Pickup Poles (Dime Related Question)

[Metalman_666]

Hey guys, so I was reading that Guitar Legends issue for Dime again, and I noticed that in one of the articles where he talks about the Bill Lawrence L-500L, he says after he puts the pickup in the guitar, "I flip it upside down, so that the hot pole, instead of being in the treble position, is in front instead of near the bridge." What does this mean? How does he flip it upside down? And what is the "hot pole" he talks about?

 

[WITH FULL DISTORTION]

Re: Pickup Poles (Dime Related Question)

Interesting question... it should be something related to that NEW dimarzio pickup
The DropSonic.

 

[TheProphet]

Re: Pickup Poles (Dime Related Question)

The poles refers to the Magnetic poles of the pickup.

Basically the magnet within your pickups has a magnetic North and South, Dime simply refers to flipping that around.

Basically what Dime did was turn the pickup around, so that say with your bridge SD pickup, normally the "Seymour Duncan" logo would be closest to the bridge and the logo would read the right way. If you do what Dime did, the logo would be closest to the neck and face upside down.

Apparently this gets some interesting sounds when you combine a neck pickup that has a "regular" magnetic polarity (I can't phrase it well right now)

I believe Peter Green did something similar with his neck magnet, but something different at the same time. Grrr ... damned memory getting mushy on me

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: Pickup Poles (Dime Related Question)

Yeah, it messes with the phase of the pickups.

Although, if the coils were staggered (one hotter than the other), that would change the tone around, too.

 

[accipiter]

Re: Pickup Poles (Dime Related Question)

Does Seymour wind one side of the Dimebucker's coils hotter than the other, or are the coils evenly matched?

 

[aaronsdmf]

Re: Pickup Poles (Dime Related Question)

Does Seymour wind one side of the Dimebucker's coils hotter than the other, or are the coils evenly matched?

good question!

 

[accipiter]

Re: Pickup Poles (Dime Related Question)

Bumped for Evan, I'd like to know before I switch my Dime around...lol :laugh2:

 

[Bluesman75]

Re: Pickup Poles (Dime Related Question)

Does Seymour wind one side of the Dimebucker's coils hotter than the other, or are the coils evenly matched?

AFAIK, the coils have to be wound the same in order to get the humbucking effect.

 

[Old Ghost]

Re: Pickup Poles (Dime Related Question)

I think Dime was just simply referring to the side of the humbucker the has the adjustable pole pieces as the "Hotter" side which makes sense as this side of the humbucker is the side that "picks up" the string vibration.

<<<<------------Pole pieces closer to the Bridge (Normal)

When he "rotated" the pickup ( the term that he used which is "upside down" could be confusing .), the adjustable pole pieces now was further away from the bridge and now closer to the neck. This way, he believed he eliminated too much high end which makes sense because the farther the pickup from the bridge, the less treble response is achieved. This is the classic case on a Gibson SG Standard's bridge pickup location which is very close to the bridge giving it a more trebly tone compared to an LP's Bridge pickup location.

This is what the pickup looks like after rotating as Dime did it.

Pole pieces closer to the neck (Pickup rotated 180 degrees)----------->>>>

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Pickup Poles (Dime Related Question)

^^^ swap the poles for blades, and I think this is correct.

 

[Metalman_666]

Re: Pickup Poles (Dime Related Question)

ahhhh ok I understand. Thanks guys!

 

[Maximusgordon 2.0]

Re: Pickup Poles (Dime Related Question)

yah, its more "backwards" than "upside-down"

 

[accipiter]

Re: Pickup Poles (Dime Related Question)

I emailed Evan and he said as far as he knows, the two coils on the Dimebucker are wound the same.

 

[Artie]

Re: Pickup Poles (Dime Related Question)

Both sides of an "ordinary" pickup sense the string vibration. In fact, you could argue that the stud side gets more, because the screws extend out the bottom, shifting some of the magnetic field away from the strings. Thats why all the SD schematics show splitting the pup to the stud coil. They cover this in the SD Q & A somewhere.

 

[Fusion1]

Re: Pickup Poles (Dime Related Question)

How would Dime be able to figure out which was the hotter of the 2 poles in a rail design especially when they look the same? If he flipped it "upside down" it would look exactly the same on a Bill Lawrence 500XL. There really is no logo to use as a reference point on the older 500XL's are there?

 

[ex-250]

Re: Pickup Poles (Dime Related Question)

when you flip it on a rail pickup like the lawrence, youd probably be able to tell its upsidedown cause the wire would be coming out the left side (backwards) instead of right, right?

 

[Willis]

Re: Pickup Poles (Dime Related Question)

Which side is usually hotter? The screws or the studs? If one coil was overwound, which would it be?

 

[Fusion1]

Re: Pickup Poles (Dime Related Question)

when you flip it on a rail pickup like the lawrence, youd probably be able to tell its upsidedown cause the wire would be coming out the left side (backwards) instead of right, right?

Good point... duh on my part. But I do know there are exceptions to this rule even with some import humbuckers, wiring coming out the other side I forget what brand though. I beleive it was that way on my Lark LP with fake humbuckers.