I often find that the vintage stagger on my Strat pickups can be annoying - it'll be cases where the G string breaks up the amp but the B string, with the pole piece being so much lower, sounds completely different that it just sounds bizarre going between the two.
I've seen online people saying it's easy to just adjust the pole pieces but then I've read others saying it's very dangerous and can easily destroy the pickup.
If possible I'd like to adjust the pole pieces cause it would save me a lot of money when it's the stagger that's the only thing I don't like.
What do our resident experts think?
Comments
If they're vintage-style pickups with fibreboard top and bottom pieces then there is a high risk of wrecking the pickup if you try, because there is no bobbin and the coil is wound directly onto the magnets. While adjusting the G is less risky than either of the Es, it's still not a good idea unless you're willing to take a chance of needing the pickup rewinding.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
'adjust' the poles. The wire is wound either directly onto the magnets, or with only a fragile layer of tape separating magnets and wire ... moving the magnet more often than not breaks a core winding and means you will need a rewind.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
Looked up some replacements and the ones I fancied from Bare Knuckle were 270 quid or something.
Think I might sell my SE Custom 24 to fund it.
Unless anyone recommends some lower prices non-staggered good vintage output Strat pickups?
But when playing notes it's never good to suddenly go from clean to dirty arbitrarily.
But I did recently find that a DiMarzio Area '61 - which has a modern stagger with a low G, and heavily-bevelled poles - is fine.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
On some aftermarket pickups, it is. Some DiMarzio true single coil pickups have adjustable allen screw polepieces. G&L S and ASAT Classic pickups also offer this. Both designs gain polepiece adjustability at the expense of having ceramic bar magnets on the underside of the pickup.
The vintage Fender magnet length "stagger" pattern was created in an age of the 7.25" fingerboard radius and what we now think of as Medium-Heavy gauge string sets with a wound G.
Modern guitars, with shallower fingerboard radii and light gauge strings warrant a shallower polepiece length pattern. Some manufacturers now offer this on their pickups. e.g. Duncan Stacks. The more typical solution is to eliminate the "stagger" altogether. Equal length poles get the magnetic field where it needs to be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D31TGgcBPo
I think I'm going to try it, maybe on just one of the pickups at first. If I ruin it I could have lost about 30 quid (judging by the set seeming to go for 90-100 quid) but if it works it will save me much more than that.
Feels so good to have saved so much money!
Ebay mark7777_1
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
An interesting point is that us pickup makers wouldn't make vintage stagger pickups if folks didn't constantly ask for them!
Personally all my 'modern output' Strat pickups come with flush poles as standard... as it suits flatter radius modern fingerboards. Oh, and most of us smaller makers will happily give you whatever stagger you want on Strat (or Tele) sets ... often at no extra charge.
To clarify, the Fender Strat pickups that can be 'adjusted' have bobbins injection moulded from plastic like this
Vintage Strat style bobbins are internally like this
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
However, I've done this plenty of times with the Fender plastic bobbin pickups with individual alnico magnets - Mexican Classic Series pickups, Mexican Tex-Mex pickups, pre-2012 US Standard pickups, Highway One pickups. Another useful trick with these is that you can reverse the magnetic polarity of a pickup easily. As an example, the Mexican Classic Series do not have a RWRP middle pickup. So, with the middle pickup, first remove it from the guitar and mark the top of the magnets with a marker pen. With the pickup cover on (to stop you damaging the coil with your fingers/nails) carefully push out each magnet. Invert each magnet (marker pen now on the bottom) and reinsert into the plastic bobbin. Now solder the pickup back in the guitar, but with black as hot and white as earth and you now have an RWRP pickup. And before anyone says anything, none of the big pickup winders reverse wind anything - their RWRP pickups are wound in the same direction as their equivalent 'normal' pickups but they swap black/white with respect to coil start/finish - the magnet polarity is reversed and black/white are swapped, but that is all.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/89942/caspercaster#latest
PS ... on non plastic bobbin pickups most small pickup winders will reverse the polarity of a middle pickup for you for a small charge.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message