Pickup Spacing and Floyd Rose

Sylaar76

New member
So I bought the JB and Jazz combination because I did quite a lot of research and they seemed to be a decent set of pickups for a broad range of styles. I have a PRS SE custom 24 with a Floyd Rose.
I read recently that you need F spaced pickups for a Floyd Rose ? I didn't know this when I was buying. I've attached a photo of my pickups with the string from above and I'd be very grateful if someone could give me some guidance if they're wrong spaced, or if they're OK or if I need to buy new pickups ?

Many Thanks in Advance,

Chris
 
Re: Pickup Spacing and Floyd Rose

Hey Sylaar76, congrats on the new pick ups. Depending on who you ask, you will get different answers. My limited experience is having a standard spaced pick up did not affect anything. Ive had two guitars, one with and one worhout a floyd rose but both used the f spaced pick ups. Both have standard spaced pick ups in them, both are SD Distortions and they work great
 
Re: Pickup Spacing and Floyd Rose

Only difference is aesthetic. The poles don't align with the strings. It doesn't affect tone at all.
 
Re: Pickup Spacing and Floyd Rose

Trem/F-spaced pickups didn't exist until the late '80s. Most of the great rock and roll of the late '70s through the '80s was made with standard-spaced pickups on Floyd-equipped guitars.

For all intents and purposes, you'll be absolutely fine using a non-F-spaced pickup with your Floyd. The string alignment thing is largely aesthetic.
 
Re: Pickup Spacing and Floyd Rose

You'll be fine, both of my Strats have regular spaced JB's instead of the trem spaced ones they "should" have. And I love the sound of them. The spacing looks slightly off but the sound has no problems at all.

This was a decision I made purposely because I noticed on the spec sheets the trem spaced ones have slightly higher output. I wanted the slightly lower output of the regular ones

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Re: Pickup Spacing and Floyd Rose

I find that most of the difference between a trembucker/non-trembucker is only noticeable when playing really clean. There's a little bit of volume drop at the high and low E. When you've got gain high, it's pretty hard to hear because the compression from your amp/pedal covers this up.

If you're playing completely clean a lot with the guitar, it might be worth getting the trembucker. Otherwise, no worries.
 
Re: Pickup Spacing and Floyd Rose

With higher output pickups like the JB, there isn't any volume loss...the poles 'hear' the strings just the same. It might be a problem for those with OCD, though.
 
Pickup Spacing and Floyd Rose

This was a decision I made purposely because I noticed on the spec sheets the trem spaced ones have slightly higher output. I wanted the slightly lower output of the regular ones
Tapatalk

They have slightly higher DC resistance. That’s not the output. The bobbins are slightly longer, so each turn of wire is longer. There’s slightly more wire on the bobbin, so the resistance is higher.

But they both have the same number of turns. It’s the number of turns of wire that effects the output, not the resistance.

If the bobbins were the same size then this would be an indication of possibly more turns. But in this case it’s a longer bobbin.


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Re: Pickup Spacing and Floyd Rose

They have slightly higher DC resistance. That’s not the output. The bobbins are slightly longer, so each turn of wire is longer. There’s slightly more wire on the bobbin, so the resistance is higher.

But they both have the same number of turns. It’s the number of turns of wire that effects the output, not the resistance.

If the bobbins were the same size then this would be an indication of possibly more turns. But in this case it’s a longer bobbin.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I kinda figured it was something like that going on, but either way I'm very happy with the sound i got

Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk
 
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