Which Gibson style bridges need a tremspaced or F-spaced bridge pickup?

[Fusion1]

I have an SG and the Distortion in there now doesn;t line up and its non-trembucker. Just an aethetic annoyance, but any ideas of specific bridges that require f-spacing to line up the poles?

[Evan Skopp]

Re: Which Gibson style bridges need a tremspaced or F-spaced bridge pickup?

Great question, Fusion1. I don't know the answer. But you can bet I'll be saving this thread for my personal -- and the customer service department's -- archives.

So.... name some hardware, Bros.

[ShredMAN]

Re: Which Gibson style bridges need a tremspaced or F-spaced bridge pickup?

The standard stop tail bridges use stardard spacing, gibson had floyd style bridges on a few guitars back in the day, and I cant think of any others that would use trembuckers. The pole pieces wont be perfectly lined up (they aren't on my guitar, and they're still off with trembucker spacing). Are you experiencing sound drop when bending?

[Hellion]

Re: Which Gibson style bridges need a tremspaced or F-spaced bridge pickup?

I can't recall any Gibson with the exception of a few that were made in the late 80s that used a Floyd, so I don't think any of them actually would need F spacing. I might be wrong, but that's my memory.

[Fusion1]

Re: Which Gibson style bridges need a tremspaced or F-spaced bridge pickup?

GAX-70 Ibanez with Duncan Distortion

E-A-D lines up nice, almost perfect.
G-B starting to veer off to the high e side.
High E is slightly off the last pole piece.

[Fusion1]

Re: Which Gibson style bridges need a tremspaced or F-spaced bridge pickup?

No sound loss, but on my Gibson SG the poles on the bass side are off quite a bit which does result in sound loss. I will admit this is probabkly more of a cosmetic issue than anything else but it bugs me just the same

[Fusion1]

Re: Which Gibson style bridges need a tremspaced or F-spaced bridge pickup?

My Gibson Les paul with an Invader in the bridge
E-A pretty far off but the larger pole pieces negate any loss
D-G-B-E all line up great.

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: Which Gibson style bridges need a tremspaced or F-spaced bridge pickup?

I pretty much only try to buy F-sp/Trmbkr bridge p/ups anymore,period.
They're(reg sp) very slightly uncentered on my LP,I put an F-sp in the br pos of my Dean '79 r/i,it's DEAD ON!!!

[rspst14]

Re: Which Gibson style bridges need a tremspaced or F-spaced bridge pickup?

With a Tuneomatic bridge on an American-made Gibson, the strings will not line up perfectly with the polepieces, at least not in my experience. My Hamer uses the exact same TOM bridge as a Gibson, but I've never noticed any problems. There's not a major misalignment problem, just a small one. I've never tried a trembucker spaced pickup in the guitar, but I would imagine it might be off with that too. If I remember correctly, you should use a trembucker for string spacing greater than 2 inches. When I measured mine, it was just a little under 2 inches. So I figure that even with a trembucker, it would be off. It doesn't bother me, and unless there was a major misalignment, you shouldn't have any problems with either spacing.

Ryan

[Lightning]

Re: Which Gibson style bridges need a tremspaced or F-spaced bridge pickup?

To the nearest MM old Gibson's are 46 (under sized to the bridge). I adjust them (cram something in there) so that the high E gets the full pole and the low E is shy.

When you bend a whole step the string is now in the mag field of the adjacent pole, cool.

New gibs are wider 50 while SDs are round 49. I prefer 46 & 48 for the ABR and I think the Nashville is the same, because when bending...

49 or 50 for the bridge is not so bad, going 48 on the neck is not so bad, just 46 is better for bending.

Across manufactures so many different spacings. Is this a patent issue?

[Fusion1]

Re: Which Gibson style bridges need a tremspaced or F-spaced bridge pickup?

Across manufactures so many different spacings. Is this a patent issue?

That's what I was wondering too.

[slightly_rude]

Re: Which Gibson style bridges need a tremspaced or F-spaced bridge pickup?

The real issue here with Gibson is they use a slightly wider spacing for the Nashville TOM compared to the older ABR-1. Because of this, their modern humbuckers, 498T and 500T have wider spacing to match the Nashville bridge. That's what the "T" stands for, "treble" pickup. Along with this, there is also in-consistency on where the bridge saddles are notched and that will changes the spacing over the poles on the bridge pickup. Duncan does not change spacing between their neck and bridge models of the SH pickup lines so it's like putting a Gibson neck pickup in the bridge spot.

[Lightning]

Re: Which Gibson style bridges need a tremspaced or F-spaced bridge pickup?

IMO if the E to E spacing on the bridge is 52mm the center to center of the bridge PU should be 50mm so the bend stays within the mag field. Get your caliper out and check for your self…ABR or F? (TOM) spaced…2mm less seems to be the magical equation for keeping bent notes in a mag field neck or bridge.

[RG 2570]

Re: Which Gibson style bridges need a tremspaced or F-spaced bridge pickup?

any of the gibsons that come stock with a 490T,498T,500T pup are tremspaced