Of Magnets and Pole Pieces

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Bobisadrummer

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So I have a 2011 Satin Charcoal Grey FSR/Blacktop MiM Hardtail Alder Strat w/ Rosewood neck. It came with a H/T/H config. I've decided to turn it into a simple guitar with a single bridge humbucker and 1 volume knob. I figure since it's only going to have one pickup, I might as well make it a great one, so I placed an order with the SD custom shop. Going with the SH-5 Custom as the base and giving it a chrome cover. For further aesthetic customization, I wanted to give it 3+3 offset pole pieces like a WRHB. Initially I wanted to go with Invader pole pieces since they look pretty gnarly, but Arwin wisely advised against just doing the 3+3 offset as the Invader poles being so much larger than other pole types, would cause the non Invaders to be completely overpowered. I was also considering having the normal small ceramic mag swapped out for an A8, specially since this is an alder strat with no tone control. Here's where I'm stuck now. I have two, maybe three options:

1) SH-5 with ceramic mag and chrome cover with 12 Invader poles, but having 6 black poles and 6 chrome poles set up to make the black poles look like 3+3 offset.
2) SH-5 with A8 mag and using allen/hex/full shred poles in actual 3+3 offset chrome cover.
3) SH-5 with A8 mag and the Invader poles as described in option 1.

I know that both the pole type and the magnet type would alter the base SH-5 sound, which I really like. With that in mind, I'm thinking if I go with A8 and Invaders the pickup would get dark and possibly flubby. So I figure if I want to go with the A8, the hex poles would help keep it somewhat balanced, same with keeping the ceramic to help balance the Invader poles.

Am I overthinking this? Any thoughts?
 
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Re: Of Magnets and Pole Pieces

According to my experience, you need more steps to get the best sound and best looks together. First i would decide between A8 and stock ceramic. For more blues oriented sounds most probably the A8 will be your choice. Next choice are the looks, while hex enhance the clang a bit, while screws are more neutral
Maybe you end with a mixture of screws and hexes under the cover for the classic 3+3 look. Take your time and play around with different setups. Its fun.
 
Re: Of Magnets and Pole Pieces

How are you getting screws into both coils of an SH-5? Don't you need an SH-10? You realize that invader screws have a larger diameter than standard screws, right?

Regarding 3x3 with invader screws and non-invader screws, the imbalance could be a good thing; lending somewhat of a partial split kind of vibe (think fat P-90 on steroids). Combine that with a series/parallel switch and you can cover a large amount of ground in terms of versatility. It isn't like there will be an imbalance between strings.

Another option is to get an invader neck and use a 3x3 config using black and chrome screws. Frank Falbo says there's a series cap in the pickup: remove it or short it out.
 
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Re: Of Magnets and Pole Pieces

I'd always go for sound first, then looks. I know the hex poles look cool, but they will certainly alter the sound. Once you put hex poles in, you can't really go back to regular screws, so be sure that is the change you want.
 
Re: Of Magnets and Pole Pieces

Mincer said:
I'd always go for sound first, then looks. I know the hex poles look cool, but they will certainly alter the sound. Once you put hex poles in, you can't really go back to regular screws, so be sure that is the change you want.
Click to expand...

I know that the Invader poles are 10-32 which are bigger than the Fillister 5-40, but I thought the Hex/Allen/Full Shreds were the same size as the Fillister just shorter. Fillister is 3/4" long and Hex/Allen/Full Shred is shorter at 1/2".

I'm thinking now scrap the Invader poles altogether since those would deviate from the SH-5 sound the most. I'll go with Custom 8 in a chrome cover with 12 Full Shred screws. I can get black Fillister poles from mojotone in both 3/4" AND 1/2" and I found some 3/4" long hex socket screws (Full Shreads just the 1/4" longer) so if I go with Full Shred screws (5-40 1/2" hex socket head screws) I can end testing all 4 screw type/length.
 
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