Impact of Magnets not Touching Rails

[Silence Kid]

I have a Performer Scorcher rail pickup. Both coils read full and I get full DCR measures from the jack. If I perform the "screwdriver" test, one coil is quieter than the other; measured, both coils are almost equal.

I suspect the magnet (glued-in) is perhaps not touching one of the rails; would that cause this behavior? Does the quieter tap test indicate I'm probably not getting full output from that coil?

I'm probably going to open the guitar up again and put a metal backing on the pickup just to observe any difference. But curious what to expect or how worthwhile that would be. Seems intuitive to do this to "fix" the pickup but maybe I'm missing some other point.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Impact of Magnets not Touching Rails

The output from that coil will be slightly weaker.
Some magnets exhibit slightly less pull on one pole. So it might be touching.

DiMarzio use spacers on their air gap pickups to lower the pull on the magnet.

Having one coil slightly weaker might give the pickup a more single coil tone. It won’t effect the hum cancellation.


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