500t in a toronado?

[ChristheRat]

Hi! Just finally got my first offset. Vintage white Almost Yellow toronado. Looks incredible with the tort guard. Very excited about how it looks and plays, but not so sure about these atomic pickups. I had a mim cyclone for a month and that thing sounded so frickn wild and rock and roll so I figured the toro would too, but no. My main recording guitar is an Gibson explorer, would it work or fit to put those pickups onto the toro and then sell the explorer? I just love the 500 and 400 t’s. Or something similar that would fit? Thanks

[Ceylon]

It might not be a direct, straight swap since there's a difference in spacing of pole piece magnets between humbuckers meant to go with Fender-type bridges and humbuckers meant to go with Tune-O-Matics and such, i.e. F-spaced contra regular, and the Toronado might have either a hardtail Strat/Musicmaster-style bridge or a TOM setup, depending on the model. Some would say it makes no difference if your pickup spacing doesn't match your string spacing perfectly anyway, but you might still want to consider it.

Second issue I could think of would be the mounting screws, because Fender sometimes use a mounting screw arrangement where there's two screws on the bass side and just one on the treble, while I've never seen Gibson use anything but one screw, centered, per side. This can probably be fixed by the drilling of a hole, replacing the mounting rings or at the very most and if all else fails a new pickguard, if that's what they're mounted to in your Toronado. There should also be enough pickup leads left to reach all the way to the switch and pots.

I still wouldn't do what you're proposing unless you really need the money that a pickupless Explorer might bring in. You'll probably just lose money that way, at least compared to getting a second hand set of 500/400's off of eBay or wherever. There's also probably a couple of DiMarzio or Seymour Duncans that approximate the sound characteristics and output of your Gibson humbuckers and that can be had F-spaced if that's what your after.

The last consideration is that the Explorer and the Toronado are constructed pretty differently, as one is set neck and mahogany and the other is bolt-on and alder (?) body with a maple neck. I think two 24,75" scale fixed bridge guitars with the same humbuckers are probably going to sound more similar than different, but don't expect exactly the same sound, if that's what you're after.

Hope any of this helps If I were you I might look out for some used DiMarzio Super Distortions or Seymour Duncan JB's, since those can be found cheap and plentiful, and are popular with rock players for a reason.

[dinosaurkale->]

damn i had a vintage white / tort Toronado stolen from me a few years back
i really miss it