Guitar techs, string spacing question?

davis224
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davis224
Edited Date/Time 7/15/2018 7:24am
So I'm having a guitar built for the first time, and most of the technical aspects I know nothing about. I want to put a set of Fralin soapbar P-90s in it, and the raw nickel finish I want is only available in 49.5mm spacing, and I was about to order a 52 mm fender flat mount bridge. I can't seem to find a 49.5 mm bridge anywhere, am I missing something here? Can someone point me in the direction of a bridge that will work with a 49.5 mm spaced pickup?
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borg
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borg 7/14/2018 6:08am
7/14/2018 6:08am
The string spacing at the pickup is going to be different because most guitars have a tapered string spacing. At the nut, it's 35.5mm and the bridge is 49.5 to 53. With that much taper the two E strings will not cross directly over the pole pieces on both pickups no matter what you do. Look closely at what you have now and you will see that. Shaller makes a hardtail bridge with a spacing adjustment. Stewmac has them. But, by the time you adjust the bridge with a happy medium between the neck and bridge pickups, you will be around 52 to 53mm at the bridge.
Tell me more about this guitar.
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davis224
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davis224 7/14/2018 10:20am
7/14/2018 10:20am
The fact that Fralin listed 52 mm as an option is what threw me off. It will be a "barncaster" of sorts, but a custom body design. Got some old thick boards out of a barn on my parents farm, fairly sure they're pine, around 80-100 years old. Ordered a 24 3/4 scale conversion neck from warmoth, roasted maple with rosewood fingerboard. Might find some other trinkets laying around the barn that I can fashion knobs out of
borg
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borg 7/14/2018 10:53am
7/14/2018 10:53am
Sounds cool. Which pickup is it? I didn't see a soap bar in a metal cover.
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borg
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borg 7/15/2018 7:24am
7/15/2018 7:24am
I looked it up, thanks. That is a stacked pickup. An over/under humbucker essentially. It wont sound the same as a single coil P90 but that may not matter to you. I was looking for pickups for the strat I built, and checked out the no hum pickups. I went to Guitar Center and played 1 of each and decided not to get the hum cancelling. Didn't have the same bite. Yours is different in that the standard P90 does have a thicker more mid range sound than a strat pickup so the additional coil may not alter the sound as much. I have an original Gibson P90 from the 70's that was in my Les Paul. When I refinished it, I went with soap bar humbuckers.

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