Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

[jmcorey]

Hi all,

I have a Cort G290, early 2000s. Plays great with the fret level and dress it had. Because the pickups were not great before, I wasn't playing it as much until the last year. Changing the pickups to a 59B and two STK-S4s drastically improved the tone, since this guitar is for some reason bass and mid heavy.

It appears to have been routed with a Gibson style string spacing. However, it is an HSS guitar. In the photos you can see that the poles on both the bridge humbucker and the neck and middle single coils are misaligned. The company, having noticed this, instead of re-tasking the milling machine, sold with guitar with EMGs.

The bridge pickup is not too misaligned, at least, not enough for me to notice. However, sounds from the high-E string are noticeably quieter when playing on the neck or middle pickup. I assume it is related to the misalignment.

Any brilliant ideas as to how to compensate for this? Rails pickups might be the answer for the neck and middle, I assume.

Thanks

 

[BeKindRewind]

Re: Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

Holy cow , that is way off on all 3 pickups my man.

I use a standard spaced humbucker in my trem spaced guitar and it's off, but not nearly so much as that. And it sounds absolutely fine.

The only thing I can suggest is tilt the pickups so they're higher on the high E side , or get rail pickups

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[ItsaBass]

Re: Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

Firstly, you can see that your neck is very crooked. On the treble side of the neck, you have almost twice as much gap from the edge of the string to the board, than you do on the bass side. And that's with a photo that is shot from such an angle as to minimize the appearance of such. Crank the neck clockwise (when facing the guitar).

Secondly, they are direct mount pickups. You can pull the pickups, fill the holes, cheat the pickups over, and make new holes.

Thirdly, misalignment like that shouldn't cause drastic volume differences. The problem is likely that your pickups are set flat. Raise the treble side. As for the humbucker, this is what the adjustable poles are for.

 

[mechanic1908]

Re: Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

Agreed on neck alignment issue .
I'm a bit of a hack so my 2 suggestions would be ( if you're good with a router like me)
I'd align the neck as previously stated.
See if that does the trick.
If not you could route out the low e side of pickup routes to offset and center the pickups.
Or you could heat up the pole pieces on the single coils and push the poles up higher closer to the strings.
Good luck!

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[jmcorey]

Re: Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

Firstly, you can see that your neck is very crooked. On the treble side of the neck, you have almost twice as much gap from the edge of the string to the board, than you do on the bass side. And that's with a photo that is shot from such an angle as to minimize the appearance of such. Crank the neck clockwise (when facing the guitar).

Secondly, they are direct mount pickups. You can pull the pickups, fill the holes, cheat the pickups over, and make new holes.

Thirdly, misalignment like that shouldn't cause drastic volume differences. The problem is likely that your pickups are set flat. Raise the treble side. As for the humbucker, this is what the adjustable poles are for.

Yes, you are right, the neck is misaligned also, relative to the body. Despite the photo, it is wedged harder up to the body in the neck pocket on the low E side. I'm not going to mess with that.

However, I could widen the pickup holes and move them over, a little bit.

What would you recommend plugging the old screw holes with?

 

[mechanic1908]

Re: Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

Yes, you are right, the neck is misaligned also, relative to the body. Despite the photo, it is wedged harder up to the body in the neck pocket on the low E side. I'm not going to mess with that.

However, I could widen the pickup holes and move them over, a little bit.

What would you recommend plugging the old screw holes with?

Toothpicks and wood glue would work on the holes.
The neck alignment issue isn't a big deal either. I had a Tele clone like that.
I just loosened the neck bolts off then pushed the neck the direction it needed to go and while a buddy held it there retightened the bolts. Viola!
Good luck!

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[Gtrjunior]

Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

Yes, you are right, the neck is misaligned also, relative to the body. Despite the photo, it is wedged harder up to the body in the neck pocket on the low E side. I'm not going to mess with that.

However, I could widen the pickup holes and move them over, a little bit.

What would you recommend plugging the old screw holes with?

Adjusting the neck as described earlier is the easiest thing ever....much easier than drilling out new holes.
Just slightly loosen the neck bolts and give the neck a good tug. It’s a very common adjustment In a bolt on guitar

 

[Mincer]

Re: Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

Another option is to just get pickups with rails. It isn't a substitute for it being aligned properly, but it will solve the 'misaligned polepiece' issue. That is way off, though. No wonder it isn't picking up the strings properly.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

I'm not going to mess with that.

OK.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

I'd go rails with that guitar in the SS slots. Not sure what else you can do, honestly.

 

[ICTGoober]

Re: Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

Bill Lawrence. Problem solved.

 

[Masta' C]

Re: Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

The Wilkinson bridge has one of the widest string spacings around, so either it was placed in the wrong spot, the pickup routs were placed off-center or the neck isn't set straight

As already suggest by these fine peeps, get some pickups with rails (lots of work/money) or start by fixing the neck alignment, which may be as simple as loosening the neck screws and retightening.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

To be clear, you don’t need to loosen the screws any more than a turn, and you definitely don’t need to remove the strings. Yet the OP has flatly said that even though there’s an obvious problem, he’s just not going to do that, for some reason. Nor does he seem interested in making simple pickup height and pole piece adjustments to balance the string volumes. Not only is this “problem” much ado about nothing in the first place, but he won’t even do the simplest, least time consuming, least expensive, and most effective things to fix it. Carving out pickup routs and replacing pickups seems to be preferable, for some reason. At this point, all I can do is just be glad it’s just a Cort, and not a historical old instrument that has fallen into his hands.

 

[Hsb]

Re: Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

To be clear, you don’t need to loosen the screws any more than a turn, and you definitely don’t need to remove the strings. Yet the OP has flatly said that even though there’s an obvious problem, he’s just not going to do that, for some reason. Nor does he seem interested in making simple pickup height and pole piece adjustments to balance the string volumes. Not only is this “problem” much ado about nothing in the first place, but he won’t even do the simplest, least time consuming, least expensive, and most effective things to fix it. Carving out pickup routs and replacing pickups seems to be preferable, for some reason. At this point, all I can do is just be glad it’s just a Cort, and not a historical old instrument that has fallen into his hands.

Why make things easy when you can make it 17 harder steps than it needs to be.

 

[jmcorey]

Re: Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

To be clear, you don’t need to loosen the screws any more than a turn, and you definitely don’t need to remove the strings. Yet the OP has flatly said that even though there’s an obvious problem, he’s just not going to do that, for some reason. Nor does he seem interested in making simple pickup height and pole piece adjustments to balance the string volumes. Not only is this “problem” much ado about nothing in the first place, but he won’t even do the simplest, least time consuming, least expensive, and most effective things to fix it. Carving out pickup routs and replacing pickups seems to be preferable, for some reason. At this point, all I can do is just be glad it’s just a Cort, and not a historical old instrument that has fallen into his hands.

Wow. I don't know why I need to be so dramatically disrespected on my own post. Really. You might try a redirect, such as, "What I am suggesting is quite simple. Why do you feel that you don't want to do it?" Potential reasons: Other time commitments, inexperience with woodworking or amateur lutherie and not wanting to eff up a very well intonating instrument, misunderstanding your original suggestion, or many other possible reasons....

I stated above that the neck is juxtaposed on to the upper horn side of the guitar body, so that I believe there is no more room to move it that way. Are you suggesting that I move it in the other direction, toward the lower horn?

 

[jmcorey]

Re: Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

The Wilkinson bridge has one of the widest string spacings around, so either it was placed in the wrong spot, the pickup routs were placed off-center or the neck isn't set straight

As already suggest by these fine peeps, get some pickups with rails (lots of work/money) or start by fixing the neck alignment, which may be as simple as loosening the neck screws and retightening.

Yes, I think the bridge and pickup routs are misaligned.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

Yes, you need to loosen the screws that hold the neck on by maybe one full turn at most (but try a half-time first), hold the guitar body firmly and give the neck a good sharp push DOWN (toward the lower horn).
If it moves, which it should, then tighten the screws back up and the string alignment will be better.

Personally I loosen the strings a bit (maybe one turn on each tuner) but that is not necessary.

 

[jmcorey]

Re: Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

Yes, you need to loosen the screws that hold the neck on by maybe one full turn at most (but try a half-time first), hold the guitar body firmly and give the neck a good sharp push DOWN (toward the lower horn).
If it moves, which it should, then tighten the screws back up and the string alignment will be better.

Personally I loosen the strings a bit (maybe one turn on each tuner) but that is not necessary.

Thanks, Dave.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Misalignment of pole pieces causing high-E string dropout

You're welcome.
Unless the neck pocket is routed crooked you will probably be surprised how much the neck can move around. If it has a LOT of movement you may be able to move it until the strings are aligned well but you can certainly get it closer than it is now.

I forgot to mention: don't freak out if it makes a loud "crack" sound the first time it moves! That is normal - it just means the finish on the neck has stuck to thg he finish on the body a little. Having dropped a couple guitars over the years I can assure you they are pretty sturdy.