Regular spaced pick-up in Floyded guitar.

[Razor]

Noob question I know, but I recall reading somewhere where some people don't use trembuckers in their Floyded guitars. Is there any truth to this? If so, how many of you install and use regular spaced humbuckers in guitars with Floyds/Kahlers versus using trembuckers? If you do, please tell me the advantages and disadvantages of doing it.

Thanks

[~K~]

Re: Regular spaced pick-up in Floyded guitar.

It's more of a cosmetic issue than anything ..

[RobRR]

Re: Regular spaced pick-up in Floyded guitar.

Itll sound fine... I had a regular spaced JB in my Floyd and it was just fine. Problem is Im very anal when it comes to that, so I got the correct trem spaced one for it.

[Bengal65]

Re: Regular spaced pick-up in Floyded guitar.

In the early days EVH and others used standard pickups with the Floyd (since Floyd spacing on pickups was non-existant). Your outside poles E and E will have the string just to the outside of the screw head. No worries though, your sound will be just fine. And like Kevin mentioned, it's "more of a cosmetic issue than anything".

[Model1VH2]

Re: Regular spaced pick-up in Floyded guitar.

[ QUOTE ]
It's more of a cosmetic issue than anything ..

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sorry, but I disagree.
A "normal" spaced humbucker in a guitar with a Floyd will in fact work, but an F-spaced humbucker will work better.
And yes, EVH did in fact use a "normal" spaced PAF in his guitar, but he also mounted it in the tilted position so the pole pieces would match up.

[DonP]

Re: Regular spaced pick-up in Floyded guitar.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It's more of a cosmetic issue than anything ..

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sorry, but I disagree.
A "normal" spaced humbucker in a guitar with a Floyd will in fact work, but an F-spaced humbucker will work better.
And yes, EVH did in fact use a "normal" spaced PAF in his guitar, but he also mounted it in the tilted position so the pole pieces would match up.

[/ QUOTE ]

And I disagree as well. It is just a cosmetic thing, and a way to sell RobRR and I more pickups because we are anal about looks.

I will say this - because of the physically different shape of the bobbins, the fact that the magnet might be longer, more turns of wire might be one - an SH4 won't ever sound exactly like a TB4. Because of the trem spacing, they are two different sounding pickups which manufacturer's try to get close to sounding the same as they possibly can.

[jgcable]

Re: Regular spaced pick-up in Floyded guitar.

It doesn't matter. If it did, everybody would be using X2N's, blades, rails and Carvin pickups. Its cosmetic.

[Zerberus]

Re: Regular spaced pick-up in Floyded guitar.

I´ll see if I can find the soundclips I cut a few years back and we´ll see how many still say it doesn´t matter.... direct A/B test with identical settings incl. pickup height [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Model1VH2]

Re: Regular spaced pick-up in Floyded guitar.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It's more of a cosmetic issue than anything ..

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sorry, but I disagree.
A "normal" spaced humbucker in a guitar with a Floyd will in fact work, but an F-spaced humbucker will work better.
And yes, EVH did in fact use a "normal" spaced PAF in his guitar, but he also mounted it in the tilted position so the pole pieces would match up.

[/ QUOTE ]

And I disagree as well. It is just a cosmetic thing, and a way to sell RobRR and I more pickups because we are anal about looks.

I will say this - because of the physically different shape of the bobbins, the fact that the magnet might be longer, more turns of wire might be one - an SH4 won't ever sound exactly like a TB4. Because of the trem spacing, they are two different sounding pickups which manufacturer's try to get close to sounding the same as they possibly can.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry ... but I still disagree. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
And I doubt soundclips will prove anything either.
Anything lacking in a normal spaced pickup mounted in a Floyd guitar can easily be compensated via EQ, etc ...
As I stated before, it WILL work, but it won't be as responsive in areas that are not picked up by the pole pieces. What doesn't make sense about this?

If it's merely for "cosmetic" purposes, why would major manufactures like Dimarzio (F-spaced) and Seymour Duncan (Trembucker) explain it otherwise? ESPECIALLY Dimarzio who cators more towards "cosmetics" with their pink, green, red, purple, yellow, blue, etc ... colored pickups?

[MountainDog]

Re: Regular spaced pick-up in Floyded guitar.

I have found the trem spaced pickups sound better, with more consistent string output across the pickup, but it can also be related to body wood/neck wood. I have a few guitars that came with regular spacing and they sound OK, and I've left them alone.

However, I had one recent example where there was a huge difference between reg/trem spaced. A friend got an Ash strat-body Robin, complained it didn't have bass. I figured it was his set-up and bought the guitar from him. In my rig, it was also lacking bottom. I then noticed it was a reg spaced Duncan JB SH-4. I swapped in a trem spaced JB TB-4 and with the new pickup spaced exactly the same distance from the strings as the old, it sounded like a completely different guitar, nice bottom, nice even string power across each string.

My friend ended up getting a Robin Tele-body guitar with the money I gave him, and was very happy with the bottom end of that guitar. I peeked at it, and yep, has a trem spaced duncan! He still thinks it's the strat body vs. tele body, causing the sound difference, not the pickups.

[mogar]

Re: Regular spaced pick-up in Floyded guitar.

They sound fine to me. When I bought my Full-Shred, I didn't read the box. But I noticed no drop in response over the strings. And if your a stickler about it, ADJUST THE POLE PIECES YOU LAZY BASTAGE!

Just foolin' ya. Anyway, if it bothers you or if you think it matters, get a trem spaced one. It's not like they cost more.

[Chuckracer]

Re: Regular spaced pick-up in Floyded guitar.

[ QUOTE ]
Anyway, if it bothers you or if you think it matters, get a trem spaced one. It's not like they cost more.

[/ QUOTE ]

There It is. Truth.

I think it matters, personally.

[Zerberus]

Re: Regular spaced pick-up in Floyded guitar.

[ QUOTE ]
.....
Sorry ... but I still disagree. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
And I doubt soundclips will prove anything either.
Anything lacking in a normal spaced pickup mounted in a Floyd guitar can easily be compensated via EQ, etc .......

[/ QUOTE ]

The whole purposse of making soundclips for comparison os NOT using EQ and such to accentuate or mask the differences, otherwise it´s a useless BS experiment [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

The difference is audible on chords that use one or both e-strings, clean or under gain....the entire tonality of both clips is nearly identical as well as the licks, but you can hear the e-strings notably better on the TB, especially in clean sections...

Admittedly, for mostly single note picking or power chords the difference isn´t as obvious, on the inside 4 strings it´s essentially not there....

my $0.02... again, I´ll try to dig them out if I still have them...

[ QUOTE ]
.....Anyway, if it bothers you or if you think it matters, get a trem spaced one. It's not like they cost more.

[/ QUOTE ]
THIS I think we can all agree on [img]/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

[eddie_van_earache]

Re: Regular spaced pick-up in Floyded guitar.

means nothing

[83SanDimas]

Re: Regular spaced pick-up in Floyded guitar.

ahh a screw counter convention

Why it means nothing. Thinking that the poles need to be directly under the guitar is 2 dimensional thinking. Their is always a straight line from pole to string and the distance varies based on preference. You should never have your pup that close to the string that the distance matters. In essence you can achieve the same distance with either setup.

Anal, sure I agree with correct spaced for looks and well just because they go together. Bot not required.

The early x2ns were based on a study that guitars played through underdriven amps lost sustain when strings were bent. So many variables go into that formula. Bridge configuration and metal type. Body wood etc. It makes the most sense to "need" correct spacing when playing a clean undriven guitar. Once you saturate the signal it is really irrelevant.

Of course, if building a floyded guitar I would use an f spaced.