Les Paul bridge pickup, F space or not?

Matt300ZXT

Matt300ZXT

Well-known member
I hear a lot of stories of people using F spaced pickups in the bridge of their Les Paul because of the string spacing at the bridge and it lining up better than tradition spacing pickups. Anyone wanna throw in their .02?
 
ZEEGLER said:
It makes very little difference if any whether the strings line up over the poles or not. I try to make sure they do, but it's 99% cosmetic.
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I always wondered on this too. I have a F space Custom Custom on my string through TOM style bridge and the upper E is way off. But I hear the high E just as well as any other string? :dunno:

Does anyone make the opposite claim that it DOES matter?
 
311splawndude said:
I always wondered on this too. I have a F space Custom Custom on my string through TOM style bridge and the upper E is way off. But I hear the high E just as well as any other string? :dunno:

Does anyone make the opposite claim that it DOES matter?
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Would guess that if it didn't make a difference, multiscale pickups wouldn't have custom baseplates to align them and manufactures wouldn't bother offering them. But who are they to argue with 99%? Check the specs on them vs their counterparts. I can tell you it's more than a 1% difference and that they may as well not even be labeled the same model of pickup given the slight differences in one model to the next with a lot of companies.
 
NowYou'rePlayingWithPower said:
Would guess that if it didn't make a difference, multiscale pickups wouldn't have custom baseplates to align them and manufactures wouldn't bother offering them. But who are they to argue with 99%? Check the specs on them vs their counterparts. I can tell you it's more than a 1% difference and that they may as well not even be labeled the same model of pickup given the slight differences in one model to the next with a lot of companies.
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Great point.

"But Eddie cocked his humbuckers" :lol:
 
I've done both. The F-spaced seem to line up a little better on more recent, non-historic models. There's really no difference in tone.
 
F stands for Floyd Rose. If there's no floyd you don't need it.
Also i have non F-spaced pups on Floyd guitars and it works fine.
 
shar-vell Dan said:
F stands for Floyd Rose. If there's no floyd you don't need it.
Also i have non F-spaced pups on Floyd guitars and it works fine.
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Partially correct. The "F" can also refer to Fender style bridges as well. It is more about the string spacing than Floyd Rose specifically.
 
For a Les Paul

F Spaced with Dimarzios
Standard Spaced with all other brands.

But yeah, it’s cosmetic only
 
EyesOfTheSouth! said:
For a Les Paul

F Spaced with Dimarzios
Standard Spaced with all other brands.

But yeah, it’s cosmetic only
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I'm confused by 'other brands'? Seymour Duncan (as do others) do the same thing. Seymour calls them Trembuckers but it is the same thing as F Spaced. If you call Seymour Duncan and ask for an F Spaced JB for a Strat that is what you will get.
 
thegame said:
Careful, some LP pup cavities are routed so tight for traditional spacing that F spaced may not even fit without grinding the baseplate ears.
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This. It also makes almost zero sound difference that cant be made up for with height adjustment.

It's aesthetic.
 
Matt300ZXT said:
I hear a lot of stories of people using F spaced pickups in the bridge of their Les Paul because of the string spacing at the bridge and it lining up better than tradition spacing pickups. Anyone wanna throw in their .02?
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Also, if this is for that studio you bought

Get yourself an aldrich or godwood if you want alnico

or a wagner ironman if you want ceramic heat

Future matt will thank you

Because if you put a super distortion or JB in there, youre going to be like "yeah this is an upgrade this is nice" until you try one of the above mentioned pickups, then you're gonna be all "why didn't i listen to dan this is like 1000 times better" :ROFLMAO:
 
311splawndude said:
I'm confused by 'other brands'? Seymour Duncan (as do others) do the same thing. Seymour calls them Trembuckers but it is the same thing as F Spaced. If you call Seymour Duncan and ask for an F Spaced JB for a Strat that is what you will get.
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A Dimarzio F-space is not same dimensions as a Duncan trembucker.

Actually, a Dimarzio F lines up exactly on Gibson TOM. A Duncan SH and TB will both be slightly off.

Sounds confusing, but true in most cases.
 
EyesOfTheSouth! said:
A Dimarzio F-space is not same dimensions as a Duncan trembucker.

Actually, a Dimarzio F lines up exactly on Gibson TOM. A Duncan SH and TB will both be slightly off.

Sounds confusing, but true in most cases.
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Confusing is right!

So what do they consider 'wider' than standard on their website?

"Our F-spaced pickups have wider string spacing than our standard-spaced pickups. They’re typically used in the bridge position with a guitar having a Floyd Rose or Fender Tremolo-style bridge."

https://www.dimarzio.com/node/1739
 
311splawndude said:
Confusing is right!

So what do they consider 'wider' than standard on their website?

"Our F-spaced pickups have wider string spacing than our standard-spaced pickups. They’re typically used in the bridge position with a guitar having a Floyd Rose or Fender Tremolo-style bridge."

https://www.dimarzio.com/node/1739
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Duncan TB and Dimarzio F are both intended for tremolo/Floyds……but the pole spacing between the two are oddly not the same.

To confuse more……standard Dimarzios and Duncan SH are also slightly different spacing. At least they used to be.
 
EyesOfTheSouth! said:
Duncan TB and Dimarzio F are both intended for tremolo/Floyds……but the pole spacing between the two are oddly not the same.
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The pole spacing between the two is close enough that I can`t tell the difference . Here`s the same guitar with an F spaced Dimarzio and a Seymour Duncan Trembucker
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