Pickup Spacing

[Vhmarduk]

I need to swap my humbucking pick up out of my Gibson to my Ibanez. I know that there are two different sizes for these guitars. My question is will the different pick up spacing cause phase issues or will it affect the sound quality?

[kevinr]

You really will not notice any difference if the spacing is different, the poles will not be direct under the strings, however it will sound the same.

[MDV]

Truth.

No difference in tone.

Think about it - nothing weird happens when you move the string out of line with the poles when you use vibrato or bend, and they are much bigger displacements.

[Antag]

Yep, in almost every case the strings will be over some portion of the pole pieces (& well within the magnetic field) whichever spacing you choose.

A problem you are more likely to hit is that the pickup won't fit because ibanez rout is relatively shallow but Gibson rout is quite deep, so long mounting legs won't be able to go down far enough...