[Merglet]

I was wondering, because I've heard how good the 498t can sound fully utilized via Alex Lifeson, if the 498t comes in a trembucker variation, aside from his custom Axcess model. I'm looking to replace my bridge 'bucker with the 498t, but don't want to spend the money and find out there's no fit for my strings. I have a strat, but want to mix the best of both worlds, and learned that the trembucker sizing is important.

[chuckymack]

Nope. The 498T is a Gibson pickup made for use on Gibson guitars with Gibson-spec string spacing.

[Merglet]

chuckymack, on 04 March 2013 - 07:39 PM, said:

Nope. The 498T is a Gibson pickup made for use on Gibson guitars with Gibson-spec string spacing.

Are you sure? I've read elsewhere that the 498t is f-spaced, which is basically the same as a trembucker. Designed a bit wider as far as the magnets go.

[Ryan H]

F-spacing is an aesthetic thing. The effect on tone is negligible. The magnetic field on a regular guitar pickup is plenty wide enough to sense strings that are a millimeter or two off-center. If you're OCD about everything lining up perfect, good luck.

-Ryan

[Merglet]

Caroline64, on 05 March 2013 - 12:58 PM, said:

F-spacing is an aesthetic thing. The effect on tone is negligible. The magnetic field on a regular guitar pickup is plenty wide enough to sense strings that are a millimeter or two off-center. If you're OCD about everything lining up perfect, good luck.

-Ryan

Nope, not OCD about it. It's the pickup I want, and it's what I'm gonna get.

[CERNUNNOS]

A "Trembucker" is the Seymour Duncan term for "F - Spaced". And as far as I know, all modern Gibson guitars and pickups are F - Spaced as standard, so you should be fine. :-)

[Ryan H]

CERNUNNOS, on 21 March 2013 - 04:48 AM, said:

A "Trembucker" is the Seymour Duncan term for "F - Spaced". And as far as I know, all modern Gibson guitars and pickups are F - Spaced as standard, so you should be fine. :-)

Um...no.

Gibson guitars are not F-spaced unless they have a trem (typically a Floyd) with the wider string spacing. F-spaced pickups are generally meant for guitars with vibrato units (Floyd, Vintage-style trem or otherwise). Where do you think the F came from? It's for Fender, the first company to put a vibrato unit on a solidbody guitar, with the different string spacing.

-Ryan

[CERNUNNOS]

Yes, I know where the term came from. But Gibson and Epiphone changed their bridge widths in the 90s. I have purchased many Gibson pickups, 500T, Dirty Fingers etc and they are the same width as my Duncan Trembuckers and dimarzio F-spaced pickups, and wider than standard HBs. The 498T comes as standard on many modern Les-Pauls and SGs etc. meaning it must be F-Spaced.

Even Dimarzio advise of this in their FAQs:
"F-spaced pickups measure 2.01" (51 mm) center-to-center from the first polepiece to the sixth. Standard-spaced pickups measure 1.90" (48 mm). Although some players believe that F-spaced pickups are only for the bridge position of tremolo bridge guitars, many guitars with fixed bridges (including post-1998 Gibson® and Epiphone® Les Paul®, SG® and semi-hollow guitars) should have F-spaced pickups in the bridge position." - Dimarizio website.

[Sabredog]

Merglet, on 04 March 2013 - 12:31 AM, said:

I was wondering, because I've heard how good the 498t can sound fully utilized via Alex Lifeson, if the 498t comes in a trembucker variation, aside from his custom Axcess model. I'm looking to replace my bridge 'bucker with the 498t, but don't want to spend the money and find out there's no fit for my strings. I have a strat, but want to mix the best of both worlds, and learned that the trembucker sizing is important.

hi checking in,

What did you decide, I have a 498 T and I measured the pole pieces, they match perfectly for Floyd Rose 51.3mm center to center
From my les paul Axcess.

I am now trying to replace the 498T, burstbucker 3's are some of my favorite pickups.
So now I'm trying to find a burstbucker 3 with F spacing.
Seymour Duncan will custom space an alnico 2 pro so I'm thinking of doing that the next or 50 bucks to have it properly put on the wider bobbins

You don't notice the pole misalignment until you start playing somewhere around the 10th fret.
Then the string doesn't vibrate as wide the richness and the harmonics fade as you're playing high frets on the high E.
There is an advantage to having the straying directly over the center of the magnet.
sdog

[ErickC]

Loads of misinformation in this thread.

The 'T' tells you that the E poles are spaced 52mm apart, which visually compensates for the difference in string spacing between the rhythm and treble positions (not that it really matters, but it looks nicer, I guess). An 'R' or no suffix at all tells you that they are spaced 49.2mm apart. That's it. No other superfluous crap to do with vibrato arms or anything else.

Also... ABR-1 and Nashville bridges are interchangeable. The Nashville is wider, allowing a slightly greater compensation adjustment, but the post spacing is close enough (the difference is 1/32 of an inch) that I have never, not once, having done it several times, had an issue replacing an ABR-1 with a Nashville. The thing people forget is that these bridges don't fit as tight on the posts as one might think. There is always some play involved - and it's usually around 1/32 of an inch or so. The difference in string spacing is also 1/32 of an inch - far less than the nearly 3mm between an R and T pickup. The different bridge has about as much to do with the wider pole spacing as the colour of Alpha Centauri has to do with the size of your thumb.