finally found a Youtube video of someone installing to understand. The picture you find it everywhere is really only the jack and led indictors. Even if you can fit that part in, there's an entire battery pack that looks significantly bigger than a 9v that you'd have to hide.

After weighing all my options, I'm going to buy the strat battery pack. I'm buying a sheet of thin pickguard material (the kind they use on acoustics to keep it from adding too much depth) that I will make a copy of the original tremolo cover on and I'm going to attach the battery pack onto that with a silicone adhesive. This way I can use the original screw holes and not add any new ones to the body, still cover the entire cavity. If it works and it looks half decent, I'll come back and put pictures so that any one else that may want to do that can have a reference.

 

[beej]

Yes- that sounds like a great approach. Let us know how it goes!