Pickup surround size change

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Author Message   Growler Username: Growler Registered: 3-2007 Posted on Monday, April 23, 2007 - 4:08 am:    Older Ibanez pickup surrounds are slightly larger (longer & wider) and have a different mounting hole spacing than 'standard' Gibson style ones. At what point ie when did Ibanez change to the Gibson sizing, if at all?   Growler Username: Growler Registered: 3-2007 Posted on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 7:37 am:    Am I wrong? did the pickup surrounds changed size at some point?   Gemberbier Username: Gemberbier Registered: 5-2006 Posted on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 8:07 am:    Good question, Steve. There was always a difference in the spacing between the pole pieces (metrical versus inch). But when Hoshino started to move parts of their production to other factories, some of those already worked for American guitar companies like Gibson and Gretsch. So it COULD be that for those factories it was cheaper to order more of the same pickup surrounds. IF this happened I THINK 1986/1987 was the logical turning point to do it. MrRoadstar aka The Bear made some study of it after ordering some inch covers that didn't fit. Several months ago (before the hibernation) he offered his arched surrounds in order to trade them for flat ones. He knows everything about 3 holes, 2 two holes, inches, millimetres etc. You could poke him... (bring some honey)... Ginger   Lespaul Username: Lespaul Registered: 10-2004 Posted on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 10:43 am:    The Maxon pups have different dimension rings. So when the pups changed, the rings changed. That would be somewhere between 1973-1974. P@ul   Growler Username: Growler Registered: 3-2007 Posted on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 2:20 pm:    Lespaul, can't see that. My '81 AR100 has the larger pup surrounds, so it has to be after '81. I think Gemberbier's 86/87 estimate must be near the mark. Just so that we're not talking at cross purposes, I'm refering to the four mounting hole positions. They're wider spaced on the earlier ones and in fact the whole surround is longer and wider because of it.   Gemberbier Username: Gemberbier Registered: 5-2006 Posted on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 2:42 pm:    What if there are more than one turning points? Paul's remark about the Maxons makes sense too. Ginger   Jchester Username: Jchester Registered: 5-2006 Posted on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 4:54 pm:    So, ordering a set of black rings for a 2003, Korean-made AR-250 probably won't help, for my 2681??? How about the Rosewood rings for an AR-2000???   Gemberbier Username: Gemberbier Registered: 5-2006 Posted on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 7:15 pm:    John, Read the question carefully: "At what point ie when did Ibanez change to the Gibson sizing, if at all?" Especially the "if at all?" Growler hasn't checked IF it is a fact and neither did I. That's why I wrote "IF, COULD and THINK". It's all based on the assumption that there was a change. If that assumption is false, this is a non-issue! Before ordering use your caliper! Ginger   Jchester Username: Jchester Registered: 5-2006 Posted on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 8:01 pm:    I would, if I could get the caliper around the picture, on the website! I can measure mine 'til the cows come home but unless I can get dimensions for the new pieces... I knew that there was always a difference between Ibanez & Gibson... but I'd never heard of a change WITHIN Ibanez until this thread came up. But then there's LOTS of stuff I've never heard about.   Growler Username: Growler Registered: 3-2007 Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 4:03 am:    The four mounting hole centres of the pickup surrounds on my '81 AR100 are spaced (as near as I can measure) 84.5 x 40.2mm. The mounting hole centres on 'Gibson' style pickup surrounds are 81.3 x 37.5mm. I believe that at some point, Ibanez started to use the Gibson style/size of pickup surround. The measurements were taken using a vernier gauge and were as accurate as I could make them. Don't worry about a fraction of millimeter, that's maybe just the difference between two surrounds from different manufacturers, but as you can see, there is a difference of around 3mm in the distance between the mounting centres of the the two types. They're certainly not interchangeable. What measurements do you get? I'm trying to find at which point in time (if any) Ibanez changed to the Gibson size surrounds. I need someone to measure the hole centres on a late 80s or 90s Artist or something.   Jcmc64 Username: Jcmc64 Registered: 6-2006 Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 5:04 am:    jchester...I sent you 2 e-mails tuesday a.m. I think the 2nd one might help you in the pup ring hunt...I hope anyways.   Growler Username: Growler Registered: 3-2007 Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 5:17 am:    The reason this post exists is because I recently ordered a couple of pickup rings for my '81 AR100 from so called specialist supplier of Ibanez parts and the ones received were Gibson size. He says they were Ibanez. Hence this post to find out if/when the size changed. Anyway, I can always use the rings on another guitar, but meanwhile, if anyone has some 'original size' Ibanez cream pickup surrounds with either 2 or 3 hole pickup mounting, I'm looking for some. Please email me. Thanks.   Gemberbier Username: Gemberbier Registered: 5-2006 Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 7:07 am:    John, How far are you from the closest Ibanez guitar dealer? For me it's simple: the nearest dealer is 6 km or so. There I would have measured a pup surround of a recent AR (these new metallic red ones with a chrome cloud) and compare it to the original pup surround of the 2681. There are a several other music stores within a range of 30 kilometres (about 20 miles). The maximum length of our whole country is only about 300 km, you know. I rarely have a broken pu-surround. The last time I did, it was a flattop 3 hole pup surround on some second hand Aria SL. (I bought it just for the afer-market Gotoh tuners.) I had a lot of work to restore that one (cracked trem block for instance), it was barely possible to earn my money back, but I had the Gotoh 8mm tuners for my homebuilt prefab neckthrough Strat. But I read somewhere that some members have to travel 130 miles to find a guitar store. So, if that's the case, I'll try to help. But you will have to take the first step: measuring the ones on your 2681. I have only an old-fashioned metric caliper. So we will need a converter like the one behind this link: http://www.xs4all.nl/~kooytech/inch%20to%20cm%20to %20inch.htm Don't use commas or dots. Let's see how far we get. Ginger   Jchester Username: Jchester Registered: 5-2006 Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 7:57 pm:    Jcmc64 - Got 'em & answered. Growler - I've got some cream ones... IF you've got some black ones. Ginger - I'll give it a try, but of my local Ibanez dealers, one only stocks Artstars, basses & acoustics and the other only stocks JEMs, basses & acoustics. I'll start with the Artstars.}   Growler Username: Growler Registered: 3-2007 Posted on Thursday, May 03, 2007 - 2:27 am:    Jchester, unfortunately I don't have any black ones to trade. Out of interest, are they 2 or 3 hole pickup mount?   Jchester Username: Jchester Registered: 5-2006 Posted on Saturday, May 05, 2007 - 12:51 pm:    2-holers.   Geoffbyrne Username: Geoffbyrne Registered: 8-2004 Posted on Sunday, May 06, 2007 - 7:06 am:    I'm interested in this thread as I have a 1979 Studio ST-105 (don't know the number) and it has cracked/broken corners which I have Superglued together. They are cream, flat-bottomed with 3 hole surrounds. I tried other rings but found them all to be too small. Schaller make 3 point rings, but the spacing between the holes is different from the old Ibanez models. I really can't find anything the right size in the UK or surrounding countries. Anyone got them? I have a brown encapsulated Super 88 pup I'd swap for them. Geoff

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