Pickup pole-piece adjustment - anyone do it?

Voxman

As an extra thought to the thread on pup height, I was just wondering if anyone adjusts the individual pole-pieces on their pups (probably most typically humbuckers).  I never have to be honest and was just curious as to the benefits (if any) of doing this and if so how do you know when they are 'right'?  I'm guessing it's just to fine balance individual string volume...but more than willing to be educated by you guys on this!  

steamabacus

Yes, as I mentioned in the other thread.

Most often I'll do it on a bridge humbucker, raise the screw poles relative to the slug poles. I find it can give a bit more bite and definition if needed. I find I don't need to do it so often with neck humbuckers but I have done it. In fact, I'm currently setting up a mate's new Epiphone Swingster (a Gretch-styled hollowbody) which has typically wooly epiphone humbuckers (albeit with parallel/series switching for 'Gretch'/'Gibson' tones). I've raised the screw poles on both pickups to give a little more definition, the bridge pickup screws a bit higher than the neck ones.

If you try it out, it's worth experimenting with both the overall pickup height alongside the screw poles height - for example, I found myself raising the bridge pickup screw poles and then lowering the overall pickup height slightly as well.

I think it's very much 'suck it and see' but it definitely has an effect.

[edit] By the way, this is all in addition to any individual pole adjustments for string balance.

robinbowes

I did it on a set of Texas Specials - ruined them all. Expensive mistake

R.

strtdv

I do it on adjustable polepieces (generally humbuckers) to balance output across the strings. Once it's set there's no reason to ever touch it again.

richardhomer

I tend to drop them slightly below the cover on bridge humbuckers as I don't like too much high end from them - they seem to balance better tonally with the neck pick-up, when set this way.

I would suggest the difference is far from vast. My guess is that Gibson wanted 'Adjustable Pole Pieces' as a USP as much as anything when they introduced humbucking pick-ups.

stickyfiddle

I tend to adjust them a little if it's an option. Entirely possible it's psychological but it improves things to my ears.

ICBM

richardhomer said:

I tend to drop them slightly below the cover on bridge humbuckers as I don't like too much high end from them - they seem to balance better tonally with the neck pick-up, when set this way.

I would suggest the difference is far from vast. My guess is that Gibson wanted 'Adjustable Pole Pieces' as a USP as much as anything when they introduced humbucking pick-ups.

I do exactly the opposite, because I like the bridge pickup a bit more edgy and the neck pickup cleaner, but otherwise I agree.

I set the poles in a very gentle arc with the G and D ones maybe a full turn higher and the A and B ones a half turn. On the bridge pickup I tend to have the Es a half turn above the cover, and on the neck pickup flush or maybe a half turn below.

The half turns needs to be exact, because the most important thing for me is to set the screw slots exactly at right angles to the strings. This massively improves the tone.

But only because playing with a broken fingernail sounds awful . (I use fingers only, and I tend to snag my nails otherwise!)

OilCityPickups

All my Oil City and ASL buckers come with the poles set to a curve as in the @ICBM post 

And with their slots aligned in a pattern that suits my obsessive nature :-) slot position makes bugger all difference to the sound but can look pretty ;-)

Fuzzdog

This thread is comforting, as I now know that I'm not the only one who is a bit weirdly obsessive about polepiece screws lining up properly.

Samgb

I adjusted the pole pieces on the bridge HB on my LP because it was a bit bright. I say 'adjusted' but perhaps 'fannied around' would be a more accurate description as i had no idea of what i thought i would achieve but i raised the A, D and G and convinced myself that this would give me more mids. Im not sure it did as i still commonly roll the tone back a fair bit but now ive read this im going to try adjustiing the E and B below the cover - i didnt even know they went the other way!

   

imalone

TheGuitarWeasel said:

All my Oil City and ASL buckers come with the poles set to a curve as in the @ICBM post 

And with their slots aligned in a pattern that suits my obsessive nature :-) slot position makes bugger all difference to the sound but can look pretty ;-)

Now I have to go and inspect my Oil City pickups to find out what this pattern is.

ESBlonde

richardhomer said:

I would suggest the difference is far from vast. My guess is that Gibson wanted 'Adjustable Pole Pieces' as a USP as much as anything when they introduced humbucking pick-ups.

It is documented that screw heads/adjustable poles were required by the Gibson sales team even though Seth Lover said they were not required.

LastMantra

I've been looking at this on my humbuckers. Wasn't sure where to start. They have been adjusted to a similar shape as the stagger on my strat pickups by a previous owner so I guess that's as good a place as any?

I'm consciously trying not to do things like lining screws up. Suits my OCD but isn't really helpful or healthy 

OilCityPickups

I set all my humbucking pickup poles to roughly the curve of a 12" radius board before they leave me ... for most folks that's good to go.

And my pattern is a 45 degree slot slant towards the right for the bottom three strings and towards the left for the top three ... makes no difference ... but it looks nice

FelineGuitars

On a humbucker by raising the poles on one side you are just making the two sides slightly different to each other - this time by magnetic field rather than a pickup maker making the coils differently wound - so in some way possibly altering the response - I find I get a wee bit more treble response rather than getiing one string to sound louder

Headphones

I find that on most pickups with the poles flat, the top e is significantly quiter than the remainder (of course you'll not notice when teh dirt pedal's on!), winding up the related polepeice helps with this problem.

Of course lining the screw slots up is very important too...

Three-ColourSunburst

I set the height of the pole pieces on my Revstar to get the best balance between the strings, first by ear and then using SignalScope to actually measure the peak values. What I found was that you might have to go against accepted wisdom to get the right balance - especially if you use non-standard strings. For example, I use pure nickel wound Pyramids and these give  a lower output for the wound strings than standard, steel-wrapped, nickel coated strings. This is most apparent with the Pyramid D500 and D501 sets which use a thinner than usual core wire for the wound strings.

I now use the Pyramid Nickel Classic Special in 10-48 and even with these the most even balance (as confirmed in SignalScope) is achieved by setting the pole pieces for the D string higher than all the other strings and those for the G string lower than all the others. Naturally, with a steel wrap the situation would be very different.

timmypix

I find it's quite useful on neck pickups to drop the pickup then raise the poles - can get rid of muddiness and improve clarity/brightness.

Funkfingers

I usually adjust polepiece screws on brand new pickups, when appropriate.

OilCityPickups said:

slot position makes bugger all difference to the sound

I disagree slightly. Whenever I see all six polepiece screws set to the same height and with all of their slots aligned, perpendicular to the strings, I know that a clueless person did it.

It is highly improbable that this configuration will be appropriate - even on an electric guitar with a truly flat radius fingerboard.

ICBM

Funkfingers said:

Whenever I see all six polepiece screws set to the same height and with all of their slots aligned, perpendicular to the strings, I know that a clueless person did it.

That would be me then .

Funkfingers said:

It is highly improbable that this configuration will be appropriate - even on an electric guitar with a truly flat radius fingerboard.

I've never found a problem with setting them like that.

I do raise the middle poles if there's an audible imbalance - just by half a turn or a full turn - but there often isn't.

Sassafras

I'm not convinced it makes any appreciable difference but then I hardly ever use humbuckers.