adjust bucker poles??

[oldpicker]

loaded a couple new teles with buckers fore and aft - both with a 7.25 radius neck - you can hear a slight difference in attack from the outer strings to the centre strings

should i adjust up the poles to roughly follow the curve of the fretboard and hence closer to the inner strings - not sure if this is common practice or not

 

[jeremy]

Re: adjust bucker poles??

some people follow the radius of the board, i prefer to adjust each pole piece as needed. if a string isnt as loud or responsive as the others i raise it up till they are all balanced. if your middle strings arent as lively start by raising those poles up

 

[blueman335]

Re: adjust bucker poles??

Pole pieces are adjustable to act as volume controls of individual strings; it has nothing to do with the neck radius.

Plain strings are louder than wound strings, and thick strings are louder than thinner ones. Therefore the G & low E will be the loudest, and those pole pieces should be the lowest. The D has the least volume and should be set the highest. The high E is the next weakest, and the pole piece would be almost as high as the D. The B should be set almost as low as the G, and the A in between the D & low E. This equalizes the volume (unless you have a wound G which should be set even higher than the D).

Without equalizing string volumes, you may notice some strings are more prominent than others, not that it will ruin a song or a solo. Adjusting pole piece height is more of a fine-tuning thing, instead of a necessity. But why not do it?

If you want to emphasize your high notes in solos for string bending and additional sustain, you can simply set the the D thru high E "up", the low E "down", and the A in between the D & low E. Another advantage to this is that if you set your amp EQ warm (like I do), it keeps the two low strings from being too bassy.

If your wood brings out certain EQ's, you might want to adjust your pole pieces differently to fit your guitar.

 

[uOpt]

Re: adjust bucker poles??

The problem is that the sound changes dramatically as the screw comes out of the humbucker. That is very easy to test by just pulling them all up for a test. The sound becomes much more focused and more "single-coilish", somewhat in the direction of a P-90 (which isn't surprising).

So you really need to be careful. If you adjust to a narrow fretboard radius like 7.25" you can easily end up with half the outer sounding like humbucker and the inner strings like P-90s.

Also keep in mind that messed up staggering like in vintage Strat pickups makes for interesting sounds, too.