Neck Humbuckers

[Plazmawine]

Question!!!
Does the neck pickup on a Floyd Rose equipped guitar need to be F-Spaced?

[Child Of Norther]

Re: Neck Humbuckers

Man, i use EMG's on my Rhoads and a Seymour Duncan Dimebucker in the bridge and an Invader in the neck of my BC rich and they are just normal pickups, it doesn't really matter a shit.

I've never seenan F Spaced pickup.

[metafaza]

Re: Neck Humbuckers

As long as the pickup wasn't meant for Fender Stratocaster it will be fine.

[lantz_c]

Re: Neck Humbuckers

Standard spaced humbuckers should be fine in the neck position. I think most Floyd equipped Jacksons have standard spaced humbuckers in the neck position. Even of the pole pieces on the pickup don’t align perfectly with the strings it shouldn’t cause a problem. Most people say that F-spaced pickups are used more for cosmetic reasons than actual performance reasons.

[Plazmawine]

Re: Neck Humbuckers

Thank you all for your input. Reason I asked the question is b/c I want to install a humbucker in the neck position of an ESP strat recently purchased and I wanted to double check spacing issues. The bridge humbucker poles for hi & low E-strings sit on the inside of each and I dont think Im getting as loud a tone b/c of this. Will see what happens.

[1trussell]

Re: Neck Humbuckers

The neck pickup definitely does NOT need to be F-spaced. Because of the location at the neck position, the strings are somewhat closer together making an F-spaced humbucker a moot issue. I also agree that having an F-spaced bridge pickup is purely cosmetic. I've had a Distortion and a JB in Floyd guitars and have never noticed a volume drop off. However, these are pretty high output pickups.

What humbucker are you thinking of installing? Duncan's Jazz neck is the best neck pickup ever. But that is just my opinion.

[jackson1]

Re: Neck Humbuckers

If you're buying new pickups, get F-spaced if you got a Floyd. It looks better.

I played with a non F-spaced Invader in my Floyd equipped Kramer for years without any audible problems. The Invader still spewed fire!

[toejam]

Re: Neck Humbuckers

Originally posted by metafaza:
As long as the pickup wasn't meant for Fender Stratocaster it will be fine.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Where'd you hear that? F-spacing on a pickup for a Floyd is the same spacing on a Fender pickup.

[toejam]

Re: Neck Humbuckers

Originally posted by jackson1:
I played with a non F-spaced Invader in my Floyd equipped Kramer for years without any audible problems. The Invader still spewed fire!

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Invaders are only one spacing size with their pole pieces, since the magnets are bigger. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[toejam]

Re: Neck Humbuckers

Originally posted by Plazmawine:
Thank you all for your input. Reason I asked the question is b/c I want to install a humbucker in the neck position of an ESP strat recently purchased and I wanted to double check spacing issues. The bridge humbucker poles for hi & low E-strings sit on the inside of each and I dont think Im getting as loud a tone b/c of this. Will see what happens.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I've got an X2N in the bridge of my Warrior (universal spacing with the blade magnets, of course) and an F-spaced Super 2 in the neck... it lines up perfectly.

[jackson1]

Re: Neck Humbuckers

Originally posted by toejam:
Invaders are only one spacing size with their pole pieces, since the magnets are bigger. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Argh, you made me look stupid now!

OK OK i got it! I also used a non F-spaced Screamin Demon for many years on a Floyd guitar. It screamed nevertheless!

So there! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[metafaza]

Re: Neck Humbuckers

Originally posted by toejam:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by metafaza:
As long as the pickup wasn't meant for Fender Stratocaster it will be fine.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Where'd you hear that? F-spacing on a pickup for a Floyd is the same spacing on a Fender pickup. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That's right. However, some people are absolutely positive that it's different. I just wanted to be on the safe side. I wouldn't bother with looking for anything F-spaced. A couple weeks ago I installed a 70's Fender single coil in neck position in my friend's Floyd equiped guitar. It sounds pretty cool (he's satisfied, anyway) and no problems with spacing. Now, I guess it contradicts my first post, doesn't it.

[toejam]

Re: Neck Humbuckers

A normal Gibson-type bridge has always had different spacing than a Fender bridge. EVH put a Gibson humbucker in his Strats... the spacing was off. He tilted it sideways so the poles would line up better with the strings. When Floyd Rose came along, he made his bridge spacing wider like the Fender bridge, then humbuckers were eventually made F-spaced to fit Fender/Floyd-type trems. Some people swear that if the pole pieces don't line up that there's some drop-off in output volume, others don't notice a difference. Just go with whatever sounds best to you.

[metafaza]

Re: Neck Humbuckers

I believe, there's nothing more to add. Period.

[YetAnotherOne]

Re: Neck Humbuckers

Originally posted by jackson1:
I also used a non F-spaced Screamin Demon for many years on a Floyd guitar. It screamed nevertheless!

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I've actually got a not F-spaced Screamin' Demon in the bridge position of one of my Nightswans and it has a distinctly different sound than other Screamin' Demons I've played. It's more thin and trebly than others and the pole pieces on the pup line up perfectly on the treble side but move out from under the strings on the bass side. Could just be a coincidence but I have my doubts.