Cut off poles screws on tb59

cico80

cico80

New member
Hi to all my SD's friends!!!! ;-)

I'm Gianluca Foglia from Italy....
I need to install a Tb59 in a shallow recess (at bridge position in a Crafter SAT customized) ... For my convenience and to have more free space.... Could I cut off the excess part (on the bottom of humbucker) of the poles screws? Would have a negative impact on the sound?

Thanks and bye

Gianluca Foglia

Inviato dal mio Sony Xperia U con Tapatalk
 
Re: Cut off poles screws on tb59

welcome to the forum!

you can cut the screw poles but there will be a change in the tone. not drastic but noticeable.
 
jeremy said:
welcome to the forum!

you can cut the screw poles but there will be a change in the tone. not drastic but noticeable.
Click to expand...

Ok thanks... :-)

In what way noticeable?
More bass? High? Attack?

I could also replace the screws with shorter ones?

Are the poles screws made with special materials....?
Thanks again

Inviato dal mio Sony Xperia U con Tapatalk
 
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Re: Cut off poles screws on tb59

you can replace them with shorter screws which will have the same tonal effect as cutting them. the length of the screws changes the shape of the magnetic field

the attack will be sharper with short screws
 
Re: Cut off poles screws on tb59

Welcome! It will make the pickup a little brighter & sharper in attack; as Jeremy said, it's not a big change but it's noticeable. It's not uncommon for users to do this to change the tone. You can buy shorter screws, but there's nothing wrong with trimming what you have.
 
Ok! Thanks so much my friends!! :-)

I will try to find shorter screws, so as to make the mod reversible.

;-)

Inviato dal mio Sony Xperia U con Tapatalk
 
Re: Cut off poles screws on tb59

Short poles tighten the bass/midrange response. I cut all of the fillister poles on my pickups short because I don't like flubby bass response.
 
Re: Cut off poles screws on tb59

FWIW, I cut the polepiece screws flush with the baseplate AFTER I've radiused'em following the fingerboard radius.

This focus the magnetic field toward the strings, helping with articulation, clarity and polepiece adjustment nuances.

HTH,
 
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Re: Cut off poles screws on tb59

or....

you can drill holes to allow the pole pieces to still fit. take a look at what Gibson did for Lee Roy Parnell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgVgr20cYHg fast forward to about 5:10. he does it for a different reason, but it'd allow to keep the pickup stock... and if you're having this issue with this pickup, you'll be likely to have it with others. of you could just Dremel a little channel out to make room for the pole pieces and it wouldn't have to be as precise as drilling six hole in six precise spots.

remember that even if you find different screws, there's no verification of what alloy SD uses so you'll get a tone that different from even cutting the original screws short. but it might work out well, so go for which ever option works best for your needs. it probably would be prudent to make any modifications to a spare set of screws so that you can always go back to the original screws and the original tone.
 
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