Pickup pole pieces hight adjustment! Any thoughts or advise?

[irmasil3]

Hi! I have just bought a pair of Holydivers replacing my old Razors in my guitar.
I went to a friend and custom amp-stompbox manufacturer and he started fixing the hight of the pole pieces using harmonics and stuff , saying this would make the guitar sound better.And, well ...it did. Until then, I was adjusting the pole pieces by ear with my sound at gig volumes making the very best out of every string.He told me that this was wrong and that the adjustment is more complex than that and that the whole guitar must sound more harmonized after doing this....which he did but I don't understand quite how he did it.
1)Any tips on that department of setting up?
2)Is hight of the pole pieces making a pickup more tremble-y considering the fact that you can only raise the hight of the poles on only one coil?So in the bridge HB would be the coil next to the bridge....
2)Is there a right way of doing this?I wasn't afraid to experiment before but after my friend told me not to mess around if I don't know what I am doing I am having second thoughts...and I don't want to mess up the setup he gave me because it sounds pretty good....

[Wolf5150]

Here ya go.. direct from Gibson's custom shop specialist.
This was done with a scope to produce the perfect string balance.

[irmasil3]

Cool! The high D pole is similar to what my friend did. This is a fact for every HB or there are options?

[Wolf5150]

Apparently this is designed for a 12 inch standard Les Paul radius, adjust according to the radius of your guitar.

I've set mine like this for a few years and it balances the strings beautifully.

[irmasil3]

Thats cool....guess mine is almost identical because my guitar is 12 inch radius also.
Isn't this something that we can learn to do?Is there a rule?

[Wolf5150]

Just follow the photos and let me know if you like the results as much as I do.

[PhilKing]

Surely the string gauge would make a difference.  A plain 16 vs 18 for the G would have a marked effect I would think.

[Shag101]

Its all in your ears and what sounds good to you...
It might look good on paper, but if it does not sound good to you ( or sounds better adjusting it on the fly) then who cares about whats on paper.

The G string on every Gibson I have owned sounded off....yet hook it up to a tuner and its dead on in pitch and harmonics. 
Pop in a wound G and it sounds much better....

[irmasil3]

This all make sense.I have always followed the "if it sounds right it is right". However, I thought that maybe there are rules or knowledge around this things and setups.....of course by the end of the day no matter what is "right" or "proper"  if it sounds like s#$%#t forget it......
BTW I have check these settings on my Les Paul and they do sound fine indeed.Minor deviations but these really make sense....
And of course I took my screwdriver and adjusted the poles of the HDivers again myself...Not major changes but enough to make them "mine"...hehehe

[Shag101]

If you want to play around with it.  Below is the standard for most HB's.

Set all poles when looking at the screw head from the side that only the rounded part rises above the flat part of the pup.

Low E - leave as is
raise A - 1 full turn
raise D - 1 ½ full turns
raise G - ½ turn
lower B - 1 full turn
raise E - ½ turn

[darkbluemurder]

Is there a right way of doing this?I wasn't afraid to experiment before but after my friend told me not to mess around if I don't know what I am doing I am having second thoughts...and I don't want to mess up the setup he gave me because it sounds pretty good....

Any way that gives you the tone you want is right. The guitar does not care whether you arrived at your setup by doing it at gig volume levels or by using your tech's method. Just use a method that works for you.

Cheers Stephan

[Twinfan]

I've just set up my SG with these pole heights and it definitely sounds a bit clearer and more balnced - nice one!

Great info, so thanks!

[BigB]

Any way that gives you the tone you want is right. The guitar does not care whether you arrived at your setup by doing it at gig volume levels or by using your tech's method. Just use a method that works for you.

Indeed. Now OTHO, understanding *why* your particular setup works - or not - so you can come up with a tested, explained and reproductible method instead of an empirical one or - as in the "one turn up, half a turn down" example here - a receipe that happens to work with YOUR rig but might not work that fine with mine.

FWIW, I strongly suspect that Shag101's receipe mostly has to do with different string tensions on a standard 10-46 set (or similar when it comes to relative tension differences - FWIW, Shag, what gauge are you using ?).

[AndyR]

Interesting stuff.

I found something last weekend that made my jaw drop. I tend to go for even heights across all six unless something sounds too loud/quiet.

But I'd never wondered about what height I should set them at. I've always kind of assumed it ought to be so the dome of the screw is protruding above the casing (all mine are covered). Pretty much the start point in the instructions that Shag101 has posted. It just "looks right", nice and tidy... :roll:

But then I read elsewhere that raising the poles on a humbucker brings more signal from the screw coil and the slug coil contributes less to the overall tone (and vice versa). I knew it would have some effect, but wasn't convinced it would be much.

So, anyway, I was bored on sunday and thought "what the hell?".

Out came the Love Rock and the SG and I set to with the screwdriver. BUGGER ME!!! Oh my goodness... It makes a HELL of a difference! :lol:

At the moment I have Riff Raffs and Mules with the tops of the screws no longer protruding at all above the cover. One of them is a good 0.5 below the cover.

On the bridge pup, this produces a slightly sweeter and slightly thicker tone, and after lowering the poles I can raise the pup slightly. It crunches and sings in a godly manner. It might be my imagination, but they seem to clean up better with the volume control on the guitar. I played it to the missus - not reknowned for noticing tonal changes - and she went "wow! that sounds good, what have you done?". I'm not sure of the effect on the neck so much - lowering seems create a clearer tone maybe, but I was too busy using the bridge pups to figure out what I was hearing.

I also tried raising pole screws higher than I used to have them. To my ears, with my playing, and my amp, this produced a grittier, harsher, and slightly thinner tone (on the bride pup). Not a bad tone, I can definitely see applications for this. But right at the moment I absolutely adore what the two guitars sound like.

How long have I had these pickups? A couple of years at least? I've been happy all that time, now I'm ecstatic :lol:

Folks - regardless of what stagger you're using - try moving the things up or down. It might do nothing or very little for you, or you might find something incredible.


Anyway, cool thread, I'll be checking this stagger business out as well now. :D

[Shag101]

I found this info several years ago on the les paul forum.  it was a basic starting point for a 10-46 string set, so yes, if you have a different string tension set, these turns will have to be adjusted. 

I personally use 11's on my SG tuned down to Eb, so the tension is "somewhat" the same as standard 10's in E.

I just searched the net and found the below article written not so long ago.  It too has the exact thing I posted.  I guess he was also on the les paul forum years ago...lol

http://www.harmonycentral.com/docs/DOC-1318