Help! Sabre BFR Pickup Height

[Shawnclark.eng]

I purchased a used Sabre BFR Half Baked. To my dismay, the pickups have been replaced Fluence Modern Humbuckers. When fretting from the 12th and above, the strings almost touch (the thickness of a sheet of paper) the neck pickup. I suspect this is the cause of rather nasty sounding harmonics and overtones. The pickups are installed as low as possible.

I would really like to restore the guitar the factory setup, but do not know if EBMM sells the parts to do this. The other option would be to replace the fluence pickups and electronics with an alternate passive setup and ensuring that pickups will not be too high.

I love the playability of the guitar but the installation of fluence picks has really wrecked this in my opinion. Any suggestions to fix this lovely guitar would be very appreciated.

 

[beej]

Unfortunately MM doesn't sell pickups on their own.

Are the Fluences sitting on anything (shim, etc.)? If not, you'd either have to route the pickup cavity a little deeper, or find something shorter that fits. On the plus side, you can probably sell the Fluences so you won't be out anything if you buy a different set.

 

[edhalen]

I purchased a used Sabre BFR Half Baked. To my dismay, the pickups have been replaced Fluence Modern Humbuckers. When fretting from the 12th and above, the strings almost touch (the thickness of a sheet of paper) the neck pickup. I suspect this is the cause of rather nasty sounding harmonics and overtones. The pickups are installed as low as possible.

I would really like to restore the guitar the factory setup, but do not know if EBMM sells the parts to do this. The other option would be to replace the fluence pickups and electronics with an alternate passive setup and ensuring that pickups will not be too high.

I love the playability of the guitar but the installation of fluence picks has really wrecked this in my opinion. Any suggestions to fix this lovely guitar would be very appreciated.

A couple things - one - Welcome to the family! And, two - without pics the guitar doesn't exist!!!

 

[Ventanaman]

I purchased a used Sabre BFR Half Baked. To my dismay, the pickups have been replaced Fluence Modern Humbuckers. When fretting from the 12th and above, the strings almost touch (the thickness of a sheet of paper) the neck pickup. I suspect this is the cause of rather nasty sounding harmonics and overtones. The pickups are installed as low as possible.

I would really like to restore the guitar the factory setup, but do not know if EBMM sells the parts to do this. The other option would be to replace the fluence pickups and electronics with an alternate passive setup and ensuring that pickups will not be too high.

I love the playability of the guitar but the installation of fluence picks has really wrecked this in my opinion. Any suggestions to fix this lovely guitar would be very appreciated.

Reach out to Customer Support. They can possibly help you with the situation.

And yes, EBMM can sell you pickups directly. They have done it for me on occasion, but it is at their discretion.

 

[dave1812]

Even if you can‘t get the Original EBMM Pickups back in you Sabre, you‘ve got a pretty wide Range of Options imho. Since the Sabre is routed for Covered Pickups you should be able to make almost any Pickup work.
I retrofitted one of my non EBMMs with DiMarzio Illuminators and i really like them so far, you could also get some PAFs, DiMarzio‘s, Seymour Ducan, Bareknuckle‘s whatever you want really, as long as they have short Legs. What kind of Sound are you after?

 

[Shawnclark.eng]

Dave. Thanks for the reply. In general, I’m looking for a good mix of bluesy and 70’s hard rock tones. Mid rangey, but still a good tight bass when muting. It looks like I could put in the Seymour Duncan Hot Rods or Pearly Gates and gain about .125” of clearance between the pickups and the strings. I don’t really want to route the pickup cavity. It seemed the DiMarzio‘s are a little taller than the SDs(some of them).

 

[Ventanaman]

Dave. Thanks for the reply. In general, I’m looking for a good mix of bluesy and 70’s hard rock tones. Mid rangey, but still a good tight bass when muting. It looks like I could put in the Seymour Duncan Hot Rods or Pearly Gates and gain about .125” of clearance between the pickups and the strings. I don’t really want to route the pickup cavity. It seemed the DiMarzio‘s are a little taller than the SDs(some of them).

Check out the Bare Knuckle Abraxas - a hot PAF-style pickup with excellent clarity - I have them in a couple of guitars and very happy with the results.

 

[Rbg]

I really like suhr thornbuckers if you don’t need too much gain. So maybe options if you can’t find stock pickups.