F-spaced/Trembuckers

Jenesis · Post by **Jenesis** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 9:36 pm

As I intend to upgrade a few of my gats over the next few months (new amp exposing crapness of stock pups

) I've tried to do a bit of reading up lately, but thought I'd get youse fullas to weigh in as well.

After chucking a standard JB in my Strat, I note a couple of the strings don't line up too well with the poles (high E especially). I take it a Strat should have an F-spaced pickup in the bridge position then? Fudge.

On a Floyded gat, should the neck pickup be F-spaced as well? Though I'm assuming that would depend on the nut width etc.

ash · Post by **ash** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 10:56 pm

Yep, strats need F-spaced bridge pickups. The neck, usually not, although you can get F-spaced neck pickups in some models, the normal spacing is about right for most gats.

war-wolf · Post by **war-wolf** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 5:28 am

curiously,i have a floyded gat that is also f-spaced at the bridge,never struck this before with other floyds.

Jenesis · Post by **Jenesis** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 9:46 am

I thought all Floyds were F-spaced?

Gah, confusion!

Jenesis · Post by **Jenesis** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 10:04 am

ash wrote:Yep, strats need F-spaced bridge pickups. The neck, usually not, although you can get F-spaced neck pickups in some models, the normal spacing is about right for most gats.

Cheers for that. I don't think I'll bother pulling the JB out, there's no problems with the sound and it's just a beater guitar anyway.

To my uneducated eye it looks like my stop-tailed guitar is F-spaced too

so I assume the way to go is to get measurements before I buy any pickups?

ash · Post by **ash** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 12:19 pm

F-spaced is considered to be a string spacing of 54mm or more at the bridge. Standard is usually around 52mm.

Generally, Strat style trems, some Teles, Fender hardtails and most FR trems are 54mm or up to 57mm.

Gibson style tune-o-matics, stop tails, some strat type hardtails and one of the FR trems are standard spaced.

There are so many exceptions to the rule that measuring is advisable.

Then there is the complication that some pickups, like SD Trembuckers are wide enought that they may not fit into some pickguards or pickup cavities.

Then there is the fact that standard spaced pickups work just fine even if they look a little misaligned.

Jenesis · Post by **Jenesis** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 2:05 pm

Ruddy heck, what a minefield.

Thanks for the info!