Pickup pole heights

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I have been fiddling around with pickup levels a lot, trying t even out sounds and strings and tones. The humbuckers allow easy pole-piece adjustment (on one coil only, why?) to even out string-response. It seems single note playing and chord playing requires different set-ups. My Pointy guitar has a single coil in the middle, which I can get to volume-match the bridge humbucker, while the neck humbucker is much louder. I can live with that, having a volume knob, but the problem of balancing the strings on the single coil remains. Why does a single coil pickup with screw pole-pieces not exist?

In this case, the G string is the problem. (From internet trawling, it seems the G string (guitar, that is) is almost always a problem, on any type of guitar.) Overly loud now, it stands out if mis-tuned, irritates the ear by dominating the mix, and makes chords sound unpleasant. The pickup is "flat" pole-piece, as recommended for large radius fretboards, not staggered. I would like to push that piece in a bit. And raise the D one a bit. Maybe the treble E one too. This is apparently possible without breaking the coils, but one has to remove the pickup to press the poles. This is not going to happen soon.

I have tried small washers on the "vintage" staggered poles of the Strat-alike, it does make a difference. But they shift around. And, also, come in standard thicknesses, limiting fine-tuning. The ideal would be to turn up small cups on the lathe, with different heights, to allow fine-tuning to an extent, and spot them in place with cutex when happy.

I am trying the washer trick on the Pointy guitar. I shall look for washers of different thicknesses, and spend some time filing down a few to get in-between thicknesses. Once I see whether this helps with string balance, I can machine up some pole-piece caps. Might be a while before I report success or lack of it, anybody out there done this at all?

ChrisDanger

I read an article ages ago about someone solving the G string volume problem by using a different (thinner) gauge on that string only. Like if the set has a 16 put a 15 on there instead. That's a bit of an awkward fix though.

But if your pole pieces are isolated from the winding you should be able to quite easily shift them up or down. Like in the middle of the picture below you can see the poles fit inside their own sheaths. Not all pickups are like this though, and I have no idea how you'd check, apart from asking the manufacturer, digging online somewhere for your pickups, or unless you have access to an x-ray machine. Maybe there's an electrical test, but that's beyond my knowledge.

V8

ChrisDanger I read an article ages ago about someone solving the G string volume problem by using a different (thinner) gauge on that string only. Like if the set has a 16 put a 15 on there instead. That's a bit of an awkward fix though.

I did something like this - but completely by accident.

I was restring my bass with some cheap DADI strings and the G string snapped (you get what you pay for) - so I -re-used the old G string - which was a GHS bass boomer and it was significantly louder than the DADI's, even though it was completely dead.

This got me thinking of using different strings types (materials, brands) to balance out the response - for sure, a awkward fix - but it's not unusual for classical players to mix n match bass and treble strings to taste. In the days before hybrid sets, peeps who drop tuned had to come up with all sorts of solutions - I recall using bass strings a couple times to get a thick enough gauge to chug away on (waaayy back in the day).

peterleroux

V8 Finding a B string that plays nicely with your bass and balances with the others is always a challenge- this would be a good way of solving that. Elixir used to sell low B and high C strings seperately so you could sort of mix and match those with the standard 4 strings.

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Mix-match strings may become time-consuming, even if not too expensive. But expensive it may well become. The nylon crowd have a lot of people claiming that one should do it, it's cheap, and you "quickly" find a setup your ear likes. (Cheap. Yes, if your guitar costs only $1500, a mere "practice instrument", strings are cheap.) Only, strings need a bit of time to settle, by which time your ear cannot really remember what the previous one sounded like, and after the honeymoon is over, many swop straight back to the strings they had before.

All OK if you have access to a lot of strings.