Adjustable pole pieces.

LastMantra

Mainly humbuckers I suppose. Do people actually adjust their adjustables? A lot of time it looks like people don't? 

Not the best photo but mine look a little like this...

 
https://photos.app.goo.gl/f1Rs7CP16YPNkemP9

To my ears that's nicely balanced. 

Where are yours?

LastMantra

Can't post an image 

Link should work though. 

Danielsguitars

Yes I do and they make a difference, it's trial and error mostly, it's sometimes a case of raise a pickup lower polepiece or other way round, this made a big difference to a set of original 56 p90s I've got in my goldtop

Funkfingers

I adjust where possible. 

P90s are a case in point. The further the polepieces are raised above the coil, the thinner the tone gets. 

This phenomenon can be exploited to make a dull pickup brighter or a thin-sounding pickup fatter.

This is also why height spacers are useful with dogear covers. 

LastMantra

That's interesting never noticed any change in tone. Is it only p90s that do this?

Danielsguitars

LastMantra said:

That's interesting never noticed any change in tone. Is it only p90s that do this?

No 

Pickup height makes a difference along with the polepiece, it's also good for balancing string volumes 

LastMantra

Danielsguitars said:

LastMantra said:

That's interesting never noticed any change in tone. Is it only p90s that do this?

No 

Pickup height makes a difference along with the polepiece, it's also good for balancing string volumes 

Ah I get you. I was more thinking about balancing volume. Like adjust the two sides of the pickup to where it sounds good then the individual polepieces for balance. 

LastMantra

What I mean is a lot of people seem to have the polepieces at the same height, or in a curve mirroring the fretboard. I find it better to use your ears and adjust them individually for a balanced output.

Like in my photo you can see (assuming the link works!) they are all at different heights. But I wouldn't say they sound different, brighter.
Bit like a "vintage stagger" but with the g dropped. 

Why don't you get non vintage stagger? 

johnhe

I’ve raised the pole pieces on several neck humbuckers. The difference in sound was very stark and audible on the ones I tried. It does make the pickup much brighter, but I think you tend to lose a lot of the fatness of the humbucker. It seemed like a bad compromise to me.

Adey

I like to keep the slots on my pole pieces in line with the strings and level with top of the pickup.

It looks tidier that way.

ICBM

Adey said:

I like to keep the slots on my pole pieces in line with the strings and level with top of the pickup.

It looks tidied that way.

I set the slots at right-angles to the strings so I don’t catch my fingernails in them. Obviously that doesn’t really matter on the bridge pickup since you don’t pick that close to the bridge, but it looks neater to have them both the same.

Adey

That's a good idea. I'll do that.

And it'll still look neat :-)

Sassafras

Some guitars sound perfectly balanced to begin with, some need minor tweaks to the polepieces.

LastMantra

Sassafras said:

Some guitars sound perfectly balanced to begin with, some need minor tweaks to the polepieces.

I'd recommend people try adjusting them. Might find they're not as perfectly balanced as you thought. 


I find some of these replies quite interesting. Kind of puts some of the usual debates into perspective 


And how long are your nails?! 

ICBM

LastMantra said:

And how long are your nails?! 

Not very long, but if you play without a pick as I do, it's very easy to catch them in the screw slots on the neck pickup, which chips them. I do also raise the middle polepieces slightly - especially the D - to get the string balance right, which makes snagging more likely. 

Sassafras

My nails are fairly long and the only pickups that bother me are the staggered middle Strat pickups.

LastMantra

Tbf my pickups have a bit of "play wear" on them. Never got snagged on them though. 

LastMantra

https://hazeguitars.com/blog/how-to-set-pickup-pole-piece-height

p90fool

Adjustable pole pieces? Throw 'em in the bin, dammit!

brucegill

p90fool said:

Adjustable pole pieces? Throw 'em in the bin, dammit!

Wtf? What pickups are they? P90 under a humbuckers cover? 

LastMantra

Question...seems like it's not a good idea to try and move set poles on a vintage stagger strat pickup, what about grinding them down? Mine are fender texmex. Looking closely they're not totally smooth you can see file marks.