ES 330 pickup pole pieces

keir

I bought a second hand es330 in cherry red from Coda music a couple of weeks ago and when it arrived the pole pieces have all been adjusted upwards at varying levels. 

Mu my band mate has the same model 330 and his pole pieces are flat. 

What gives? 

Basher

Err someone adjusted them?
Given that there's no easy way to set the overall pickup height of a dogear P90, people sometimes raise the polepiece screws to get a little extra output. It's common on the bridge pup of a 330 or Casino due to the natural dominance of the neck unit.
If that doesn't sort it, people often shim them. My Casino has a home-made one out of an old mouse mat! The ES330 is probably worth the real thing.

keir

I thought it was that yeah.

Maybe I should wind them down and then adjust myself to taste. Each polepiece on the bridge and neck are raised differently which is interesting. 

Ive just strung it with 11s so I'd imagine that'll change the balance of things. 

Basher

Just be careful. Some complete arse, who shall remain anonymous, snapped one of his P90 polepiece screws while trying to adjust it to get a stronger output.
He then had to superglue it back together and make a mousemat shim for the pickup. That last bit probably narrows down the potential suspects....

keir

Haha! Ok ill make sure I'm careful

CloudNine

Well worth buying a set of proper shims to experiment with. Don't just buy the big fat one that Allparts sell. I think Lollar does a proper set with various thicknesses, some quite slim. Getting the magnet nearer the strings makes for a significantly different tone with P90's. Not saying it's better, but it's definitely different to just cranking the poles up. Quite a bit fatter sounding in my experience. There is usually a sweet spot though as with any pickups, and you are unlikely to get it by just polepieces tweaking alone, unless the planets have aligned to give the perfect neck angle on the guitar.

ESchap

My experience with raising the poles in dog ear P90's is to brighten the tone a little, particularly with neck pickups.   Never really noticed an appreciable difference in volume without raising the height of the whole pickup.

impmann

ESchap said:

My experience with raising the poles in dog ear P90's is to brighten the tone a little, particularly with neck pickups.   Never really noticed an appreciable difference in volume without raising the height of the whole pickup.

This.

impmann

ESchap said:

My experience with raising the poles in dog ear P90's is to brighten the tone a little, particularly with neck pickups.   Never really noticed an appreciable difference in volume without raising the height of the whole pickup.

This.

keir

Great advice cheers, my amps are already pretty bright as is the 330 the way it is currently configured so I think I'll lower them down and then adjust back up if needed. 

ICBM

impmann said:

ESchap said:

My experience with raising the poles in dog ear P90's is to brighten the tone a little, particularly with neck pickups.   Never really noticed an appreciable difference in volume without raising the height of the whole pickup.

This.

That's my experience too. Raising the polepieces adds treble and a little volume, raising the coil adds bass and a lot of volume.

pmg

keir said:

Great advice cheers, my amps are already pretty bright as is the 330 the way it is currently configured so I think I'll lower them down and then adjust back up if needed. 

Embrace the darkness!

keir

pmg said:

keir said:

Great advice cheers, my amps are already pretty bright as is the 330 the way it is currently configured so I think I'll lower them down and then adjust back up if needed. 

Embrace the darkness!

I was going to link you to this thread today. Yeah I'll adjust them down over the weekend. 

pmg

Thanks.  I like the sound of my 330. 

jimmyguitar

I have some spare shims if you want them, I bought a set of various heights and only used one of them.

keir

jimmyguitar said:

I have some spare shims if you want them, I bought a set of various heights and only used one of them.

Thanks sounds good to me, do you have a 330? Which ones did you end up using?

keir

Just a quick update, I lowered the pole pieces down as far as they would and restrung with 11s and it sounds wonderful.

The tuning is a bit sketchy so I'm going to see about getting the nut replaced as my band mate's 330 had the same problem due to a poorly cut nut. 

whitedogbanana

Interesting I just raised the pole pieces of the bridge pickup on my vintage 330. This is to counter balance the strong neck pickup. Also, the center two pole pieces are raised higher to match the fretboard radius - the result sounds better to me.