[Exhale]

Hi There! Im New to the jemsite and Its really cool! I have been wondering for a while about this: I bought a ToneZone and a Fred pickup to stick into my custom Ibanez RG project guitar. But once they were installed I realized that the pole pieces didnt aling with the strings. I was told that I had Gibson spaced pickups that had an overall string spacing of 48mm instead of 51mm. I did a little research on the web to check out if it was a big deal but until now it isnt. I even found some pics of a JEM777LNG with similar misalingement between polepieces and strings. What really matters for me (you tech heads around here please answer me! ) is if there is any loss of output or alteration of tone by having this kind of setup (I mean 48mm spaced PU:s on a 51 overall string spacing) Anyway , your help would be really appreciated!

P.S. :Ill post pics of this project guitar as soon as I can !

Cheers!

 

[gunkungfu]

If your guitar has a floyd you will need a f spaced in the bridge I believe you can use a standard in the neck

 

[j.arledge]

yes if your guitar has a floyd you will need an f-spaced pickup in the bridge, if the nut of the guitar is 43 mm (1 11/16 inches) it is recommended that the neck be f-spaced. It doesn't have to be though, i bought a standard spaced pickup from gunkungfu and put it in the neck position on my guitar, it doesn have a 43 mm nut and the strings line up with the pole peices perfect.

 

[elcid]

From what I have heard from a couple different techs, F spaced really doesn't make that much of a difference.

 

[j.arledge]

no it makes no difference in the way a pickup sounds, it is only relavent to if you want the pole peices to line up with the strings, which if you are extermly picky and notice the slightest varieations in sound you want it to be right.

It will be really noticable if the bridge isn't f-spaced on a floyd guitar though. the neck doesn't matter and to some extent the bridge doesn't either but it is better to have what you need than make something close work.

 

[dragsternj]

From DiMArzio, since they have a Flash Site cannot post a link.

What is F-spacing?

All of our full-size humbuckers except the X2N® are available in two polepiece spacings. F-spacing refers to the wider of the two spacings. For proper string alignment and balanced output, F-spaced humbuckers should be used in the bridge position on all guitars with string spacing at the bridge of 2.1" (53 mm) or greater. On these guitars, if the nut width is 1-11/16” (43 mm) or greater, F-spaced pickups can be used in the neck position as well.

Why are there two different spacings?

A long time ago (in the 20th century, actually) the electric guitar world was divided between Gibson and Fender designs. One of the differences between the two was string spacing. In general, Gibson chose a narrower string spacing at the bridge than Fender, and therefore the polepieces on Gibson humbuckers were closer together than the magnets on Fender pickups. When guitar shops started installing humbuckers in the bridge position of Strats, it was obvious that the strings didn’t line up with the polepieces, and if the E strings were too far outside, the sound could suffer. Our first humbuckers followed the original Gibson spacing, and we call them standard-spaced. When we released our first humbuckers with wider spacing, Floyd Rose bridges were very popular. Floyd string-spacing is the same as Fender spacing, so we naturally called the new pickups F-spaced.

How do I know which spacing to use?

F-spaced pickups measure 2.01" (51 mm) center-to-center from the first polepiece to the sixth. Standard-spaced pickups measure 1.90" (48 mm). Although some players believe that F-spaced pickups are only for the bridge position of tremolo bridge guitars, many guitars with fixed bridges (including late 1990s Gibson Les Pauls and Epiphone LPs) should have F-spaced pickups in the bridge position. Most tremolo equipped guitars that have a nut width of 1-11/16” (43mm) or more should also use an F-spaced pickup in the neck position. If you’re replacing a bridge-position pickup and you're not sure what your string-spacing is, it's usually better to get an F-spaced model. It is not necessary for the strings to pass exactly over the center of the polepieces for best performance, but it is wise to avoid a situation where the E strings are sitting completely outside of the outer polepieces.

 

[sniperfrommars1]

I must remind most of you that most pickups magnet throw is in an oval curvature. Any noticed differences or more due to differences in manufacturing tolerance's of the individual pickups than anything else. i seriously think it doesnt make one Iotta of a difference. But I will admit it looks odd. If you can get f-spaced do so. But no one will be able to tell the difference if they dont know its there.

 

[MicJustMic]

Do a search on the forum . . . it's been discussed MANY times and there's even a post from me that details a test I personally did with F and non-F pups in the same guitar, a meter and a padded penny (again, search, I'm not typing it all again) and found NO difference at all in the output amplitude on the meter (the main factor they are hyping for the f-space) nor the tone using my ears.

Mic

 

[Exhale]

well thanx alot for your help guys! After doing another research on the web I can conclude that the difference must be purely of visual aspect. I found that early JEM's (JEM777LNG and JEM777SK) and the JEM77FP were equipped with Std-Spaced DiMarzio pickups. So if Ibanez put out guitars setup like that it must be ok. If anyone of you have one of the guitars I mentionned above I'd like to get comments on how it worked with those pickups. Thanx again!


Cheers!!!