Do you calibrate your individual pole pieces ?

[Fourth Feline]

Hi,

I was just wondering how many ( if any ) of you Humbucker / P90 owners adjust each ( screw ) polepiece across the pickup to follow the exact radius of the fretboard ;   I.E. 2mm between each polepiece top and underside of strings fretted at the last fret - OR do you leave them about level and just measure the gap above high and low 'E' strings ?

Not a thing I had given much consideration to before , except to notice that 7.25" radius Fenders and many single coil pickups have the option of 'Vintage Stagger' - which I suppose adds up to the same thing.  

Thanks in advance ..  

[Philly Q]

The only time I've bothered is on SGs with the big batwing scratchplate (which leaves the pickups parallel to the body rather than the strings).  On those, I've raised the bridge pickup polepieces a bit closer to the strings to match the string angle better - can't say I "heard" any difference though.

Apart from that, I never touch them - my playing (using the term loosely) is incredibly sloppy and I bend strings all the time, so it seems pointless to be too subtle.

[Fourth Feline]

The only time I've bothered is on SGs with the big batwing scratchplate (which leaves the pickups parallel to the body rather than the strings).  On those, I've raised the bridge pickup polepieces a bit closer to the strings to match the string angle better - can't say I "heard" any difference though.

Apart from that, I never touch them - my playing (using the term loosely) is incredibly sloppy and I bend strings all the time, so it seems pointless to be too subtle.

A very good point Philly,

If I did set ( for example ) the 'B' string for a uniform gap over the 'B' string pole piece, it would spend so much time being bent towards / over the 'G' polepiece, would it really matter ?

Cheers !

[PhilKing]

On open coil sets, I screw the polepieces down so they match with the stud coil, then I adjust the height of the overall pickup.  On covered, I take them down flush with the cover.  The only time I adjust individual strings is on P-90's.

[Twinfan]

I adjust the polepieces on all my humbuckers so that they're equal distances from the strings.  Dunno if it makes any difference, but it just seems 'right' to do it that way!

[Fikealox]

I have adjusted the pole pieces a few times. I only really feel compelled to do it when something starts to grate on me, like the bass strings sounding too boomy (as happened recently with a Duncan I had), but in the normal course of things I don't touch them.

[Fourth Feline]

Thanks for the replies folks.  :)

It sets my mind at rest, as I thought there might be some 'universal truth' about owning / setting up these great pickups - that I was missing. It all makes sense now , even the seemingly opposite answers.  Most importantly, your answers portrayed the why you do or do not bother - and whether or not you had heard a real sonic difference.  

Cheers !   :D

[Ratrod]

First I set them by the radius, then I adjust them to string distance and the final step: adjusting by ear (taste).

[MDV]

Yeah, ish

I use double screw pole bridge pickups, and set the relative height of the neckwards vs brdgwards poles to EQ the pickup a bit.

[AndyR]

On open coil sets, I screw the polepieces down so they match with the stud coil, then I adjust the height of the overall pickup.  On covered, I take them down flush with the cover.  The only time I adjust individual strings is on P-90's.

Wooo! Thanks for this Phil...

I read it yesterday at work, and suddenly realised I'd been dicking about with my polepieces in an "everything louder than everything else" kind of way (you know, only turning things up when trying to get a balance!).

So when I got home, I screwed all the poles on my covered Mules down flush with the covers and then readjusted the overall pickup heights. Wow! I liked it before (and we're only talking 0.5 - 1 turn of the screws), but tis even better now.

Back at work now, but tonight I sort out my Riff Raffs and MQs!

I'm totally with RatRod on this - final step do it by ear. But once you've moved too far and your ears still aren't happy, you do need some "sensible place" to put all back to and start again.

Thanks again, your "sensible place" works for me! - would have taken me possibly the rest of my life to notice or figure that out for myself :lol:

[gwEm]

on my ceramics i don't bother adjusting the individual pole piece height, i do tweak my vintage voiced pups occasionally when i feel one string is too loud/quiet.

[AndyR]

on my ceramics i don't bother adjusting the individual pole piece height, i do tweak my vintage voiced pups occasionally when i feel one string is too loud/quiet.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was doing gwEm - but I seem to have tweaked it thoroughly out of shape.

Because I've just moved the Mules to a new guitar, I wasn't too worried about losing the tweaks I'd made over the last few months. The result was so good that I'm quite happy to start again on the other guitars as well now.

[Joe Kataldo]

I use stewmac Radius check, and them by ear

[avdekan]

I adjusted the pole pieces on my nailbomb 7  by ear and got a sort of vintage stagger thing. the pickup runs parallel to the body and not to the strings so I compensated for that by having the screw coil higher to get a more cutting sound. in the end its all about how it sounds and I like the way it is now better than before.

[PhilKing]

The reason I set them flush is because I want both coils to be putting out an even load (unless there is a deliberate offset in the wind of course).  If the screws are out too much then the screw coil will be picking up more signal than the slug coil.