Fender pup pole pieces?

[Jazz Rock]

i have seen on the strat of my brother that the pole piece of each pup seems to be all other the place. 4th and 3rd are quite high whil 6th and 5th are flush with the pup. The others are mid way.

Is there kind of an optimum setting for the position of the pole piece?

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Fender pup pole pieces?

Fender pole pieces are not adjustable...trying to move those could result in breaking a winding in the pickup and killing it...

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Fender pup pole pieces?

i have seen on the strat of my brother that the pole piece of each pup seems to be all other the place. 4th and 3rd are quite high whil 6th and 5th are flush with the pup. The others are mid way.

Is there kind of an optimum setting for the position of the pole piece?

The staggered polepiece is something Fender started doing in the 50s...The staggers were setup as a balance between the wound and un-wound strings..Modern day pickups are available as flat poles also...Don't try to individually move any of the poles or you risk ruining the pickup by breaking the coil windings...

I Once screwed up a perfectly good Fender Fat 50 bridge pickup by trying to move the staggered poles..

 

[Frebnedzo]

Re: Fender pup pole pieces?

I adjusted my strat pickup poles with a tack hammer, almost knocked
em out the other side. It didn't damage the pickup, but they sounded
awful so who could tell? Is there any reason with todays strings and
reltaively flat fingerboard radius to still have those random pole
heights? I mean, Leo dropped that idea, can't the rest of us?

 

[Jester700]

Re: Fender pup pole pieces?

It's that "vintage disease". People want it "authentic", sometimes without considering why they did it that way in the first place. Could be (if the tech was available at the time) that Leo's first guitar would have been an active piezo equipped synthetic guitar more akin to a Steinberger than a strat... ;-)

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Fender pup pole pieces?

first the pole hights are far from random, they are set for a set of strings with a wound G string. As for making flat pole pickups almost every good after market pickup maker offers vintage stagger as well as a flat stagger and some are even offering a "hybrid" stagger which is pretty much a vintage stagger but with a lower G pole.

I happen to like a vintage stagger strat pickup no matter what the guitar is...they just sound right to me

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Fender pup pole pieces?

first the pole hights are far from random, they are set for a set of strings with a wound G string. As for making flat pole pickups almost every good after market pickup maker offers vintage stagger as well as a flat stagger and some are even offering a "hybrid" stagger which is pretty much a vintage stagger but with a lower G pole.

I happen to like a vintage stagger strat pickup no matter what the guitar is...they just sound right to me

More than sounding right to me,they look vintage correct and cool that way!

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Fender pup pole pieces?

Flat pole pickups don't sound like a vintage strat pickup. The flats sound fuller and meatier with more mids than a staggered pickup. The staggered pickup will have a richer top end response and cleaner mids.

They are slight, but noticeable differences.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Fender pup pole pieces?

Flat pole pickups don't sound like a vintage strat pickup. The flats sound fuller and meatier with more mids than a staggered pickup. The staggered pickup will have a richer top end response and cleaner mids.

They are slight, but noticeable differences.

Sounds right...I think the pickup heights have alot to do with it also..