Polepiece screws on humbuckers

[tomteriffic]

For a long time I've known that lowering the pickup and raising the screws on a P-90 will add a little bite/top and lower the output level a little. Can the same thing be accomplished on a humbucker? I've got a two-humbucker Strat type that I'm dinking with that could stand a little more edge overall. For a number of reasons, I'd rather not change out pickups or add yet another gizmo to my rig.

I'm sure that somebody here has messed around with theirs and learned something.

[JGale]

I mess around with them all the time. That and pickup height. I usually do it clean but with distortion can be instructive as well. My goal has been string to string balance, but I'm an idiot so don't take my word for it.

[Hackubus]

I've got mine set like so: / \ / \ / \ where they follow the radius of the strings. IE the D &G are the highest, E & E lowest.

[tbonesullivan]

they can be used to help even out the volume between different strings. If all the poles are at the same height, usually the unwound G and wound E are the loudest if all the pole pieces are the same distance from the pole pieces.

[murkat]

Adjustment pole piece screws are a little different to each manufacture.

Noticeable is comparing Gibson to Duncan and Dimarzio.

The Gibsons are a little more depth in the mushroom cap, more mass.

And as described in other threads, 57 classics are very dependent in

adjustment. Just about any PAF type pickup with a low ouput (under 9.5)

will be adjustment dependent.

when in my tenor at the Pro Shop, Custom Shop, Part of "my setup" would also include optimizing tone, character, balance of the pickups in relation

with rest of the guitar. Get the best of of it, making it sound great.

Most pup setups, be it because of the cheap strings, abr-1, or,...

for humbuckers, I found that the D string is the weak one and pole piece need to be higher than most in the pole piece radius.

same with P90's and all the others. P90's sound the best when the bobbin, the pickup was closets to the strings for the "grunt" tone, then radius the poles for even more.

Find the interview of Seth Lover by Seymour Duncan. It is an eye opener when it comes to pickups and the man himself.

The original Humbucker design did not include adjustable pole pieces, but Gibson Sales pushed the idea as a sales point to up one up over the competition.

[Armitage]

I've got mine set like so: / \ / \ / \ where they follow the radius of the strings. IE the D & G are the highest, E & E lowest.

While this seems like a ridiculous answer... it's the way the Gibson Custom Shop recommends you do it... and its the way I do it too. Seth Lover claimed they do close to nothing, it was to make the sales department happy so they could say Gibson pickups were adjustable, while Fender weren't.

[crunchee]

Years ago (mid-90's), for a VERY short time, I had a Gibson J-160E, bought brand new. When it arrived, I tried to adjust the screw-type polepieces on the pickup (a coverless P-90?) located at the area between the soundhole and the fretboard. The polepiece screws started SINKING into the pickup when I tried to adjust them , so back to the dealer it went. I've never run into that on any other pickup with adjustable polepieces before or since.

Semi-related story, might be of interest to someone: I got a second new J-160E as a swap for the first one from the dealer. Pickup was probably fine on this one (I may not have had the guitar long enough to adjust it, read on), but I noticed some wood particles in the case. I started shaking the guitar upside down, and lotsa wood bits and shavings started falling out. I looked inside the guitar, and I found the factory body assembly checklist (both were from Gibson Montana, BTW) tucked inside the guitar, in the bass-side bout...and I think the checklist was for assembly steps BEFORE the guitar was nitro-finished, so it probably was inside the guitar early on; and it was never caught by anybody in the factory, or it was ignored...and the interior was apparently not cleaned up (the wood bits and shavings) when assembly was completed. Returned THAT one too. Nothing wrong with it other than what I found, but I wasn't gonna wait to find out otherwise.

[murkat]

^ why am I not surprised....

[hamerican gigolo]

I've got mine set like so: / \ / \ / \ where they follow the radius of the strings. IE the D &G are the highest, E & E lowest.

I've been doin' the same for a few years as per the Gibson CS & Dan Earlwine. I think it works very well for PAF

style p.u.'s.