Buying neck single coils - no pole spacing options?!

LionAquaLooper

Is there a reason why when you look for humbuckers to buy, they generally come in different pole spacing options to accomodate different guitars.  But when you look for single coils there are no different spacing options? Especially neck and middle singles.

I just had a look at Seymour Duncan and Suhr for example and their single coils are "one size".  Take or leave it.  Not even any measurements on their spec sheets.  But googling this and I can see people say there are different spacings on singles - 48, 50 and 52mm for example.  I found the same to be true when buying single coil pickup covers.  It's like it's automatically assumed that all single coils have a pre-defined pole spacing from a cookie cutter template - which is false because I searched for some covers recently and none had options for different pole spacing, and therefore the ones I ended up buying didn't fit at all.

Problem is the stock neck single on one of my strats has poles too spaced out that the high E string is literally too far inside its respective pole, so much so that the string is not even on top of the pole anymore.  You'd think that manufacturers would cater for these different spacings - but they're smarter than me so I clearly must be missing something    .     

SteveRobinson

It doesn't make any difference. So long as your string is in the magnetic field you're fine.

If it did, bending a string would cause it to drop out, no?

LionAquaLooper

This is true, and I have other strats where the high E is also on the edge of the pole underneath. But this one is wildly off. Anyway point/question I'm asking is if there are known differences in pole spacings for singles, why aren't they as readily available options as they are for humbuckers? Surely it would make even less difference in HBs because of the stronger magnetic field? But go buy HBs or even chrome covers and pole spacing is always taken into consideration. 

ICBM

There are differences, but it seems to be rarely given in the specs. I have a set of Bill Lawrence pickups with 48, 50 and 52mm poles which work well on a guitar with fairly narrow string spacing.

jaymenon

Kinman does progressive spacing which works very nicely.

Bridge 52.5mm
Middle 51mm
Neck 49.5mm

And they really do align beautifully if you have a 54mm bridge.

https://i.imgur.com/SZfn6gF.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/0N4q2P5.jpeg

BillDL

Most of the "aftermarket" pickup covers like Hosco, Göldo, and many unbranded ones I've bought have had the pole spacing (or rather the "spread" from E to E) given in the specifications on retailers' website, but you're absolutely right in that the majority of the well known brands of pickups don't seem to feel the need to specify the spacings, or else the retailers neglect to do so.  It's odd that a lot of the more budget pickup brands provide these specs.

OilCityPickups

Leo fender chose 52.5mm so that's what we do ... personally if I had to produce two extra sets of flatwork for every Fender set I'd have to put prices up - plus sourcing covers would be a nightmare. 
Look at a genuine Pair of Wideranges from the 70s and the strings miss the top and bottom E pole screws completely at the neck - yet nobody complained ... perhaps they were busier actually playing in those days rather than obsessing over unimportant details ;-)  

Oh and budget brands tend to buy in plastic unitary bobbins which come in graduated widths for some reason ... and ultra cheapo covers are available for em ... go figure

LionAquaLooper

OilCityPickups said:

Leo fender chose 52.5mm so that's what we do ... personally if I had to produce two extra sets of flatwork for every Fender set I'd have to put prices up - plus sourcing covers would be a nightmare. 
Look at a genuine Pair of Wideranges from the 70s and the strings miss the top and bottom E pole screws completely at the neck - yet nobody complained ... perhaps they were busier actually playing in those days rather than obsessing over unimportant details ;-)  

Oh and budget brands tend to buy in plastic unitary bobbins which come in graduated widths for some reason ... and ultra cheapo covers are available for em ... go figure

Ha, trust me I play my strats enough   But when I start noticing that the high E on one is clearer and louder than the other strat I naturally investigate why, and I'd like to fix it.  Main suspect at the moment that Im' exploring is this topic of the pole spacings. Along the way on this little journey is when I found this little gap in the market.  I could very well be wrong but I stumbled upon it now and am just curious.

Back then maybe guitarists also noticed it too but options were limited to fix them then and they just lived with it.  Fair enough and no complaints from me.  But the guitar industry has come such a long way since the golden vintage days that I just found it surprising that this is still a thing.   

JayGee

[Shrug] It’s just a minor cosmetic issue with a large side order of marketing bullshit….

jaymenon

OilCityPickups said:

Leo fender chose 52.5mm so that's what we do ... personally if I had to produce two extra sets of flatwork for every Fender set I'd have to put prices up - plus sourcing covers would be a nightmare. 
Look at a genuine Pair of Wideranges from the 70s and the strings miss the top and bottom E pole screws completely at the neck - yet nobody complained ... perhaps they were busier actually playing in those days rather than obsessing over unimportant details ;-)  

Oh and budget brands tend to buy in plastic unitary bobbins which come in graduated widths for some reason ... and ultra cheapo covers are available for em ... go figure

Yes, but Leo Fender specified a 54mm spacing for his telecaster bridge pickup, taking into account string spacing and the obliquity of the pickup.

When he subsequently made the Stratocaster, all three pickups looked identical, so he did the cheapest thing and made them all the same spacing

Sarge

You're right, it sucks.
I've had plenty of Japanese 80s strat style guitars that came with rubbish pickups but spaced correctly, and with 50mm bridge spacing, changing them out for 52mm is not only an aesthetic issue, but very definitely can cause issues with quiet E strings, Low and High.

elstoof

jaymenon said:

Yes, but Leo Fender specified a 54mm spacing for his telecaster bridge pickup, taking into account string spacing and the obliquity of the pickup.

Didn’t he just take his existing lap steel pickup and stick it on the Tele