Nighthawk Bridge Pickup

[howlin]

After looking at the variables for replacing the stock bridge pickup in my Epi Nighthawk Custom RI it occurred to me that I should measure the mounting holes on the ring to see exactly what I was dealing with. Turns out they measure 78mm. Now a standard Strat pickup measures 77mm so I figured, what's a mm going to matter in this case?

 

Well, first off, you can't use the screws that come with a Strat pickup without drilling out the holes on the mounting ring - something I wasn't too keen on as I wasn't so sure how this was going to work out and wanted the option of going back to the original pickup, if necessary. Turns out its not a problem. Just take the mounting screws out of the original pickup which, with the little bit of slack between the two pickup dimensions, will thread into the Strat pickup no problem. Sounds a bit wonky but it works. And, yes, the magnets line up exactly under the strings [didn't think to show that in the photos]. At 7K [Rose Buff Beauty at a whopping $22] its a bit tepid compared to the other 2 pickups but it works for my purposes and now that I know it will fit I may try something a bit hotter down the line but that's unlikely as I find myself using primarily the middle pickup most of the time. The cool thing is this pickup really helps round out the "Fenderness" of this guitar IMO.

 

BTW - There's enough space in the pickup hole to allow you to hard mount a Tele pickup in there if you wanted to go that way. Just be careful how deep you run the screws as its pretty thin wood at that point.