several questions on guitar customization

so I finally decided to get around to customizing the ibanez that I bought for the sole purpose of customizing. On the pickguard, I'm going to attempt to re-route the neck position pickup to change from single coil to humbucker. thus making the guitar into H/S/H. I've got some other questions relating to customization though:

1) I've decided on a dimarzio X2N pickup for the bridge, and a tone zone for the neck. but can someone help me in choosing a middle, single coil pickup? Basically, I'm like PRS in that when I want a clean tone, I want it to sound pushed to the point where it has a bit of breakup. now, because of the switching settings, positions 2, 3, and 4 of my pickup selecter will be two of the 5 total coils (humbuckers have two!) set-up as hum-cancelling single coil tone. so I need a pickup good for that. I want something that'll give a bit different sound then the humbuckers, but yet not a mini-bucker. keep in mind that this guitar is to be a metal machine, so I don't want something meant for country or anything. so basically, in summary, I want the middle pickup to be relatively high gain to cause some breakup on a tube amp, not a mini-bucker, it needs to be F-spaced, and I'd like for it to have plenty of mids. I also really like the look of the pickups with the bar magnets, so if it was one of those kind, that would be a plus.

2) currently, on the guitar, the bridge and middle pickups are F-spaced, but the neck position is not. so am I right in saying that when I go for the new humbucker in the neck position, that it needs to be standard spaced?

3) I need some help in choosing a color pattern. I was thinking black and blue, since the guitar is already blue. I just paint the pickguard black. I found some knobs that are really cool looking, black knobs with a blue abalone top. I could get all the pickups blue too. but I don't know about having all black hardware because the bridge is staying, and that is chrome, I don't know if it'll look out of place. so suggestions on what to do, color-wise, would be appreciated.

4) yes or no on these sperzel tuners? I've heard good and bad things. I don't mind needing to drill a bigger hole to fit them. I just want to know, because the price is making me second-guess whether they are really that good. I know doc simon uses these, but I don't know if he uses THESE in particular, or some other kind of sperzels.

that's all I have for now. I'm sure there will be more questions later on. thanks in advance!

for the first question, about which single coil pickup.. I think I decided on a dimarzio SDS1 DP111 (or something like that!) the sound clips sounded good, it's a moderate output, and it just seems to be just what I was looking for. I still would appreciate replys for my other questions.. or comments, good or bad, on the pickup I've chosen.

Wow, lots of stuff to consider in this question... which is good. You sound like you know exactly what you want... atleast in the tone department. As far as the middle pickup goes... You can check out pretty much any of DiMarzios single coils... Maybe check out the YJM (Yngwie's signature singles) I'm not a fan of his but they might be along the lines of what you're looking for. The rail magnet "single coil" pickups are usually in a dual magnet form... essentially making them minibuckers. Which is what you said you didn't want. I'm not sure If I've ever seen a true single coil rail pickup. The best thing you can do for string spacing is to look up the factory specs for the guitar... or just measure the string spacing at the bridge... That should give you an idea of what spacing the pickups should be. You can probably find a chart somewhere on the internet that matches pickup string spacing with Bridge spacing.

As for the cosmetic issues... Blue and black would be a pretty cool scheme. If you're worried about your trem sticking out you can always save up just a tad more cash a few months down the line and get a black FR licensed trem to go on there. Since it's an Ibanez with a pickguard you could also balance the aestetics of the chrome trem with a mirror pickguard... and black knobs and tuners. That would look pretty sharp. Give it that... Steve Vai flair. I would go with metal knobs too... incase you were considering plastic knobs...

And for the tuners... I would go for these They have an 18:1 tuning ratio and they have an auto trim feature that automatically trims off excess string..... and they're only a few bucks more. So you're getting more bang for your buck. the Sperzel tuners that you linked are a 12:1 tuning ratio... which means they will have less accuracy when doing fine tuning. and also... IF for some reason the tuning rod slips just a little... the 18:1 tuners will detune a lot less than the 12:1 tuners.

Seymour Duncan makes a true single rail pickup. I saw it on musiciansfriend.com just yesterday! Look under "pickups", narrow it down to "Seymour Duncan" and keep looking... you will find it. Though you might have to do some funky polarity reversing or something to make it go with the DiMarzio 'buckers.

I'm thinking about putting it in the neck position of my H-S-S Strat. For the middle pickup I want something surfy/jazzy/countryish... and then for the 'bucker I'm stuck between the SD Distortion and the SD SB. My only worry is whether either of them will worked on the F-spaced Floyd Rose tremolo setup.

it is strange that you have 2 f-spaced and a neck that is standard....if it is a millimeter off or so i would get f-spaced anyway.....it is better to have your pickup wider than the strings rather than strings wider than the pickup

Originally Posted by: z0s0_jpit is strange that you have 2 f-spaced and a neck that is standard....if it is a millimeter off or so i would get f-spaced anyway.....it is better to have your pickup wider than the strings rather than strings wider than the pickup

it is because the string spacing is wider at the bridge and very gradually becomes skinnier at the nut. it's a subtle difference and you really can't tell unless you measure both.

I'm sure that the poles on the neck pickup are not as wide as the poles on the middle p/u, but I'll measure again, just to be positive.