Trembucker in my Cali

[Dasein]

So I took my Cali apart today and decided to look at the pickups... when I ordered my guitar I asked for a JB in the bridge and unspecified in the neck.  I just assumed that's what I got....

today I see the neck pickup is a SS1 --- and the trembucker in the bridge ---- but the bridge has me buffaloed ..... it just says Trembucker -- no other designation --- so is it not a JB? Was a trembucker a specific pickup unto itself back then circa 1989/90

cheers

 

[Victor (Fret Friend)]

A Trembucker is a JB with a wider magnet / pole-pieces for a tremolo. F-spaced (or tremolo-spaced) pick-ups are 2mm wider than neck pick-ups for the extra width associated with tremolo bridges! F-spaced = Fender-spaced and I imagine Trembucker is another name for the same thing.

A regular JB Humbucker [50mm] is a SH-4 and a Trembucker JB [52mm] is a TB-4.

PS: I could just be making this up

http://www.seymourduncan.com/faqs/what-does-trembucker-mean-and-how-is-it-different-from-humbucker

[Bennyboy-UK]

My 90 Cali Standard has an SSL1 in the neck, and a PATB-1 in the bridge, or what was later called a PATB-1. iIRC they started life just being called Trembucker.

 

yours looks to have the same.

 

i believe this was the original Trembucker with the cool rectangular pole pieces. 

 

There are now TB spaced pickups across the range but the above is what you have in there.

 

i love these BTW

[Dasein]

1 hour ago, Bennyboy-UK said:

My 90 Cali Standard has an SSL1 in the neck, and a PATB-1 in the bridge, or what was later called a PATB-1. iIRC they started life just being called Trembucker.

 

yours looks to have the same.

 

i believe this was the original Trembucker with the cool rectangular pole pieces. 

 

There are now TB spaced pickups across the range but the above is what you have in there.

 

i love these BTW

Benny - I believe you are correct - from all the reading I've done it seems like the PATB-1 was the original trembucker before they started making other pickups spaced for the Floyd. You are right  - per the face of my guitar in my sig you can see those parallel double pole pieces -- something now that comes exclusive to the parallel axis TB pickup I think.  Can others confirm?

Another thing I found odd was that there was a foam spacer between the pickup and the wood on the trembucker - which I guess makes sense as the pickup floats up and down in its mounting bracket.

[atquinn]

Yup, that's a PATB1. And foam in the mounting cavity is fairly common just to make sure the pickup stays as still as it can in relation with the body.

-

Austin

[Bennyboy-UK]

Yeah, I'm so knowledgeable I should be promoted to HFC U.K. Admin Tzar