Help with info on a SD pickup

heathxx

heathxx

New member
I just purchased this from someone with very few details (enough to know it's a real SD, etc.)

Here are the details:

The paper insert says "Production Floor Custom"

The UPC says "Shop Floor Custom Pickup"

The pickup name abbreviation is TBPG1N... My understanding is that it is a Pearly Gates neck pickup... but the TB means Trembucker, as far as I know, which I thought only applied to Bridge pickups, so why would a neck pickup be listed as such? (or maybe I'm having a case of the stupids).

Anyway, I have no idea what the "custom" part of it is "custom," different magnets, custom winds, eye of newt, blood of my enemies, etc.

Thank you for any help you might be able to give. :)

sdpg1.jpgsdpg2.jpgsdpg3.jpg
 
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Re: Help with info on a SD pickup

See if the E-to-E spacing is 2". (2.07 actually.) If it is, someone ordered a trembucker neck. Possibly for some extra wide neck spacing, or maybe they wanted the lower output bridge.

Kinda cool, nonetheless.
 
Re: Help with info on a SD pickup

Well I'll be damned. Yep, middle of the E pole to E pole is just a hair over 2".

Also, measures 8.2k, same as the stated DCR for the PG bridge (neck is listed as 7.3k).

Heh, not sure what is custom about it if it's identical to the PG bridge. I just hope the AL2 magnets weren't "custom" swapped for something else.
 
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Re: Help with info on a SD pickup

It's not a bridge pickup because it's upside down.

It appears to be what it's labeled as- a trem-spaced PG bridge with the slug side facing 'down' making a neck pickup.
 
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Re: Help with info on a SD pickup

Yep, I absolutely missed that too.. and to think I really only posted the top view shot of the pickup for completeness. :D
 
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Re: Help with info on a SD pickup

Wow, that is a cool anomaly. I wonder why it was originally ordered like that.
 
Re: Help with info on a SD pickup

I have to wonder if maybe it was for a 12-string with a somewhat wider neck. That's the only scenario coming to mind.

I'll be checking to see how off the strings are in the neck position. I'm definitely going to at least see what it sounds like in the bridge position.

Homie don't waste no Pearly Gates.
 
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Re: Help with info on a SD pickup

I'm guessing someone liked the sound of a PGn in the bridge and wanted to match string spacing and aesthetic.
 
Re: Help with info on a SD pickup

heathxx said:
Well I'll be damned. Yep, middle of the E pole to E pole is just a hair over 2".

Also, measures 8.2k, same as the stated DCR for the PG bridge (neck is listed as 7.3k).

Heh, not sure what is custom about it if it's identical to the PG bridge. I just hope the AL2 magnets weren't "custom" swapped for something else.
Click to expand...

Occasionally we do get orders for Trembucker spaced neck pickups, which we can make as a Shop Floor Custom order. We even have one OEM builder who prefers all of his neck pickups to be trem spaced.

As for the DCR, it does increase a bit with the wider bobbin (when we make trembuckers we wind to the same number of turns as the humbucker version -- because the bobbin is slightly wider this usually results in a slightly higher DCR reading. For example the Trembucker version of the Pearly Gates bridge is 8.8k) so it's possible that this is actually a PG-1n.
 
Re: Help with info on a SD pickup

Riley said:
Occasionally we do get orders for Trembucker spaced neck pickups, which we can make as a Shop Floor Custom order. We even have one OEM builder who prefers all of his neck pickups to be trem spaced.

As for the DCR, it does increase a bit with the wider bobbin (when we make trembuckers we wind to the same number of turns as the humbucker version -- because the bobbin is slightly wider this usually results in a slightly higher DCR reading. For example the Trembucker version of the Pearly Gates bridge is 8.8k) so it's possible that this is actually a PG-1n.
Click to expand...

This...

Don't worry about the higher DCR, it comes with the longer bobbins of a trem-spaced pickup. It's definitely a Pearly Gates "Neck", not a "Bridge" model with the coils swapped. As Riley mentioned, it would be ~8.8K if it were a Bridge model and trem-spaced.
 
Re: Help with info on a SD pickup

I've been playing for about 25 years, been modding and building guitars for at least 10 of those, and I'll be damned if I'm not still learning something new every day. :)

Thanks, Riley.
 
Re: Help with info on a SD pickup

Thank you, masta' c. Excellent info. I've been playing with pickups a long time and it never clicked that trem-spaced, with the same number of winds would end up hotter. It makes perfect sense and I'm kind of stunned that I never noticed the higher DC rating.

I think maybe it's something to do with all my Strats and Teles having single coils (or single coil-sized humbuckers) and my other hardtail/standard-spaced guitars are generally the ones with humbuckers in the bridge.

I put a new set of DiMarzios in my old Ibanez about 10 years ago (my very first guitar modification) when I knew almost nothing at all about modding/upgrading a guitar. Now I have to go check and see if I did enough research back then to get an F-spaced bridge pickup to go with the Floyd Rose, or if I Forest Gumped a standard spaced pickup in there.

(I know it's a bit gaudy. I'm usually a more understated guitar fan, but this is the only guitar that made it through a rough divorce many years ago, so even though it was a cheaper level Ibanez, and even though I've got a metric poop-ton of guitars now, it's got a special place in my heart, so it got the shameless gold star treatment.)

ibz-stock.jpg ibz-custom.jpg
 
Re: Help with info on a SD pickup

Riley,

I was just noticing your avatar... I have a couple of helpers, too. :)

01.jpg
02.jpg
toby06.jpg
 
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