Pole Pieces on the Inside or outside?

[Chlsmo]

I made the mistake of ordering a Zebra Neck and a Reverse Zebra Bridge, and in order to get the reverse zebra look I have to flip the neck pickup around so the pole pieces are on the inside for the neck and on the outside for the bridge. APH-1N, and APH-1B

(OOOOOO)Creme
(- - - - - -)Black

(OOOOOO)Black
(- - - - - -)Creme {O=smooth magnets, - =Adjustable Scre Pole Pieces}

Are there any adverse effects to this, or benefits? Just knowing its wrong drives me nuts.

[Simon_F]

Re: Pole Pieces on the Inside or outside?

Are you in the US? If so, maybe you could exchange the neck pickup (under the 21 day policy) for a reverse zebra one? If you haven't installed it you could probably get an exchange anywhere.

There's no reason why you can't install the neck pickup with the polepieces on the inside. Some people do this deliberately because Peter Green famously had his this way round. Some say it sounds different, others can hear no difference. The real tonal difference with Greeny's pickup was that the magnet was flipped too, which won't be the case with yours. If you are looking for subtle tonal adjustments by raising/lowering the polepieces I guess you will get slightly different results with the polepieces in a different position.

There's also no reason why you have to have both cream coils on the inside or outside! I've seen guitars with two zebras, two reverse zebras and one of each and personally I have no preference over any of those looks. Maybe you're worrying about it too much!

Three options then:

1) Exchange one pickup
2) Reverse one pickup
3) Live with one zebra, one reverse zebra

Personally I'd probably go with 1 or 3 before 2, but all are equally valid IMO.

[Chlsmo]

Re: Pole Pieces on the Inside or outside?

Thanks so much Simon, I decided to reverse the neck pickup, and I cant tell the aural difference (because I havent switched it the normal way) but my 90' Les Paul Classic sounds really awesome (the new strings always help too). Thanks again man, keep rockin'!