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Flat-Pole pickups......
Joined: Dec 20, 2012 Posts: 178 Oklahoma 
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Posted on Jan 20 2016 04:24 PM
Iv read several places that flat-pole pickups put more bass into your tone......with that said I also read on here that its the low end that helps you gain a bit more drip. How many of you guys play flat pole pickups? Is this something thats even really relevant when it comes to getting more drip? —If you want the ultimate,you gotta be willing to pay the ultimate price. Brett Last edited: Jan 20, 2016 16:28:11 |
Joined: Nov 03, 2011 Posts: 660 |
Posted on Jan 20 2016 04:59 PM
The only flat pole pickups I have is on my Telecaster, the bridge. I always feel you get more drip from treble/high end. More low end will hit the reverb harder though. |
Joined: Feb 26, 2006 Posts: 12159 Seattle 
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Posted on Jan 20 2016 08:47 PM
I'm gonna say... who knows? And do you mean flat vs. staggered or flat vs. bevelled? Pickups are made in so many different ways, most commonly with the pole pieces functioning as magnets or the pole pieces being ferrous steel that has a magnet(in someway) elsewhere in the pickups. If you use one wind extra, you no longer have an apt comparison if one was ever obliged to test bevelled pole pieces vs. flat. Every little thing makes a difference. If you are talking flat vs. staggered, I hate staggered so much... But here is why, I am not accustom to them. It makes sense that the magnet follow your radius, but I hate it so much... I all of a sudden need to play differently and sound different because I'm much louder on certain strings. |
Joined: Dec 12, 2014 Posts: 23 
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Posted on Jan 21 2016 04:24 AM
I don't like flat polepieces with 7.25" and even 9.5" radius when the strings match the fretboard radius. String-to-string volume is too much out of balance requiring me to play the middle strings harder, wich means I have to raise them to avoid fretbuzz, throwing string-to-string volume even more out of balance... On 12" and up it's less of a problem. I should say I'm borderline OCD when it comes to guitar setup, in the end it really doesn't matter that much. —www.soundcloud.com/konbuexpress |
Joined: Dec 11, 2013 Posts: 2537 Akron, Ohio
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Posted on Jan 21 2016 05:27 AM
To echo what Jake is saying. I think I hate staggered poles also. I just put some pure vintage 65's on a guitar and the g string screams and it's an unpleasant sound to boot. I had the same problem on my fat 50's but since I put base plates on all of them that seems to tame the shrill scream on the g. I might have to do the same to the pure's. If the pup has a plastic bobbin you can push the poles lower to tame but I guess fiber bobbins are different and you can damage the pickup. Update. The guitar tech told me to lower the pups to get rid of the "ghost tones" emanating from improper string oscillations. Seemed to help quite a bit with the screeching. —The Kahuna Kings https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Kahuna-Kings/459752090818447 https://thekahunakings.bandcamp.com/releases Last edited: Jan 21, 2016 18:57:51 |
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Joined: Nov 16, 2013 Posts: 4537 Wisconsin
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Posted on Jan 21 2016 05:45 AM
Just speaking to Strats, staggered does take some getting used to; many have learned to 'play' around it obviously. Uniform pole pieces probably work better for many people not using a wound 3rd string. A vintage-wound pickup that dropped that G pole piece height down would be cool. Stagged pole pieces are not about radius; early on, guitars went out the door with heavy flats & wound 3rd strings. It was to compensate electrically. Am with Derek on the drip thing. Danny had a thread about noticing a bit more pronounced drip when boosting the high-end (even though we typically use & hear it on the lower strings); tonally, not the fundamental note. I tested that with a little GEQ pedal and a bit of accenting the high end does seem to increase the 'drip'. —Wes DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices. Last edited: Jan 21, 2016 05:45:56 |
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Joined: Dec 12, 2014 Posts: 23
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Posted on Jan 21 2016 08:30 AM
I forgot to mention my comment applies to using a wound G, when using a plain G with a staggered polepiece pickup you're obviously going to have even more string-to-string volume issues. Badger, I'm not sure what you mean by "electrically compensating", but it's been well documented that staggered polepieces were introduced to improve output balance among the strings. Since the strings (or more specifically, the inside curve of the strings) are supposed to have the same curvature as the fretboard (and taking into account the output difference between wound and plain strings), they are directly related to fretboard radius. The thing we call "drip" resides in the higher frequencies, wich is why it becomes less noticeable when playing higher notes, some of the drip's frequencies "merge" with the string's own frequencies. By increasing the treble bandwidth the drip becomes more distinct, but it also gives you the dreaded icepick. —www.soundcloud.com/konbuexpress Last edited: Jan 21, 2016 08:43:29 |
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Joined: Dec 20, 2012 Posts: 178 Oklahoma
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Posted on Jan 21 2016 08:58 AM
Good to know guys! Thanks! It's all still pretty new to me when talking about the electrical components so I'm trying to sponge up as much info as possible,my Squier strat has staggered pickups,I have always realized that my d and g strings have always been louder than all the others. As for the drip subject, I had read the lower end increases drip on a thread on here about Spring King mods,so that's where that bit of info had come from,good to know it really comes from the high end though. —If you want the ultimate,you gotta be willing to pay the ultimate price. Brett |
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Joined: Nov 16, 2013 Posts: 4537 Wisconsin
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Posted on Jan 21 2016 10:26 AM
WetWildWest wrote:
Of course. We're kinda on the same page actually, but coming at it from different angles. By compensating I meant specifically what you state; output from what would've been a couple dull strings (the G in particular) because they were wound. But the specifics of why that G polepiece is higher is because it was typically a wound string and gave less output. The radius existed prior to the Strat, but it was Mr. Fender's decision to compensate for what he perceived as a less-than-stellar output from those strings. In the case of the Strat you could've had no radius & I believe he still would've varied the pole heights (even a little) to compensate for dull output. Why didn't he go back & treat all guitars (like the Tele) this way? Who knows, but he was always someone who was moving on from the last thing & much less interested in revisiting something than in making the next thing better. That's what my reading leads me to believe. —Wes DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices. Last edited: Jan 21, 2016 10:35:03 |
Joined: Mar 14, 2006 Posts: 2778 Atlanta, GA
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Posted on Jan 21 2016 10:37 AM
I believe I read in Richard Smith's book, "Fender the Sound Heard Round the World," that over the years Fender has used several different arrangements for staggering the pole piece heights. At present I don't remember the details. However, I have read in several different articles that poles that are level top and bottom, produce a clearer tone. This apparently is due to offset poles creating eddy currents within the windings. Additionally, dropping the pickup away from the strings (a bit) generally improves the overall frequency balance across the strings and reduces the weird sounding harmonics generated when the magnetic poles are pulling down on the strings (light gauge strings are affected more so than heavy ones). Over the last few years I have found myself backing off the reverb some (blasphemy I know) but I found it muds up one's tone and no one can hear the reverb's fine details when playing out live, even miked through the PA at most shows. I can force a bit of perceived drip live by setting my delay pedal "just so." An interesting experiment would be to lower the pickups and swap out the 12AT7 reverb driver tube with a 12AX7, to hit the springs harder with a cleaner sound. May try that at the next Surge! practice. ed —Traditional........speak softly and play through a big blonde amp. Did I mention that I still like big blonde amps? |
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