Trembucker or Regular?

[maxdave2010]

Ok folks, I've decided. This Monday, I'll be placing an order for an S.D Custom humbucker for my quasai-frankenstrat, to replace the somewhat muddy Invader I've got in there at the moment.

My question: Should I go for a Trembucker (like i suspect) or regular spacing?

It's a Squier, and for some reason, there's a pretty unique-looking tremolo system in it, or at least one I've never seen before*. The E strings are exactly two inches apart at the bridge pickup area.

The pole pieces on the Invader (which is a unisex pickup) roughly match the strings around the bass end, but at the treble end, the strings start to trail away. The high E is only just "resting" on the edge of bolt head.

I'm not quite sure how to interpret this. Do you think I should be going for the TB-5 or would the SH-5 suit it better? I think it's probably a Trembucker job, but I would just like to be sure!

-Dave

* for those of you who may be interested in this tremolo bridge, it basically looks like a standard fender trem, but it's the pivot point part that I have never seen before. All the other fenders I've seen have a row of screws on them, this one just has two semi-circular pivot slots, much like a floyd rose. It didn't seem to operate any better than usual fender tremolos (i've blocked it up to make it hardtail now, anyway) but it just looks perculiar!

[Gearjoneser]

My opinion is that if you're going out to buy a humbucker for a Fender/Floyd type guitar, then buy a tremspaced model, so it looks right, and sounds optimum.

However, I can't hear one bit of difference between a regular and tremspaced humbucker in any strat I've used them in. Even if the poles don't line up, the magnetic field picks up the strings perfectly fine. If you already own the regular spaced humbucker, don't hesitate to use it.

[spuds]

My opinion is that if you're going out to buy a humbucker for a Fender/Floyd type guitar, then buy a tremspaced model, so it looks right, and sounds optimum.

However, I can't hear one bit of difference between a regular and tremspaced humbucker in any strat I've used them in. Even if the poles don't line up, the magnetic field picks up the strings perfectly fine. If you already own the regular spaced humbucker, don't hesitate to use it.

Yeah, I second that. I actually can't hear much of a difference and I won't be able to tell if I did a blind test. But if were to buy a new pickup, I'd just get a trembucker for peace of mind.

[Moonsorrow]

Either one will work just fine!

[maxdave2010]

I thought as much. Well, just for the sake of spacing, etc, a trembucker it is!

I'm going to go for a lovely, zebra-coloured TB-5 Custom. It's going on a red strat (with black and white stripes, only loosely based on van halen's design. it's an homage, not a replica) with a black scratchplate. Should look (and of course, sound) pretty nice.

Thanks for the advice, guys.

[ErikH]

My opinion is that if you're going out to buy a humbucker for a Fender/Floyd type guitar, then buy a tremspaced model, so it looks right, and sounds optimum.

However, I can't hear one bit of difference between a regular and tremspaced humbucker in any strat I've used them in. Even if the poles don't line up, the magnetic field picks up the strings perfectly fine. If you already own the regular spaced humbucker, don't hesitate to use it.

Huge +1. The Custom Custom in my Frankenstrat is regular spaced. Sounds no different to me than the CC trembucker that I have, and had in the same guitar. The regular spaced is in the Strat now because it's zebra and matches better with the neck pickup.

Although, I'm toying with the idea of popping the cover of my regular spaced Brobucker to reveal those double creams and slapping it in the Strat.