A fine instructional video. The use of those pieces of paper with the info on them is excellent. We tend to remember new facts when reinforced with visual cues. I did today. Thanks Mr GG!
The luthier (Rodriguez) who builds the guitars on Lindy Fralin's vids showed and explained it to me. The 'D' is the one to start by raising it... skinny string inside fine wire winding. The G or B usually need to be lowered to reduce the 'hard' or too-harsh tone. Adjusting polepieces after height and tilt are set is sensible and effective.
Super helpful for dialing back in a Friedman Cali that had been set up for me by Grover Jackson before a local kid luthier "helped me out" by "balancing" the pickups when I was just trying to get a minor setup issue fixed. I was so disheartened and hadn't been able to fix it but thanks to this and a little more trial and error was able to dial in the magic sound again. Thank you!
I play a G & L L2000 in a rock band, playing classic rock mostly from the 70's and 80's, but with a good percentage also from the 60's and 90's decades. The bass covers all those decades' bass tones very well, using the tone knob to roll off the brightness or add it when needed in combination with the active bright boost switch. Sometimes I select the neck position pickup or select both pickups but switch them from parallel to series. I really love the versatility this bass guitar has via its controls. I generally like the tone I get through the use of Rotosound Nickel round wound strings, .045-.105. I also use a Whirlwind 10-band bass EQ that makes this guitar sound even better. But I'm always interested in the quest for better/different tone. Before I bought the EQ I experimented with adjusting the pickup pole pieces, thinking that getting them closer to the strings would increase the volume of that string (the G string is the weakest in terms of response). But that didn't seem to help, so I put them back, which is about even with the pickup's surface. I am generally satisfied with the bass's tone, but the G string could be a little hotter. Pushing up the EQ in that string's frequency range doesn't help its volume response so much as resulting in too much upper frequency for ALL strings, which isn't what I want or need to boost. What do you think I could do to boost the G string VOLUME a little. It doesn't need much. Thank you.
Learned this over a decade ago with Bare Knuckle pickups, and have been messing with pole height with every brand ever since. It’s like dialing an amp and so worth finding the sweat spots.
I actually use the adjustable pole pieces primarily to set the string volume balance between the strings, which is NOT achieved by following the radius of the fretboard as it is, but taking into account the wounded vs unwounded and diameter of the strings. You end up with a stagger alike the one you can see in the picture of the DiMarzio True velvet in their website, i.e.: from the low E to D you get closer to the strings, same thing from the G to high E (so the G string pole is low although the string is central, because it is thicker!). Only after achieving this volume balance I use the polepieces for tonal variations (more bite/highs when closer to the strings, more lows/warmer when away from the strings... sometimes you even have to correct the overall pickup height, if you move the pole pieces a lot).
shredgd5 Agreed. I didn't think to mention that in the video because that is a problem I encounter way more often in single coils, where there isn't much you can do for it.
physics - a string's reaction to the pickup magnetic field is most influenced by the mass of the string core, not the windings. The smallest core is on the D. The largest core is on the G. To balance these, you'd want the G pole piece recessed, and the D pole piece higher relative to the others. There are more subtle differences in the other strings because the core diameters aren't as markedly different. It can make a very big difference as string balance is a big part of the overall tonality of the instrument. The airier/more open characterization of raised pole pieces seems to work in practice. You can make a "muddy" pickup a lot less muddy. A lot of trial/error for each setup but worth the effort. 🙂
Interesting. When I was in my teens I played around with pickups a lot and I found that adjusting any of the poles wound effect the over all sound of the pickup. Then it hit me visualizing how the total magnetic field of the pickup is affected. Thank you for sharing.
What you touch on at 5:00 is exactly what I discovered recently. I was raising the D string pole pieces to increase the output a bit, but the volume change wasn't as noticeable as the tone. I decided to just keep all of the polepieces flush with the bobbin.
From Leo: Good video. This is correct information. I am a very clean player and so many new guitars come with high output pickups that muddy the tone. I like more articulate tone than many pickups are set for. I drop the pickup down about 1/8th inch and raise the pole pieces the same amount. It really changes the tone characteristic and makes each note more present. This works on most, but not all. If I want to make a muddy, gritty, overdriven or fuzzy tone, I have many pedals to get that sound.
Thinking point: I find that the orientation of the screw slots actually affects the tone significantly. The baseline position should be with the heights where you want them and the screw slots perpendicular to the strings. To my ears this got the fullest, most consistant tone from each string. Now, if a string is too harsh, or is a bit too compressed, you can slightly slant the screw head (try 30-45 degrees from perp.) either way to make it weaker/quackier. I wouldn't recommend placing the screw slots parallel to the strings because the volume of the string during bends will vary unexpectedly. All of these observations are subtle but I think you will feel/hear them esp. with some drive
Wow this is very interesting!!! Maybe this is related.... When you move a magnet perpendicular to the path of an electrically conductive wire, it creates an electric current. The vibrations of the metal guitar strings create alternating current in the pickup's wires. (This is in addition to the DC current flowing through the pickups because of being plugged in to the amp). The magnets partially magnetize the strings; the strings vibrate and effect/vibrate the magnetic field to begin with, but the magnetized strings create AC in the wires, and this current creates an "eddy" magnetic field of its own. There's quite a bit going on!! Now... Getting back to the screw slot orientation... A flathead slot means that the magnet field would have a corresponding shape (namely, weak down the middle). And so maybe this shape of the magnetic field at the screw head, with the flat slot i.e. "weak point" perpendicular to the strings and the "two magnetic bulges" (from each half of the screw head) likewise arranged, somehow it "works with" the direction of the string as it is vibrating and altering the magnetic fields???
Interesting subject, mostly I raise or lower a pole screw to adjust volume for that string. The G string tends to be louder so I adjust that screw below the others.
It's really not changing the tone the tone is what it is it's elevating the volume of each string and by having one lower than the others brings out the volume of that one string more which makes it stand out more than the others so if you want your a string to stand out you raise the a string a little higher
Awesome video! I was trying to get a better tone out of my gretsch and the only thing I found at the time was adjusting the actual pickups but not the pole pieces. I never could get it exactly the way I wanted and noticed the pole pieces were at mixed heights, so I took a screwdriver and started just trying to even them out across the pickups. It sounded so much better with that alone and then I started lowering them slightly keeping them even until they were barely above the plastic is where I ended up with mine. I was amazed at how just that slight adjustment made a huge difference in the tone of the guitar.
I have a Gretsh with TVJ filtertronss and still need to go back and set the pole pieces to taste. What tonal difference did you notice by lowering the pole pieces?
Amazingly useful information, thank you very much... I have a SD SH-5 custom that's extremely bright... Rose the pole pieces on the bottom strings and everything is perfect now... Thank you so much.
Very informative, proffessional channel. I learned alot and my JB in my Jackson neckthru sounds great now. As you say it takes a couple days to figure out whats works best for the individual pickups. Top notch, thanks!
Hi thank you for your vid, time and effort gone into explaining something that's very interesting and helpful 👍 I've a Q- my pickups on both strat and tele, are single coil fixed pole pieces, stratocaster theyre staggered on all and all are random apart from the 1st & 2nd- 5th & 6th string, I usually use my tone knob for harsh highs, easy fix, but I've been more and more interested in the magnetic field of a pickup and how to find the sweet spot by whole pickup adjustment, starting with fender specifications. And adjusting accordingly while keeping in mind the volume balance of all three pickups on my strat, it's easier to get a decent tone with a telecaster . I've also noticed alot of strat players completely lowering the bass string end flush with the pickguard and about an 8th inch up on the treble side 1st 2nd 3rd strings, this would make the tone harsh/er there by your demonstration and observation, but this is with humbuckers, how much more of a difference if the magnetic field could be seen and adapted to would there be with single coil, alino 5 pole pieces around 6- 6.9k? Are there any good books on this you'd recommend or sites in the same manner sir. Thank you kindly
I got a tele with 2 humbuckers , when it was a new thing over ten years ago. I swapped in Lollar Imperials with Nickel covers and that was an improvement. But they couldn't be coil tapped. I miss the bright single coil bridge pickup. I dial in treble with my EQ but it just gets harsh and thinner. I have adjusted bridge pickup height and played with the pole pieces but it's still murky. The good part is that I play a lot of blues using mids. I am thinking about swapping the Fender bridge pickup back in (it's uncovered and came that way, with a covered neck pickup) and coil tapping it. Unlike 'regular' Tele's, the bottom coil with be perfectly horizontal, rather then diagonal with the lowest part under the high strings, which means I will get compromised brightness. Or I could just buy a Strat...but the ones I like are ridiculously priced, like everything these days as the USD dies. Anyone else trying to coax treble out of Lollars?
Interesting, I have always experienced the opposite. Raising the PU or the pole screws make the PU louder, and makes the bass boomy and the high strings harsh and piercing. And 5/64 is essentially the same thickness as an American Nickel, that also seems very close to the PU to me. The important thing however is to know the PU hgt settings do make a significant difference in sound, and you need to simply make adjustments till your ear says OK this is it.
Thanks , this sounds like lots of work, so many variables. In actuality you have overall height adjustment, secondly you can tilt the pickup, example higher on treble side lower on bass side and lastly the individual pole pieces. Do you recommend skipping step 2.
i use a purple dunlop tortex pick to set my height initially, 1.14, 1.4mm, 1.47?? or something like that. i havent looked at the numbers in a while. great video with lots of little tidbits of info that i love hearing. im not as good of a presenter or speaker as you lol.
This is the information I've been looking for. However I'm confused. The reviews seem to be saying just the opposite of what you stated in the video. You said the higher (closer to the strings) the pole pieces are, the softer and more mellow the tone. The comments (Jaybythebay) stated just the opposite and in your response, you agreed,. No one seemed to address the fact that a magnet tries to stop a string from moving back and forth (vibrating) so the stronger (closer) the magnet is the less sustain you will have and the weaker (further) the magnet is the longer the string will vibrate. Or don't anyone think that particular effect is worth consideration?
A couple questions, to see if I'm thinking of this correctly: 1) If you took those screws out completely, it would render that side of the pickup inactive, essentially turning it into single coil (or "coil splitting") correct? 2) If that's true, then backing the screws out half way would be like "coil tapping" that side of the pickup. (basically only half of the screw would be coiled)? [Of course in any case, the slug side of the pickup always remains active no matter what you do to the screws.] Is that close at all? I'm trying to conceptualize the physics. Either way, great video, I'll have to play around with this!
The strings play softer because you have moved the pole away from the magnet, thus the field being generated by that pole is weaker. So the tone will be softer. Is that bad? Only if you don’t want that tone.
I've stopped buying high output neck humbuckers because I'd have to recess them too deep into the body of my guitars to avoid mud. Now I've did a complete 180 and prefer really low output neck pickups. Bridge pickups on the other hand, I much prefer pickups around 13k and ceramic. Not a fan of most alnico bridge pups. A great pickup not very well known came out of ESP's custom shop back in the early 90's called 'Joker'. They came with half slotted pole pieces and the other half were hex head allan types but sound near perfection.
Hey Guitar Guts, Thanks for the instructional video about pickup adjustment! The real question for me is how do you get a humbucker to sound as close to a PAF on a real "burst"? IMO, this sound is characterized as very woody, very very "airy", on both clean and overdriven sounds, and on top of that very thick and creamy on overdriven sounds, especially on the neck pickup. To put things in context, I have a 2018 Gibson Custom Shop 58' Les Paul Standard with Custombuckers (AlNiCo 3's), and I think it doesn't quite nail the "burst" sound, but it might... What do you think? Thanks a lot!
My neck pickup is a little too bass-y compared to my bridge. I have neck pup set as low as it can go. Any advice for me? How should pole pieces on both pups be adjusted to even out eq?
Another problem if you raise the pole pieces too close that magnetic field pulls on the string and muffles the volume and tone like putting your hand on a symbol you want just enough but not too much
Funny cause at time 4:36 you hold up a radius paper that has the radius at the top and it's flat at the bottom . So how is this any benefit in raising the pole pieces?
Good info, about pickup height tho, a guitar tech once told me 3/32 starting point, but he also said to fret the last fret when taking measurements which makes sense to me, if you adjust 2 mm and your string height is 1.8 at 12th fret when you play those high frets youll be way too close to pickup, any thoughts on that?
Thats funny, i came here to try and get my Duncan distortion a little brighter,sharper and dare i say”sweeter”. Its like you were talking to me about the Duncan distortion comment u made about not turning it into an alnico 2....lol.But the sh-6 has the output and mids i need, just wish it was a tad brighter and less round. I wonder if a JB would work better?Damn. Any recommendations?
Ironic, I have a Duncan Distortion bridge pickup and I'm trying to get the opposite results that you are. I'm striving yo get a bit more fullness from it. No lack of sharpness and upper miss/highs from mine. There's a SD r59 in the neck and getting a good balance between those two is proving tricky. Have you made further adjustments to your Distortion pup since your earlier comment?
Montag Alexis no , ive left it exactly how it is. Though i did switch amps up a bit, I have a rotation of about 4-5 amps i use, and with my Peters 50 watt, its perfect. Im in the opinion that 75 % of your tone is the amp. Im perfectly happy with the Duncan distortion, but it is without a doubt the heaviest, chunkiest pickup i own. I may one day swap it for a JB. Btw- I have my pickup pretty close to the strings,so maybe try raising your pickup a bit.otherwise it may be your amp. What amp are you using and what genre are you covering?
My guitar with the Duncan's is really for my dedicated Hard Rock, borderline Metal guitar. My other guitars are more for 60's/70's Classic Rock. The Distortion is the hottest pickup I've owned as well and I'm liking it a lot. I play through several amps, primarily classic style Marshall and Hiwatts, so I'm setting that guitar up to serve that Hard Rock purpose regardless. Yes the Duncan Distortion is best suited to higher gain amps and pedals. Pretty sure the JB will give you a much fuller, thicker bottom tone than the DD. It might not give you any increase in the high end sharpness. I've been experimenting with pickup/pole piece height on my Duncans. My DD has ample sharpness and clarity and overall output , I'm just trying to set it up for more fullness. FWIW... The underside of my DD has a small label that reads DDL. Turns out the L means it was wound by Lidia Daniels at the Duncan shop. It's from a 1998 USA Washburn.
The way that DiMarzio pickup is staggered is really weird. It even does not respect the rule of the radius of Stratocaster's neck. Moreover, adjusting pickups to the radius of a neck is a total bullshit!
Just want to add a comment here ! A pickup is a sensor, I work on sensors in the industrial field and yes many sensors are like a guitar pickup. It is mathematically possible to figure out the perfect height for a magnet and coil to get the maximum amount of frequency from a string positioned above it, Is that musical to the ears? Well everyone's ears are different, and here's the part that matters, the strings don't all align to the pole pieces below them. That's by poor design, nothing more nothing less. Thats guitar design not necessarily the pickup. So you are using a bad design and trying to make the best of it, if you have an oscilloscope you can see the differences every adjustment makes to the frequency coming out. The type and strength of the magnet makes a difference to the output, also the cross sectional area of each string does also make a difference to the output. Thinking that, the height of the magnet pole pieces needs to take that into consideration. You can only get so much out of a setup without spending way too much time on it. One way is to listen with your ears, note the setting and adjust simply 1 pole piece, find a better or worse position, then do the next, all strings are different as are types of guitars but you can hear and get a better sounding pickup out of what you have, other options include Using an oscilloscope, or changing the magnet type, which greatly effects the sound, the coils in the pickup stay the same. Don't be afraid people to use your ears! Have fun it's good experimenting.
Humbucker are different to „classic“ Singlecoils. Rising the screws will weaken the output at this string. It is d design issue, completely irrational to common suggestions. The original P.A.F has no adjustable Polpeaces in the Patent, because the inventor knows this behavior. Don’t fiddle with your Polepece hight, instead adjust the Pickup as a whole. Everything else ist contraproductive and a kind of useless.
Your advice with pickup height is garbage. You need to be in tune and press at the 12th fret and strike each string one at a time while listening for warble and adjust until the warble stops. THAT is the sweet spot.
@@vernarddevilliers7899 the warble he's referring to is a sound a string makes if the pickup magnets are to close to the strings they will pull on the strings and it's a warble sound just like a string that's out of tune .
You don't have a clue what the real purpose of the screws is, do you? :'D Of course it also changes the tone in a way but this is not in the least what the screws are for. They're there so you can adjust the two halfs of the humbucker to be absolutely identical in output so they REALLY can buck the hum. That's also the reason, why there are only screws on one of the two halfs.
0N A HUMBUCKER IS THE POLE PIECE SIDE THE H0TTER 0F THE 2 C0ILS?? I WANT T0 INSTALL A JB PICKUP BUT FLIPPED 0VER IN A CHARVEL. F0R A BIT THICKER S0UND.
This is great advice. I always adjust stock pickups before deciding to upgrade. Most of the time, I end up not replacing stock pickups.
THANK YOU for talking in millimetres. It's actually so helpful. Good on you, mate.
I couldn't imagine it any other way.
@@wiseguy9202
It's best to know both metric and imperial... that's what a wise guy told me once.
@@BryanClark-gk6ie It is most definitely better to know both. Many Americans don't seem to realize they do in fact use both. And then some.
I wish I found this video a year earlier. Awesome information and presentation. Simple, clear, direct. Even the comments are helpful. Thank you!
A fine instructional video. The use of those pieces of paper with the info on them is excellent. We tend to remember new facts when reinforced with visual cues. I did today. Thanks Mr GG!
The luthier (Rodriguez) who builds the guitars on Lindy Fralin's vids showed and explained it to me. The 'D' is the one to start by raising it... skinny string inside fine wire winding. The G or B usually need to be lowered to reduce the 'hard' or too-harsh tone. Adjusting polepieces after height and tilt are set is sensible and effective.
I literally just did this and it did take away some harshness in the upper range, thanks!
Super helpful for dialing back in a Friedman Cali that had been set up for me by Grover Jackson before a local kid luthier "helped me out" by "balancing" the pickups when I was just trying to get a minor setup issue fixed. I was so disheartened and hadn't been able to fix it but thanks to this and a little more trial and error was able to dial in the magic sound again. Thank you!
I play a G & L L2000 in a rock band, playing classic rock mostly from the 70's and 80's, but with a good percentage also from the 60's and 90's decades. The bass covers all those decades' bass tones very well, using the tone knob to roll off the brightness or add it when needed in combination with the active bright boost switch. Sometimes I select the neck position pickup or select both pickups but switch them from parallel to series. I really love the versatility this bass guitar has via its controls.
I generally like the tone I get through the use of Rotosound Nickel round wound strings, .045-.105. I also use a Whirlwind 10-band bass EQ that makes this guitar sound even better. But I'm always interested in the quest for better/different tone.
Before I bought the EQ I experimented with adjusting the pickup pole pieces, thinking that getting them closer to the strings would increase the volume of that string (the G string is the weakest in terms of response). But that didn't seem to help, so I put them back, which is about even with the pickup's surface.
I am generally satisfied with the bass's tone, but the G string could be a little hotter. Pushing up the EQ in that string's frequency range doesn't help its volume response so much as resulting in too much upper frequency for ALL strings, which isn't what I want or need to boost. What do you think I could do to boost the G string VOLUME a little. It doesn't need much. Thank you.
Learned this over a decade ago with Bare Knuckle pickups, and have been messing with pole height with every brand ever since. It’s like dialing an amp and so worth finding the sweat spots.
I actually use the adjustable pole pieces primarily to set the string volume balance between the strings, which is NOT achieved by following the radius of the fretboard as it is, but taking into account the wounded vs unwounded and diameter of the strings. You end up with a stagger alike the one you can see in the picture of the DiMarzio True velvet in their website, i.e.: from the low E to D you get closer to the strings, same thing from the G to high E (so the G string pole is low although the string is central, because it is thicker!). Only after achieving this volume balance I use the polepieces for tonal variations (more bite/highs when closer to the strings, more lows/warmer when away from the strings... sometimes you even have to correct the overall pickup height, if you move the pole pieces a lot).
shredgd5 Agreed. I didn't think to mention that in the video because that is a problem I encounter way more often in single coils, where there isn't much you can do for it.
And when you do that, do you still have to angle the humbucker, or keep it straight ?
@@MrShadowofthewind i believe that you still angle it since there still is the other coil with fixed polepieces that needs to be set up
physics - a string's reaction to the pickup magnetic field is most influenced by the mass of the string core, not the windings. The smallest core is on the D. The largest core is on the G. To balance these, you'd want the G pole piece recessed, and the D pole piece higher relative to the others. There are more subtle differences in the other strings because the core diameters aren't as markedly different. It can make a very big difference as string balance is a big part of the overall tonality of the instrument. The airier/more open characterization of raised pole pieces seems to work in practice. You can make a "muddy" pickup a lot less muddy. A lot of trial/error for each setup but worth the effort. 🙂
Interesting. When I was in my teens I played around with pickups a lot and I found that adjusting any of the poles wound effect the over all sound of the pickup. Then it hit me visualizing how the total magnetic field of the pickup is affected. Thank you for sharing.
What you touch on at 5:00 is exactly what I discovered recently. I was raising the D string pole pieces to increase the output a bit, but the volume change wasn't as noticeable as the tone. I decided to just keep all of the polepieces flush with the bobbin.
Agreed.
thank you so much!
this method works fantastically on my INF1, INF2 pickups
From Leo: Good video. This is correct information. I am a very clean player and so many new guitars come with high output pickups that muddy the tone. I like more articulate tone than many pickups are set for. I drop the pickup down about 1/8th inch and raise the pole pieces the same amount. It really changes the tone characteristic and makes each note more present. This works on most, but not all. If I want to make a muddy, gritty, overdriven or fuzzy tone, I have many pedals to get that sound.
Thinking point:
I find that the orientation of the screw slots actually affects the tone significantly.
The baseline position should be with the heights where you want them and the screw slots perpendicular to the strings. To my ears this got the fullest, most consistant tone from each string. Now, if a string is too harsh, or is a bit too compressed, you can slightly slant the screw head (try 30-45 degrees from perp.) either way to make it weaker/quackier.
I wouldn't recommend placing the screw slots parallel to the strings because the volume of the string during bends will vary unexpectedly.
All of these observations are subtle but I think you will feel/hear them esp. with some drive
detuskified_walrus wow, that's some great insight! Thanks!
Wow this is very interesting!!! Maybe this is related.... When you move a magnet perpendicular to the path of an electrically conductive wire, it creates an electric current. The vibrations of the metal guitar strings create alternating current in the pickup's wires. (This is in addition to the DC current flowing through the pickups because of being plugged in to the amp). The magnets partially magnetize the strings; the strings vibrate and effect/vibrate the magnetic field to begin with, but the magnetized strings create AC in the wires, and this current creates an "eddy" magnetic field of its own. There's quite a bit going on!! Now... Getting back to the screw slot orientation... A flathead slot means that the magnet field would have a corresponding shape (namely, weak down the middle). And so maybe this shape of the magnetic field at the screw head, with the flat slot i.e. "weak point" perpendicular to the strings and the "two magnetic bulges" (from each half of the screw head) likewise arranged, somehow it "works with" the direction of the string as it is vibrating and altering the magnetic fields???
Bonus cool points for the top-wrap :)
Thanks so much for this info, think you have just saved bout $400. on a PRS SE. Chow
Interesting subject, mostly I raise or lower a pole screw to adjust volume for that string. The G string tends to be louder so I adjust that screw below the others.
It's really not changing the tone the tone is what it is it's elevating the volume of each string and by having one lower than the others brings out the volume of that one string more which makes it stand out more than the others so if you want your a string to stand out you raise the a string a little higher
Awesome video! I was trying to get a better tone out of my gretsch and the only thing I found at the time was adjusting the actual pickups but not the pole pieces. I never could get it exactly the way I wanted and noticed the pole pieces were at mixed heights, so I took a screwdriver and started just trying to even them out across the pickups. It sounded so much better with that alone and then I started lowering them slightly keeping them even until they were barely above the plastic is where I ended up with mine. I was amazed at how just that slight adjustment made a huge difference in the tone of the guitar.
I have a Gretsh with TVJ filtertronss and still need to go back and set the pole pieces to taste. What tonal difference did you notice by lowering the pole pieces?
Oh i loved the sound of the infinity in my old ibanez.nice punchy pickup
Amazingly useful information, thank you very much... I have a SD SH-5 custom that's extremely bright... Rose the pole pieces on the bottom strings and everything is perfect now... Thank you so much.
Best video on this topic online. Great job!
Some Gibson SG's are different as the pickup has no slant . 52 years in the Gibson 490 and Burst are Monsters !
Very informative, proffessional channel. I learned alot and my JB in my Jackson neckthru sounds great now. As you say it takes a couple days to figure out whats works best for the individual pickups. Top notch, thanks!
Hi thank you for your vid, time and effort gone into explaining something that's very interesting and helpful 👍
I've a Q- my pickups on both strat and tele, are single coil fixed pole pieces, stratocaster theyre staggered on all and all are random apart from the 1st & 2nd- 5th & 6th string, I usually use my tone knob for harsh highs, easy fix, but I've been more and more interested in the magnetic field of a pickup and how to find the sweet spot by whole pickup adjustment, starting with fender specifications. And adjusting accordingly while keeping in mind the volume balance of all three pickups on my strat, it's easier to get a decent tone with a telecaster .
I've also noticed alot of strat players completely lowering the bass string end flush with the pickguard and about an 8th inch up on the treble side 1st 2nd 3rd strings, this would make the tone harsh/er there by your demonstration and observation, but this is with humbuckers, how much more of a difference if the magnetic field could be seen and adapted to would there be with single coil, alino 5 pole pieces around 6- 6.9k?
Are there any good books on this you'd recommend or sites in the same manner sir. Thank you kindly
I got a tele with 2 humbuckers , when it was a new thing over ten years ago. I swapped in Lollar Imperials with Nickel covers and that was an improvement. But they couldn't be coil tapped. I miss the bright single coil bridge pickup. I dial in treble with my EQ but it just gets harsh and thinner. I have adjusted bridge pickup height and played with the pole pieces but it's still murky. The good part is that I play a lot of blues using mids. I am thinking about swapping the Fender bridge pickup back in (it's uncovered and came that way, with a covered neck pickup) and coil tapping it. Unlike 'regular' Tele's, the bottom coil with be perfectly horizontal, rather then diagonal with the lowest part under the high strings, which means I will get compromised brightness. Or I could just buy a Strat...but the ones I like are ridiculously priced, like everything these days as the USD dies. Anyone else trying to coax treble out of Lollars?
Awesome man...!!!!! Thanks for the knowledge
Interesting, I have always experienced the opposite. Raising the PU or the pole screws make the PU louder, and makes the bass boomy and the high strings harsh and piercing. And 5/64 is essentially the same thickness as an American Nickel, that also seems very close to the PU to me. The important thing however is to know the PU hgt settings do make a significant difference in sound, and you need to simply make adjustments till your ear says OK this is it.
I think your experience of raising the entire pickup is correct. But manipulating the pole pieces has a different effect
Interesting...I would have guessed just the opposite effects from raising or lowering the pole pieces on humbucker pickups.
Thanks , this sounds like lots of work, so many variables. In actuality you have overall height adjustment, secondly you can tilt the pickup, example higher on treble side lower on bass side and lastly the individual pole pieces. Do you recommend skipping step 2.
i use a purple dunlop tortex pick to set my height initially, 1.14, 1.4mm, 1.47?? or something like that. i havent looked at the numbers in a while. great video with lots of little tidbits of info that i love hearing. im not as good of a presenter or speaker as you lol.
I find my high e is louder and brighter than all the others so will try lowering that one. Thanks
A lot of interesting stuff here. I have a 1958 National with bobbin .. I've been told that one side runs typically hotter by design in fabrication?
This is the information I've been looking for. However I'm confused. The reviews seem to be saying just the opposite of what you stated in the video. You said the higher (closer to the strings) the pole pieces are, the softer and more mellow the tone. The comments (Jaybythebay) stated just the opposite and in your response, you agreed,. No one seemed to address the fact that a magnet tries to stop a string from moving back and forth (vibrating) so the stronger (closer) the magnet is the less sustain you will have and the weaker (further) the magnet is the longer the string will vibrate. Or don't anyone think that particular effect is worth consideration?
2:48 what if I don't have those screws?? Mine looks just like that but only the poles. No screws
A couple questions, to see if I'm thinking of this correctly:
1) If you took those screws out completely, it would render that side of the pickup inactive, essentially turning it into single coil (or "coil splitting") correct?
2) If that's true, then backing the screws out half way would be like "coil tapping" that side of the pickup. (basically only half of the screw would be coiled)?
[Of course in any case, the slug side of the pickup always remains active no matter what you do to the screws.]
Is that close at all? I'm trying to conceptualize the physics.
Either way, great video, I'll have to play around with this!
The strings play softer because you have moved the pole away from the magnet, thus the field being generated by that pole is weaker. So the tone will be softer.
Is that bad? Only if you don’t want that tone.
Thank you sir!! Such a big help.
What about volume? If the treble E string seems too quiet, it sounds like raising the pole under that string is not going to make it louder?
I've stopped buying high output neck humbuckers because I'd have to recess them too deep into the body of my guitars to avoid mud. Now I've did a complete 180 and prefer really low output neck pickups. Bridge pickups on the other hand, I much prefer pickups around 13k and ceramic. Not a fan of most alnico bridge pups. A great pickup not very well known came out of ESP's custom shop back in the early 90's called 'Joker'. They came with half slotted pole pieces and the other half were hex head allan types but sound near perfection.
thank you . great helpful advices !!
4/64 is 1/16, for those who need an easier number to visualize...
Hey Guitar Guts,
Thanks for the instructional video about pickup adjustment!
The real question for me is how do you get a humbucker to sound as close to a PAF on a real "burst"? IMO, this sound is characterized as very woody, very very "airy", on both clean and overdriven sounds, and on top of that very thick and creamy on overdriven sounds, especially on the neck pickup. To put things in context, I have a 2018 Gibson Custom Shop 58' Les Paul Standard with Custombuckers (AlNiCo 3's), and I think it doesn't quite nail the "burst" sound, but it might... What do you think?
Thanks a lot!
My neck pickup is a little too bass-y compared to my bridge. I have neck pup set as low as it can go. Any advice for me? How should pole pieces on both pups be adjusted to even out eq?
Thanks that was super useful!
Another problem if you raise the pole pieces too close that magnetic field pulls on the string and muffles the volume and tone like putting your hand on a symbol you want just enough but not too much
is there anyway that i could raise just one side?
Funny cause at time 4:36 you hold up a radius paper that has the radius at the top and it's flat at the bottom . So how is this any benefit in raising the pole pieces?
Haha good spot.
Great video! Would you recommend setting the height of the pickup before adjusting the pole pieces or the other way around?
Yes. That'll help a lot. 👍
Can you fully remove it and replace the polepiece with a new one when it gets rusty?
Hard to fixed my LP PU ,, string 4 5 6 need moore attack
Good info, about pickup height tho, a guitar tech once told me 3/32 starting point, but he also said to fret the last fret when taking measurements which makes sense to me, if you adjust 2 mm and your string height is 1.8 at 12th fret when you play those high frets youll be way too close to pickup, any thoughts on that?
Great video thank you.
Great man!! Thank you!!
Adjusting pole peices make a humbucker less muddy?
Good information gracias
Can you replace the pole screws on pickups without causing problems?
Everyone can. If not a total handassmen. )))
I just wanna know what make and model is that beautiful blue guitar lying in the video?
It's a PRS, I know that much. Not sure about the model. I've seen it before.
What brand/model of guitar is that?
PRS. Not sure about the model, sorry.
that is a PRS SE Santana (a little older model)
Counter clockwise is raising?
Yes
You have not too much choice. )))
Thats funny, i came here to try and get my Duncan distortion a little brighter,sharper and dare i say”sweeter”. Its like you were talking to me about the Duncan distortion comment u made about not turning it into an alnico 2....lol.But the sh-6 has the output and mids i need, just wish it was a tad brighter and less round. I wonder if a JB would work better?Damn.
Any recommendations?
Ironic, I have a Duncan Distortion bridge pickup and I'm trying to get the opposite results that you are. I'm striving yo get a bit more fullness from it. No lack of sharpness and upper miss/highs from mine. There's a SD r59 in the neck and getting a good balance between those two is proving tricky. Have you made further adjustments to your Distortion pup since your earlier comment?
Montag Alexis no , ive left it exactly how it is. Though i did switch amps up a bit, I have a rotation of about 4-5 amps i use, and with my Peters 50 watt, its perfect. Im in the opinion that 75 % of your tone is the amp. Im perfectly happy with the Duncan distortion, but it is without a doubt the heaviest, chunkiest pickup i own. I may one day swap it for a JB.
Btw- I have my pickup pretty close to the strings,so maybe try raising your pickup a bit.otherwise it may be your amp. What amp are you using and what genre are you covering?
My guitar with the Duncan's is really for my dedicated Hard Rock, borderline Metal guitar. My other guitars are more for 60's/70's Classic Rock. The Distortion is the hottest pickup I've owned as well and I'm liking it a lot. I play through several amps, primarily classic style Marshall and Hiwatts, so I'm setting that guitar up to serve that Hard Rock purpose regardless. Yes the Duncan Distortion is best suited to higher gain amps and pedals.
Pretty sure the JB will give you a much fuller, thicker bottom tone than the DD. It might not give you any increase in the high end sharpness.
I've been experimenting with pickup/pole piece height on my Duncans. My DD has ample sharpness and clarity and overall output , I'm just trying to set it up for more fullness.
FWIW... The underside of my DD has a small label that reads DDL. Turns out the L means it was wound by Lidia Daniels at the Duncan shop. It's from a 1998 USA Washburn.
Good info. Thanks
Thanks again!
what happens if you totally remove the pole pieces??
Since no-one has replied.... I have a video on my channel from 3 months ago that demonstrates that.
good lesson
thank you brother
i have my bridge humbucker so close the 6th string occasionally collides with it. METAL OR DIEEEEE!!! lol
Low strings closer to strings and high strings lower to the strings.
Infinity rules....in physics anyway.
The way that DiMarzio pickup is staggered is really weird. It even does not respect the rule of the radius of Stratocaster's neck. Moreover, adjusting pickups to the radius of a neck is a total bullshit!
Just want to add a comment here ! A pickup is a sensor, I work on sensors in the industrial field and yes many sensors are like a guitar pickup. It is mathematically possible to figure out the perfect height for a magnet and coil to get the maximum amount of frequency from a string positioned above it,
Is that musical to the ears? Well everyone's ears are different, and here's the part that matters, the strings don't all align to the pole pieces below them. That's by poor design, nothing more nothing less. Thats guitar design not necessarily the pickup. So you are using a bad design and trying to make the best of it, if you have an oscilloscope you can see the differences every adjustment makes to the frequency coming out. The type and strength of the magnet makes a difference to the output, also the cross sectional area of each string does also make a difference to the output.
Thinking that, the height of the magnet pole pieces needs to take that into consideration.
You can only get so much out of a setup without spending way too much time on it.
One way is to listen with your ears, note the setting and adjust simply 1 pole piece, find a better or worse position, then do the next, all strings are different as are types of guitars but you can hear and get a better sounding pickup out of what you have, other options include
Using an oscilloscope, or changing the magnet type, which greatly effects the sound, the coils in the pickup stay the same.
Don't be afraid people to use your ears!
Have fun it's good experimenting.
Humbucker are different to „classic“ Singlecoils.
Rising the screws will weaken the output at this string. It is d design issue, completely irrational to common suggestions.
The original P.A.F has no adjustable Polpeaces in the Patent, because the inventor knows this behavior.
Don’t fiddle with your Polepece hight, instead adjust the Pickup as a whole.
Everything else ist contraproductive and a kind of useless.
Your advice with pickup height is garbage. You need to be in tune and press at the 12th fret and strike each string one at a time while listening for warble and adjust until the warble stops. THAT is the sweet spot.
I'm new to this, what do you mean by warble?
I'll agree to setting them low enough to not warble but not sure I agree that that's the sweet spot always .
@@vernarddevilliers7899 the warble he's referring to is a sound a string makes if the pickup magnets are to close to the strings they will pull on the strings and it's a warble sound just like a string that's out of tune .
fatalheart: You are absolutely correct!
STRAIT GARBAGE SON
You don't have a clue what the real purpose of the screws is, do you? :'D Of course it also changes the tone in a way but this is not in the least what the screws are for. They're there so you can adjust the two halfs of the humbucker to be absolutely identical in output so they REALLY can buck the hum. That's also the reason, why there are only screws on one of the two halfs.
Say Rev, was it necessary to word your comment that way. You come off sounding like "Mr. know-it-all".
@@russseuffert803 You're right. That wasn't okay. I'm sorry.
My humbuckers have 6 adjustable screws in each pickup.
@@davidkastin4240 congratulations
Laber, Laber,.. . Komm auf den Punkt... dein Video kostet mich Lebenszeit!
0N A HUMBUCKER IS THE POLE PIECE SIDE THE H0TTER 0F THE 2 C0ILS?? I WANT T0 INSTALL A JB PICKUP BUT FLIPPED 0VER IN A CHARVEL. F0R A BIT THICKER S0UND.