Steiner Posted March 27, 2011 Posted March 27, 2011 The HOC members have provided tremendous volumes of good information about what influences the guitars; this is my way of contributing back to the good... There was quite a lot of discussion here recently about "tuning" pickups. Both the distance between the pickups and the height of the pole pieces influence the amplified sound of a guitar. While the pole height was mentioned, I wasn't able to find how much to turn the pole pieces (screws) to get a good starting point so I sat down with pencil and paper. This is what I found. To tune the pickups one can set the poles to follow the 12" radius of the neck thereby presenting a (theoretically) consistent signal from each string to the amp. It's a good starting point. From there one can raise an individual pole to increase the volume of a given string or lower it to reduce the volume. The picture below shows the rotation necessary to create a 12" radius in pole pieces with 40 threads per inch (standard Seymour Duncan) pickups (assuming the pickups are level). Begin with the poles level (shown in the bottom of the drawing with the screw slots all parallel). The second and fifth string require just about 1 1/8 full turns. The third and fourth screws require just about 1 5/8 turns. At that point the poles will be set to the 12" Heritage radius. From there one can season to taste.
fxdx99 Posted March 27, 2011 Posted March 27, 2011 Thanks - nice diagram. I've been setting the 1 and 6 string per Gibby specs and then ajusting all of them to taste. I have read that a 'secret' to an interesting sound from pickups is to reduce the pickup a bit more and exposing the pole piece screws above the cover a bit... can't say as I notice a large difference with this approach, but haven't really experimented too much in this area.
kbp810 Posted March 27, 2011 Posted March 27, 2011 Thanks for the tip! I think I might experiment with this a little bit today. I know I've played with the pole pieces in the past, but with little rhyme or reason to my approach.
yoslate Posted March 27, 2011 Posted March 27, 2011 I've been setting the 1 and 6 string.... Does that mean you're bipolar, Randy...?
tulk1 Posted March 27, 2011 Posted March 27, 2011 Nice diagram. I actually have a couple of my guitars set up like that. I think it works. They seem to be a bit more responsive following the neck radius. Thanks for posting that Stein-man!
DetroitBlues Posted March 27, 2011 Posted March 27, 2011 Great info! For the strat style single coils, you're out of luck. This only applies to most passive humbuckers and P-90's.
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