Humbucker polepiece removal - love it!

jimmyguitar

Has anyone else tried this? Just remove the screw polepieces from your humbucker to get a more single-coil type sound. I always found my neck humbucker to be a bit too hot and a bit too dark but this has really fixed it!

jimmyguitar

I know it looks a bit weird but it's fully reversible and do-able in about a minute so worth a try if you are in the same boat

guitarfishbay

I have actually never heard of or seen this before.

steamabacus

If you could source some equivalent non-ferrous bolts it wouldn't look so weird.

EdGrip

That looks like a cool Les Paul! What's the story?

EdGrip

If you really like it, you could turn the pickup round so the string-sensing coil is closer to the neck and harmonic-ish goodness.

Maynehead

Good examples here of the different sounds you can get by adjusting the pole pieces, including removing them completely.

OilCityPickups

Keep in mind that bobbins are soft plastic, and wear quite rapidly, they are not meant for regular adjustment ... it is also really easy to strip the thread that the screw has cut in the bobbin and wind up with a loose pole screw ... this will almost certainly cause the pickup to go microphonic!

jimmyguitar

steamabacus said:

If you could source some equivalent non-ferrous bolts it wouldn't look so weird.

non-ferrous bolts fitted, thanks for the tip!

jimmyguitar

EdGrip said:

That looks like a cool Les Paul! What's the story?

@EdGrip it's a 1975 Gibson LP Standard, gigged to within an inch of it's life in the blues clubs of Chicago! Love it!

not_the_dj

Who's that youtube guy with all the guitars hanging from the ceiling and a southern accent....he posted a vid on these a while back....

Edit

Scott Grove, that's him...

Hertz32

Scott grove?

not_the_dj

Hertz32 said:

Scott grove?

Yup that's who I was thinking off, my brain (and google) caught up with my post typing.

EdGrip

Awww man! I liked it with the holes! Totally suited the vibe of the guitar!

siraxeman

As I was reading down this thread and saw the first video I was thinking Scott Grove did this in one of his vids.....and first.

jimmyguitar

siraxeman said:

As I was reading down this thread and saw the first video I was thinking Scott Grove did this in one of his vids.....and first.

yeah I am aware of that video, that's where I found out about it! I'm not claiming to have 'invented' this method, just curious as to whether anyone else has tried it...

Jeremiah

Is the sound massively different from coil splitting or running the coils in parallel?

olafgarten

Jeremiah said:

Is the sound massively different from coil splitting or running the coils in parallel?

Running in parallel, gives a more single coil like sound from my experience.