Help with Ibanez RGA72TQM and Hot Rodded Pickup Set

[sskino]

Hi folks. I am new here and I have a question about my Ibanez RGA72TQM and this pickup set. Some time back I had messaged someone from the Seymour Duncan sales/support team and had asked whether these pickups would work with my guitar and was told they would, so i ordered them. I had them installed at a local Guitar Center and when I got the guitar back I noticed that the pole spacing on the bridge pickup is not quite the same as that of the neck pickup. On the neck pickup, it appears that the spacing is correct and each string is nearly center with each of the poles in the pickup but on the bridge pickup they're not. It's more noticable on the G and high E string.

Is this normal? From what I found in my searches, all of these sets use a 49mm spacing between the poles, so I am curious as to why two of them would be really off when the others are slightly off-center.

Did I get the wrong set? Is there anything I can do to fix this?

Thanks in advance! I can post a picture if needed!

 

[Swyse]

Re: Help with Ibanez RGA72TQM and Hot Rodded Pickup Set

It would be very weird for the poles to not be the same distance apart. You may want to measure each pole and each string spacing to confirm. A picture might help us see exactly what the spacing issue is, a picture is worth 1000 words after all.

Most likely situation is your set is not "f spaced" in the bridge, and/or your pickup route might be slightly off center which is why the spacing seems wrong. It really doesn't make a huge difference tonally in my experience. Infact both of my ibanez will have non f spaced bridge pick ups once my new ones arrive. If it bothers you, you could replace the bridge pickup with a Trembucker, it is Seymour's version of f spaced.


There is a 21 day exchange policy from Seymour Duncan I hear, if its still within that window you may be able to contact customer support to get the "correct" pickup for the bridge.

 

[sskino]

Re: Help with Ibanez RGA72TQM and Hot Rodded Pickup Set

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, I am sure this is past the 21 day pickup time since I received and had the pickups installed. Here is a picture. If I need to buy another pickup to fix it, I am OK with that. Just want it to be correct.



I am also considering replacing the tremolo with a Floyd Rose. Not sure if that will make any difference, but I want to make sure it all comes together right in the end. Sound is still good though!

 

[Swyse]

Re: Help with Ibanez RGA72TQM and Hot Rodded Pickup Set

A trembucker (TB-4 in your case) would make it look correct, but is likely not necessary. When you play the guitar are the outside strings noticeably quieter because of the spacing? I would only replace it if the pole piece screws can't be adjusted to make the outside strings loud enough to match the inner strings.

As for replacing the tremolo, an original floyd rose(OFR) is said to work in the edge 3 cavity with little to no modification, however be aware that your guitar has a 400mm fretboard radius (15.75" approx) and you will likely need to shim the saddles of the OFR to get a radius match. Another common bridge swap is for the Ibanez Edge pro, which is a 430mm(16.93" approx) radius bridge and may also need shims to get it to play how your guitar plays now. I personally am not a big tremolo user and would leave the original one in place, but if you find it isn't working well enough the aforementioned options may work for you.

 

[sskino]

Re: Help with Ibanez RGA72TQM and Hot Rodded Pickup Set

A trembucker (TB-4 in your case) would make it look correct, but is likely not necessary. When you play the guitar are the outside strings noticeably quieter because of the spacing? I would only replace it if the pole piece screws can't be adjusted to make the outside strings loud enough to match the inner strings.

As for replacing the tremolo, an original floyd rose(OFR) is said to work in the edge 3 cavity with little to no modification, however be aware that your guitar has a 400mm fretboard radius (15.75" approx) and you will likely need to shim the saddles of the OFR to get a radius match. Another common bridge swap is for the Ibanez Edge pro, which is a 430mm(16.93" approx) radius bridge and may also need shims to get it to play how your guitar plays now. I personally am not a big tremolo user and would leave the original one in place, but if you find it isn't working well enough the aforementioned options may work for you.

What does the Trembucker do that would correct this? Does it have a different spacing on the poles? (Just curious)

I'm currently looking at purchasing either a SHRED TB-10 or Dimebucker to replace the brdige pickup with in this set, which is the SH-4. I am guessing based on the advice I've received here I should be using the TB-4 Trembucker.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Swyse]

Re: Help with Ibanez RGA72TQM and Hot Rodded Pickup Set

The trembucker is just spaced different, the spacing is a little wider to match tremolos. Any of the Trembucker (TB-#) pickups should have the correct spacing for your bridge pickup. The dimebucker being a rail pickup would eliminate all aesthetic alignment problems aswell.

If you haven't already, I'd recommend checking out the 12 pickup comparison by Seymour Duncan and Keith Merrow. It only shows the high gain side, but it gave me a good starting point for what pickups I liked the characteristics of.

 

[sskino]

Re: Help with Ibanez RGA72TQM and Hot Rodded Pickup Set

I've gone ahead and ordered a new set of pickups - I have an SH-10 and a TB-10 Full Shred pickup set on the way and I will replace these with those. It's been about a month since I purchased the Hot-Rodded set so I can't do much to exchange them anyway since they've been installed. (Real shame.) But they're a nice pickup set so I don't think I'd have a problem selling them off or I may just hang onto them for that one day I get another guitar I can use them with. I would like to do something with the Tremolo though. This was an active-pickup guitar and I really like the guitar itself so I would like to fix it up some. (Even though I just bought a new RG3620Z Prestige.)

I'll have to look at the Floyd an Ibanez Edge Pro. Our local Guitar Center doesn't seem to be much help when asking for recommendations on this stuff so I had to join up here to get some real help!

Thanks again!

 

[koshikas]

Re: Help with Ibanez RGA72TQM and Hot Rodded Pickup Set

you should not have problems selling SD pickups. as for the bridge, I'm feeling that you better keep the existing one if they're are no issues. (the only issue I think you have is the spacing issue, which would be fixed by putting a trembucker in the bridge slot)

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