Did vintage Jackson/Charvel guitars use trembuckers or F-spaced pups?

[Ricey]

I just picked up a 1990 Charvel Fusion Plus. The previous owner swapped the original Jackson J-80 and J-50 pups for active Reflex pups, which I don't like-too compressed and lacking punch for my taste. I am trying to decide whether I should try to find vintage Jackson pups on ebay or go with Duncans or DiMarzio's. Would the J-80 be trembucker or F-spaced? That might be the deciding factor, because I know I can get a decent Duncan or DiMarzio with the proper pole piece spacing to match the Jackson JT-590 Floyd repo on my guitar. Did Jackson make any F-spaced pups in the 80's to early 90's?

[toejam]

I believe all Jackson pickups were standard spacing since the JT6 trem was standard spacing.

[ed]

The bridge pickup on my charvel fusion plus is an F sized one the pole pieces line up perfectly with the strings.. And i believe its an original pickup. I will check it to make sure.

[ed]

OK i pulled the pickups out and to my surprise they are both labelled J-90c. Both are Charvel branded on the bottom. I dont know if someone changed them or if they are original though. But the bridge pickup IS F-spaced 54mm(between pole pieces) or so and the neck pickup is regular 51mm.

I measured the resistance and it was about 16.8Kohms on both of them.

I am guessing someone changed them however it is weird that the neck pickup is not F-spaced. Or maybe it could be that the neck pickup is from the JT-6 era and hence its standard spaced who knows. It remains a mystery.

[Number Of The Priest]

I believe all Jackson pickups were standard spacing since the JT6 trem was standard spacing.

I agree with this. Below is a Charvel Model 1 whose stock J90C pickup, standard spaced, is "too narrow" for the Gotoh vintage 6-screw tremolo's string spacing.

[ed]

The bar is on the way slightly on this pic but you can see that the pickup is almost too wide.

[Ricey]

Interesting...it almost seems as though they made a switch from standard spacing to F-spaced at some point. I would need a J-80 bridge to bring my guitar back to spec. I wonder if the J-80 is standard space, F-spaced, or either depending upon year of manufacture? I assume spacing is not as much of an issue with the neck pickup, which would be a J-50 in a Fusion Plus? Ed, it looks like we have the same guitar!

[metalchurch79]

If i remember correctly, F-spaced DiMarzios didnt come out until the early 90's perhaps 93 Im thinking, but I may be off a year or so.
Seymour's trem spaced pups came out around the same time, early 90's... prior to that "F" spaced pickups were non existent aside from EMGs and Lawrences and the like which had blade poles.
The PATB was the first TB Seymour actually and it was what 1991?

[Number Of The Priest]

To me, the polepiece spacing is mostly aesthetic anyway. The magnetic field surrounding even the weakest pickups is still sufficiently far-reaching to be disturbed by even the softest-plucked vibrating strings and be able to generate signal.

Though, if provided with a choice, given equal availability and if there's no cost difference, I will opt for the "correct" spacing, just to ensure my guitar looks right when viewed from the front.

[Axewielder]

To me, the polepiece spacing is mostly aesthetic anyway.

Yeah I'm pretty sure that's why Jackson pups have covers.

[Nightbat]

Actually the J200 (blade) singles on my fusion have an audible difference with upstrokes on low E and downstrokes on the high E compared to reversed strokes