Humbucker question

[Crowder]

Guys,

Besides output, is there any real difference in a "bridge" humbucker and a "neck" humbucker?

 

[Crowder]

bump

 

[5er Driver]

Some bridge pups have different pole spacing, F spaced vs. regular.

From DiMArzio:

"What is F-spacing?
All of our full-size humbuckers except the X2N® are available in two polepiece spacings. F-spacing refers to the wider of the two spacings. For proper string alignment and balanced output, F-spaced humbuckers should be used in the bridge position on all guitars with string spacing at the bridge of 2.1" (53 mm) or greater. On these guitars, if the nut width is 1-11/16” (43 mm) or greater, F-spaced pickups can be used in the neck position as well.
Why are there two different spacings?
A long time ago (in the 20th century, actually) the electric guitar world was divided between Gibson and Fender designs. One of the differences between the two was string spacing. In general, Gibson chose a narrower string spacing at the bridge than Fender, and therefore the polepieces on Gibson humbuckers were closer together than the magnets on Fender pickups. When guitar shops started installing humbuckers in the bridge position of Strats, it was obvious that the strings didn’t line up with the polepieces, and if the E strings were too far outside, the sound could suffer. Our first humbuckers followed the original Gibson spacing, and we call them standard-spaced. When we released our first humbuckers with wider spacing, Floyd Rose bridges were very popular. Floyd string-spacing is the same as Fender spacing, so we naturally called the new pickups F-spaced.
How do I know which spacing to use?
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 late 1990s Gibson Les Pauls and Epiphone LPs) should have F-spaced pickups in the bridge position. Most tremolo equipped guitars that have a nut width of 1-11/16” (43mm) or more should also use an F-spaced pickup in the neck position. If you’re replacing a bridge-position pickup and you're not sure what your string-spacing is, it's usually better to get an F-spaced model. It is not necessary for the strings to pass exactly over the center of the polepieces for best performance, but it is wise to avoid a situation where the E strings are sitting completely outside of the outer polepieces."

 

[Keyser Soze]

A. Yes
B. No
C. Maybe
D. All of the above

Guess which answer best fits?

Ultimately it depends entirely on the manaufacturer. There is much more that can be done to change a pickup besided more turns of the same wire. Magnet type or magnetic strength can be varied, the size or shape of the bobbins can be different, winding tension, insulation type, etc....

All can have an effect. Whether or not they are being manipulated for a desired effect, and whether this manipulation was successful is another matter.

 

[Crowder]

Okay, thanks. Let's narrow it down to your basic, everyday Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates or Seth Lover, or any other PAF-style pickup.

My guess is that early on, when PAF's were PAF's, they didn't make two different pickups...kind of like Strat pickups. Things have probably changed since then, but I'm wondering.