Dear Gitty, How THICK Are Your Dog Ear Pickups?

Dear Gitty,

I love the look of your new Dog Ear Soapbar Pickups.  I especially like how they are top mounted on an instrument.  Can you tell me how thick they are and whether they need special routing, especially for cigar box guitars?

Dave, Encino CA

Hi Dave!

We're proud to debut these new pickups and we're glad they caught your eye!  Here's all the info you need:

THE SHORT ANSWER:  For all Dog Ear Soapbars, the routing space below the cover needs to be a minimum of .18" (4.5mm) to the bottom plate and .42" (10.5mm) where the polepieces extend.

Although the Dog Ear Soapbars are top mounted, they will require routing in both cigar box guitars and conventional instruments.  The pickups are based on the old P90 pickups that were mounted to archtop guitars in the 1950's.  (They sound like those pickups, too!)  As with the old archtops, you will need to cut into the top to fit these pickups.  Unlike our Wickedbucker thin pickups which can be fastened straight to the top of the soundboard, these Dog Ears have a base and polepieces that extend below the cover. 

We pulled out our caliper for these photos to give you exact measurements:

Both the Chrome and Gold Dog Ear Soapbars have thinner covers, giving you an overall thickness of .55" (14mm). 

The Cream Dog Ear has a plastic cover which makes it slightly thicker at .62" (16mm).

The polepieces extend down further on all the Dog Ears. The polepieces have a full depth of .84" (21.5mm).

THE BIG QUESTION - HOW DEEP SHOULD I MAKE THE ROUTE?:  Not shown in the photos are the thicknesses from the base of the pickup cover to the bottom of the pickup.  (That would be the amount you need to route down inside your instrument.)  For all Dog Ear Soapbars, the space below the cover is .18" (4.5mm) at the bottom plate and .42" (10.5mm) to the bottom of the polepieces