OLP Stingray 4 pickguards

[Rich]

What are the major differences between an OLP 'Ray pickguard and a Musicman one? I've seen in a fewe places that a M/man guard will not fit an OLP, why is this? Can it be made to fit or are there horrid gaps or summat?

[mcnach]

They have slightly different shapes, and the pickup on the OLPs is placed something like 5mm closer to the bridge than on a Stingray, which means that you always get a small gap between the pickguard and the neck. Not huge, especially if you move the pickup neckwards a little (easy, as the OLP routing is huge, all you need is to unscrew the pickup, fit the pickguard as close as you can whilst leaving enough room for the pickup, and reinstall pickup.
If you have a chisel, you could make it fit perfectly in a few minutes.

[mcnach]

For example... my black OLP... this is with the pickguard just resting on it, not screwed yet. You can see the bottom touches the bridge and there's a 4mm gap at the top. The gap was reduced by moving the pickup upwards a little. I did not bother with a chisel at the time



similar situation here...


and here




so, not horrible... but there is a gap.
If it's important, the gap can be eliminated by moving the pickup towards the neck a little.

[rubis]

Excellent answer, lovely collection

[mcnach]

thank you.

I loved those OLPs. Some are horrible, but some are really nice, worth looking around a bit.

I now only own the black one, which I fitted with a Stingray 2EQ preamp clone. It cost me 100GBP, plus the Basslines pickup (SMB4A) and the very cheap homemade preamp... that´s a hell of a bass.