Z-coil question

[cho]

I have a question: Can a Z-coil pickup fit in a standard humbucker ring?

For example, could a Fallout bridge humbucker be replaced with a Z-coil, without any routing?

[guitar_ed]

Hi Co,

Sometimes I see a question here, and I think "What is wrong with that guy?" So I reacted to your question. At first. And then I thought, "That's a damn good question, in fact." So I investigated it.

The short answer is Sort Of.
1) North-to-South, the Z-Coil will fit in the HB route, and under the HB mounting ring/surround. It's a bit of a tight fit, but it will fit.
2) The real issue is the mounting points. On a HB, the mounting points are centered North-to-South. But on the Z-Coil they are offset North-to-South.
3) There are a couple of purely cosmetic issues.
A) The Z-coil does fill the HB surround.
B) The original, unused, HB mounting holes will be visible.
C) I am sure that A & B are manageable issues.

In the scenario you describe above, you would have to drill a few more holes in the pick guard.

Let me know how this works out.

edg

[yowhatsshakin]

Z-coils kinda fit in humbuckers. Dean Coy built "Big Red" which is in my collection. In his case, he wanted the Z-coils to fiit inside a humbucker housing in one of his many Z-12 projects. To achieve this feat, he allegedly had to resize the pups ever so slightly to fit. The pup also lost its ability to have adjustable pole-pieces.

You maybe just want to have the Z-coil(s) straight up in your guitar, perhaps with a proper stencil to act as "pickup cover". That would be easier as per Ed's observations with some small cosmetic issues..

Hope this helps,

- Jos

[NickHorne]

Fascinating question! I've wondered before, but not actually measured.

I believe that a regular humbucker rout measures 71 x 40 mm with 8 more at each side for mounting legs. So 87 max end-to-end.
A Z-coil is 71 x 35 in its main (coils + cover) dimensions, and around 88.5 max overall width.

Its mounting ears will not go into a humbucker rout in normal orientation; they will invade the space needed for the humbucker ring's mounting screws.

What could possibly work, with at worst a mm or so of routing (sanding with a Dremel?) might be to angle the Z-coil so that its mounting ears are where the humbucker's would be. Angling the Z-coil's 88.5 gets you tantalisingly close to the humbucker rout's 87. This would angle the Z-coil a bit, and slightly reduce the string spacing. But if you're mounting into a Gibson-string-spaced situation anyway, that could be a good thing.

There might be a small amount of material needing removal where the mounting ears go. The angled Z could still be a mm or so longer overall. But it might just go in OK. The pickup would look like a sort of Z-version of those Strat-into-a-Gibson type pickup mounting plates, but slanting the opposite way. Sonically, the angle should be fine, and even possibly beneficial.

And that would probably be the way to do it; have a flat plate made up to fix to humbucker fixing centres, with a rout for the angled Z-coil such that its mounting ears are on the centre-line.

Please don't take these dimension figures for the gospel truth before spending or sanding! You really do need to check this out for yourself to be sure.

If it fits, it would of course sound great, as Z-coils do.

A word of caution: keep a Z-coil's cover taped on until it's mounted into something, with screws and springs / tubing. The cover moving around can really damage it until it's safely installed.

[cho]

Thanks everyone for the info! I don't think I want to rotate the Z-coil as described, so I am not sure I will attempt it. If I do, I will let you all know how it goes. Thanks!