Pickup Centering

[Steven Powell]

I'm mounting a set of Seymour Duncan Hot rodded humbuckers on a new archtop Les Paul build. Installed the bridge, tailpiece and both E-strings to use to center the pickups, prior to drilling mounting bracket holes. I'm a bit concerned that the end pole pieces under each e-string are not directly under each of the e-strings but off to the side about 1/8th to 3/16 of an inch.

Is this a concern?

Would this be caused by having an incorrect bridge? I have a Gotoh tune-o-matic for a Les Paul. Are they all the same or are there different sizes even for Les Pauls for different string spacings?

[Barry Daniels]

I would be concerned about the off-set. The pickup may still work fine but it would still bug me. There are different string spacings on some bridges, but I don't know if Gotoh is in that camp. Sounds like a little research is in order.

But keep in mind that the string spacing on your bridge should be dictated by what fits your neck taper. The same applies to the pickups. However, the lack of bridges and pickups in various dimensions can keep you from getting everything to line up.

[Steven Powell]

Barry, thanks for the response. After some research I'm now learning that humbuckers generally come in three or more string spacing sizes: 49.2mm, 50mm, and 52mm spacing. Mine are actually 48.9 according to the box. My bridge is 52mm spacing. According to a diagram on fralinpickups.com, my e-strings lie within the acceptable tolerance, i.e. they are not perfectly centered over their pole pieces, but they are still inside the circumference of each (the outer 1/3 of each) when viewed from above. Based on the installed positions of my e-strings in relation to the edges of the fretboard, the 52mm bridge spacing seems perfect.