Pole Piece Height

[gemil]

Hi Room

Can someone please let me know what the correct height for the pole pieces are on an uncovered humbucker?

I have mine set so that the screw head (where the screwdriver slots into) is level with the pickup itself.... (the small straight slot)

Is this correct and how do I know what the best height is for it? eg how many turns

Thanks for all your help

Gemil

 

[edr56]

Re: Pole Piece Height

there is no best height, just preferance.

if you raise the pole pieces above the flatwork then youll get a little brighter tone than if you had them flush with the top

 

[Aceman]

Re: Pole Piece Height

As mentioned, above the flat generally gets a brighter tone. Otherwise, I usually set the outer twoo about even with the pup face, and then arc then to match the arc of the strings. Then adjust the overall pup height. Finally tweek the screws to adjust for any tonal deficiencies. If it sounds good, it is good! There is no correct answer. But starting with the bridge around 3/64 overall, with the screws matching the string arc (or 5/64) for the neck is a good place to start. The arc on my Paul has the middle two scres about one scresw head higher than the outer ones.

 

[octavedoctor]

Re: Pole Piece Height

A lot of people get very anorak-y about this. It really doesn't make that much difference. Raising the pole pieces on a bucker slews the flux density in favour of that coil, altering the balance of the shared harmonics and the level of attenuation of the harmonics that are opposed in phase.

Having said that, i had an SG on the bench yesterday; the pickups on an SG have a really steep aspect angle to the strings which partly accounts for its brashness. But rocking the pickup to even up the response from each coil produced a result that was barely detectable even if you listened hard.

Generally speaking however, the closer you get the pickups, the more intensely focused the flux is and the narrower the range of shared harmonics. Further away the flux is lense dense and more spread out so the pickup responds to a wider range of harmonics, creating a more "acoustic" tone.

Too close and you get "magnetic weighting" as the pole pieces pull hard on the string, creating false tones.