Alignment problem with lil 59

[Derrek]

Hi, I just bought two lil 59 for an american strat and a japanese jackson dinky, neck position both. The poles don't align at all with the two E strings and not very well with the B and A strings. The two E poles are completely outside the strings (sorry, no pics). This is causing a problem especially with the high E string as it sounds dead. It is clearly written SL59-1N on the sticker at the bottom of the pups, so no mistaking them with bridge pups. Anybody else experience that? Is this normal?

 

[jeremy]

Re: Alignment problem with lil 59

havent put a lil 59 in the neck position in a long time so i dont know if its normal, but ive seen it before. try raising the pole pieces under the strings that arent ringing out as loud until you get an even string balance

 

[Derrek]

Re: Alignment problem with lil 59

Hey, thanks for answering Jeremy. I'll try what you said. I still find it weird that the polepieces don't align at all for a pup that's suppose to be a direct replacement for a strat. Anyway, if it doesn't work, I can still exchange them for cool rails or something else with rails but the thing is, I really liked the sound of the lil 59 (on the aligned strings).

 

[slash857]

Re: Alignment problem with lil 59

my dimarzio is like that on my lp. i did what jeremy said and it sounds good enough to me now. i riased to pole pieces on the low and high e strings.

 

[Naps]

Re: Alignment problem with lil 59

Yeah, It's like that on mine also. No cure, but you can lower the middle two to help, but it just makes them sound worse, IMO. I have all mine about even. And even though I notice the low and high E's are a bit lower in volume, I think it sounds better this way.

I asked the same question a while back and no one could tell me why they line up differently.

 

[montecristokid]

Re: Alignment problem with lil 59

I actually came looking at the postings today to address this same issue, only mine is for the bridge position. I bought a used G&L S-500 loaded with lil 59s in all positions. I dont have any issues with the neck or middle pups, but the bridge pup is downright awful. Very thin, no presence. The screw poles are not even close to lining up. Should I replace with a rails type, or do you think the pole adjustment will compensate for the poor alignment? Im at work so I cant play with it right now, but I will when I return to the homestead.

 

[Boogie Bill]

Re: Alignment problem with lil 59

I actually came looking at the postings today to address this same issue, only mine is for the bridge position. I bought a used G&L S-500 loaded with lil 59s in all positions. I dont have any issues with the neck or middle pups, but the bridge pup is downright awful. Very thin, no presence. The screw poles are not even close to lining up. Should I replace with a rails type, or do you think the pole adjustment will compensate for the poor alignment? Im at work so I cant play with it right now, but I will when I return to the homestead.

Contact a G&L dealer and get a set of S-500 MFD pickups for the S-500. The MFD single coils are one of my favorite pickups, The ceramic magnet design makes them very high output, yet with a very wide-range frequency response. Highly recommended.

Bill

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Alignment problem with lil 59

Is your neck on straight? Are the strings centered on the fingerboard? Or is the distance to the edge of the fingerboard greater for one E string than the other? If that's the problem, loosen your neck and realign it so everything is centered. How about your pickguard? Is it on straight? Lew

 

[Xeromus]

Re: Alignment problem with lil 59

It's because all of the lil series pickups are manufactured at the same spacing. Which is F spacing, regardless of whether it's neck or bridge position. It isn't cost effective for Duncan to manufacture these in two spacings which is why the rails series use bars instead of pole pieces. That pickup will match up right right in the bridge but it'll be slightly off in the neck position. I noticed the same thing in a previous guitar I had. There's nothing wrong with your guitar, that's just the way it is.

 

[montecristokid]

Re: Alignment problem with lil 59

Bill, Thanks for the advice, I just may go ahead and look into getting those, I was actually surprised that someone pulled those out, I have heard a lot of good things about those pups.
Lew, everything is in alignment, def. not a guitar issue, but good idea, never hurts to check those things before getting to crazy.