pick up poles? anyone

[Gabriel Raphael]

Peace people

Has anyone tried this technique of adjusting pick up poles?

[toejam]

Yes. You can also balance the sound of your strings that way, as well as contour them to the curvature of your fingerboard. Some people prefer to keep the poles level and raise or lower the pickup itself. Others like to keep the pickup lower and adjust the pole pieces. It's all a matter of what sounds and works best for you.

[JACKSONFREAK]

Yeah i have. It does make the string volume more even. Which is why fendere started doin it. To make the strings more balanced.

[tanpsi]

Yeah i have. It does make the string volume more even. Which is why fendere started doin it. To make the strings more balanced.

In my experience, or to my ear, a plain G is usually the loudest, so the pole should be the lowest. For some reason Fender and other PUP makers still make the stagger on a lot of PUPs as if most people still use a wound G, which I think went out around the time of Buddy Holly.

With a clean sound it can really jump out as you are running down a scale.

But, definitly adjust by ear with your own individual guitar, I believe there are factors in peices of wood and hardware that can make one string louder than the other, I don't know alot about it, but I've played strats and teles where the balance is OK and others with a Booming low E for example, so go by what sounds even for your guitar and amp set up.

[straycat]

I find each guitar to be different so when adjusting pole pieces its where ever they sound the best is where they stay.
I adj each pickup height wise to where they sound the best and match each pickup to have approx the same volume then tweak the pole pieces to get the most balanced sound.
I have some anal customers that think there is some magical ruler that Gibson uses to adj pickups and that if you even touch the pickups it loses mojo.

[Phantom Hawk]

Thats one thing I've never done ..... adjust the pole pieces. I've always just adjusted the pickup height.

[tanpsi]

I find each guitar to be different so when adjusting pole pieces its where ever they sound the best is where they stay.
I adj each pickup height wise to where they sound the best and match each pickup to have approx the same volume then tweak the pole pieces to get the most balanced sound.
I have some anal customers that think there is some magical ruler that Gibson uses to adj pickups and that if you even touch the pickups it loses mojo.

Yeah, it's weird how different examples of the same model can have different string to string balance, but it's definitly true, I guess peices of wood have different paterns of uneven density or something and respond a little different to different pitches, who knows? but they should make all PUPs with adjustable pole peices

[Tashtego]

This thread got me to do some tinkering. I wasn't quite happy with the balance on one of my guitars so I tried the pole set up above. It was an improvement but I also did some searching around and found another set up that I ended up liking a little bit better. I'll throw it out as another option to try.

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Neck pup: (When pressing the string down at the last fret) bass side about 2/32" from flat part of pickup on one side of the E polepiece to the underside of the string. On the treble side about 3/32".

Treble pickup bass side 2/32" treble side about 2/32nd's. I like mine just a little closer than that on each side. Typically bass side on each pickup is a little higher than treble side.

Ok. Pole piece height. get them all flush with the top of the pup.

Start with the A piece, and raise it until the bottom part of the screw head is even with the pup. This means looking at the screw head from the side that only the rounded part rises above the flat part of the pup.

The D string pole piece should be the highest one on each pup. I raise mine so that it is just a little higher than the A.

The G pole piece should be just a [edit] hair higher than the low E. (between the height of the A piece and the low E piece).

The B pole piece should be the lowest one because the B string tends to be the loudest. This should just be a hair or two lower than flush with the top of the pup.

The high E should be about the same height as the G, maybe a little higher...but not quite as high as the A.

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I have always used a similar method. Here is another way of describing basically the same thing.

Start with screws flush.

Adjust pickup height. I personally use 3/32 (top of polepiece to bottom of E strings while depressed at last fret)

lower B 1 full turn
raise A 1 full turn
raise D 1 1/2 full turns
raise G 1/2 turn