How To Choose Single Coil Pickups - Flat VS Staggered
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ส.ค. 2024
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How To Choose Single Coil Pickups - Flat VS Staggered
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This is the first time anyone has brought up the core size of the wound string is what matters. As usual, brilliant and informative. Thank you Dylan.
Bravo!
Used to matter.
True. Best channel
And then there are the G&L MFD pickups with adjustable pole piece heights. Leo was a genius!
I have those on a tribute G&L tele, and I also run heavier strings with a wound G (country rhythm guitar). I love the output of them and the adjustability ( no-one uses a wound G on a tele, right?)
I do believe you when you mentioned that there are a few 'wizards' out there online who suggest "tapping down" the extended magnets on staggered pole piece single coils with a hammer. What I don't WANT to believe is that there are those who actually bought into this, pounded on their own pickups and THEN had the unmitigated audacity to create posts suggesting others do the same! Of the MULTITUDE of BS suggestions readily available online, hammering pickups might NOT be considered the most tragic. However, in the 'guitar lover's sphere' it certainly rates up there. Thanks for warning the most gullible among us. Great video! Thank you for perfectly explaining WHY these pole piece differences exist. Well done!
an interesting thing about Jimi Hendrix playing a right handed strat upside down is that the stagger on the pickups were upside down too, so the G pole piece was lower than the D (which works better with a plain G) and the super low B string pole piece was now under the A string which might have actually helped him get a cleaner rhythm guitar sound as a lot of his chord voicings involved using the thumb on the low E string and having the A string muted.
He had it all messed up and created a sound that became legend. LOL Who knows, if Jimi was still alive, he might love a new left handed Strat and be even better.
Maybe he turned the pickups upside down to keep the order of the poles, who knows.
i can never fined a reason to disagree with you and i watched all your video and have been a sub for years. you, Trogly and Rick Beato are the best. I do want to add something. I have seen stock strats from 1954 - -1963 i used to repair violins, cellos and guitars for many years. Fender was really working on this the whole time. every year the pole piece height was different until and about the "L" series starting in late 62. Now on a "plastic" bobbin pickup and only plastic where the winding wire never touch the pole pieces you can move them. I do it with a small wooden dowel with very light taps from a wooden block like pine. the reason i move the ones in a plastic bobbin is for the leveling of mid range chirp. I set my bridge where 6-5-4-3 are equal and and the 2-1 are lowered this makes the bridge pickup fat and cutting but very pleasant. the neck i lower the D-G just a touch and bring the B up 1 mm this makes the neck match my 12" fret boards and makes the SRV sound. the middle aw the middle this the pickup where dreams are made i set my middle to match a 1955 middle raised A D level to the G, and B bellow the cover and the 1 or the E just above the cover. i have found since starting this in 2003 that i can tonally shape the chirp on positions 2 & 4. back to what Dylan said he is dead nut right on moving pole pieces on top end pickups like his. real single coils or top end hand made pickup and all fender vintage use a fiber type punched out bottom and top plates that the pole pieces hold together if you move them you will or can kill the pickup. I still can't believe how low Dylan's sub level is come on people smash the sub button, he should be up there like Rick Beato or closer to it . He is also very correct if you have a compound radius, or fret board flatter than 12 flat pole are the way to go. Actually flat pole re appeared in 1974 on the strat and became the very even tones that became the sound of funk and disco. Buddy Mack.
Watching this in 2024. Finally, a good explanation of staggered pole pieces! Thank you Dylan!
I'm so glad this video exists. I put 13s with a wound G string on my guitar and my Strat just came to life. I thought it was odd that it sounded so significantly different and thought that it was something to do with setting the guitar up to take 13s. But this explains it.
13's on a Strat? I could jump up and down on your fretboard and still not get the strings to touch the frets.
@@jeffbeck6501unless it is downtuned to E flat or below, which is common for SRV fans to do on a strat.
I dunno man. I prefer to do my working out at the gym, not on my guitar. I stick with 8's and it sounds great and feels awesome.
Interestingly enough. Everyone from SRV to David Gilmore used staggered pole pieces with steel or nickel coated strings to establish some of the most legendary tone characteristics in the history of music.
Their string-to-string balance likely wasn't optimal, but that also shows how small a piece of the pie that balance is in developing tone, especially when distortion and compression come into play.
I love staggered strat pu’s. I creates that amazing dynamics that I really like. Like them much better than the flats :-)
@@kitoyobeni1 besides, that string difference comes into play more at the "quack" positions (2 & 4), than with the individual positions (1, 3 and 5). But. . . that string difference is what makes a Stratocaster sound like. . . a Stratocaster, especially when playing rhythm stuff.
A lot of those older Strat players played on a 7.25 radius neck which helps
I have an Ed O’Brien Strat with a Texas Special with staggered pole pieces in the middle position which I love. Awesome guitar build out of Mexico. Cannot get over the quality of this guitar.
The last 15 seconds made me smile haha. Hope you're doing ok through this crazy time man! Mad respect all the way from Australia, keep up the great work dude!
Thanks for making me smarter today than I was yesterday! My main guitars' pickups are all flat tops.
Don’t mess with the magnets. If you’ve got staggered pole pieces, learn to properly adjust your pickup height. Fender used staggered pole pickups on several models through at least the end of the American Standard Strat series (Fat 50s custom shop). It’s normal to use the pickups on modern neck radius’s. Your pickups will sit higher on the treble side to compensate for the pole height.
I have a 82 Fender Strat and the pickups are thin and bright. I have a 7.25 radius neck. Once I heard the early 6o's reissue and Silver Sky pickups. I wanted that meater tone. Seymour Duncan has staggered pickups thst were used by David Giland they provide that sound I'm looking for. Thank you for your insightful information on this topic.
Well that straightened a few things out in my mind, thanks Dylan but I guess Im a lucky idiot because Ive straightened and returned the pole pieces to staggered in my MIJ 62 reissue Strat more than once!! That siad Ive never been happy with the electrics in it so my project during corona lockdown is to replace the whole scratchplate assembly with a new one with new pups, pots and 5 way switch so that I can switch the whole lot back if I ever want to sell it, and Ive been watching a bunch of your back videos for ideas on wiring mods and stuff, so cheers.
I prefer staggered pickups with a wound G set of strings. It's terrible with a plain G though. I actually stagger them myself by moving the polepieces if they are flat. I hate treble strings being too loud and shrill, so I put them down a bit.
You forgot to mention fender mim pickups that don't use vintage wound g stagger but stagger the pole pieces to the radius of the fretboard. Great video and description of staggered pickups.
My 83 strat has flat a profile neck and flat pickups. This guitar is so unique and mostly hated because, no one understood how to set up a floating bridge. I've owned it for nearly 40 years and one of my most guarded guitar.
Oh man, I really got lucky when I pushed down the G string poles on my brand new Lollar Jazzmaster pickups. Didn't ruin them. Just have really gone through the grinder trying to find the right pickups for this Jazzmaster, and despite that way too loud G string, these piickups sounded fantastic... so I went and took my chances and pushed that polepiece down. They're perfect now :)
Thank you, you make us all smarter
My Fret-King Geoff Whitehorn has a middle singe coil pickup with flat screwdriver slots in the top of the pole pieces. It also has slots in the poles pieces of the neck P-90 pickup. the bridge pickup is a humbucker style. This has allowed me to fine tune both pickup and pole piece heights of each of the three to suit my ear.
Early strings were actually a metal called “Monel” wound over a steel core. Gibson and Fender actually used Monel for windings. Gibson had “Mona-Steel” sets for decades. Until the early 70’s, string makers used round cores for wound strings. When Nickel became very expensive around 1972, string makers started using nickel plated steel and sadly switched to Hex cores. Hex does not vibrate evenly like a round core and only touches the winding on the edges of the hex. Round core touches 100% of the wrap. A lot of string makers back then also switched to a big core & small wrap. This was to reduce the cost of making wound strings as was the Hex core reduced the amount of reject strings.
Monel is/was a nickel-based alloy. The "Inconel" family of nickel-based alloys is more common today. These are useful materials due to corrosion resistance and high temperature capabilities. But... they are much more expensive than steel, and - even though they are softer - more expensive to machine. We can see the logic in simply nickel plating the steel to resist atmospheric and fingerprint corrosion.
Monel is a combination of Nickel, copper & iron. It is more expensive than stainless steel to manufacture.
DR round core's, great strings, have better feel than ernie or g&h or any of the other hex cores.
Brad T. I had an “Artist” deal with them from 1991-94/95. Something happened and there strings went from great to garbage, supplies were inconsistent and I got a lot of bad strings from them. I was paying about 1/2 of what dealer cost was. Wasn’t like they were giving them to me. So I went to Scalar and then Rotosound for a bit before getting involved with Pyramid. I’ve been a dealer/ rep, artist Relations, product development, for them since 1996. I do NAMM, Frankfurt & Mannheim Guitar Summit shows with them. Great people, amazing strings and family owned for the last 170 years! The Monel Classics were my idea to bring back but in a more modern gauges.
This guy is good. A walking encyclopaedia of guitar
I had a late 80s/early 90s strat copy (Lotus) until a few months ago - the pole staggering always mystified me, but I figured it had something to do with the G string sounding way too loud! Good to know the historical reasons why the pickups came that way. And why it shouldn't concern me much the replacements are flat. Ideally I'd still want to see a very slight curve in the poles though... I play 9.5" radius, not 14"...
Yeah I went through all that. String balance is real important to me. I use nickle PLATED steel wound EAD and plain for GBE. I also tried stainless but they have a lot less signal than regular steel so they aren't worth the anti rust they give. I have lace sensors and they also have string balance issues with the plain G and B being too loud compared to the little E so I block part of the magnetic field under the G and B strings with a piece of magnetically soft sheet steel from an old transformer and that works great.
I haven't been able to balance my lace blue telecaster bridge pu yet, it's a lot harder for some reason.
On my "normal" telecaster flat top pick up I use tiny slugs of magnetic rod stuck on the magnets to raise the volume of weak strings. That works too.
I have staggered pole pieces on Kinman (stacked humbucker) pickups in my Strat. I have customized/modified the strength of the individual pole pieces using Neodymium and regular magnets. No need to replace pickups or change pole piece heights to get a balanced sound or custom volume profile.
awesome vid. I’ve been looking for a good analysis of staggered pole pieces versus flat for a long time! Thanks for doing this one.
This blew my mind. It was so straight forward, Thanks Dylan. I was anticipating learning about staggered pole pieces, but never would thought that they are completely irreverent in present day! Amazing.
And thanks for throwing in the tip in about not moving pole pieces!
those naughty pieces...
So you people want a Strat to NOT sound like a Strat. OK, then.
Brilliantly explained Dylan, well done! Oh! and i did a silly thing years ago, and tapped down a the pole piece, and destroyed the pickup, So if anyone is thinking about it, don't do it, it is not worth it.
1995/1996 Mexican Strat I've had since I was a kid, the pickups have a stagger that follows fretboard radius (tall in the middle rolling down to flat on the sides)
Really like the straight talk myth-busting you do on this channel. Next time I'm swapping pups I'll give you guys a look-see.
I have Fender Texas Specials in my 1994 G&L Legacy, it has higher center pole pieces which add to a mid range boots in volume of the two middle strings. A bit of an accentuation , it creates a great and appealing tonality or volume-ality if you will. I'm extremely pleased with the SRV-like tone over all and the added middle string punch.
When one calls the quote "we're standing on the shoulders of giants"... man, that's just what watching this vid made me think. You would be one giant of guitar knowledge! Thanks Dylan, stay safe!
Light bulb moment. Thanks so much! This makes so much sense, especially when I'm playing slide. My G string always sounds great, but not so much my B and E, even when raising the treble side of the pickups, regardless of tuning. Because my Strat's pickups are staggered and when I raise the high side, the G string still gets raised. I've been buying heavier strings, which helps a little, but still doesn't solve the problem. It seems like the best solution is to purchase pickups that aren't staggered, or increase the size of the B and E string significantly over the G string to get an even tone. Thank you!
I have a Strat with staggered pole pieces and changed out the 25.5" 9.5" radius neck for a Warmoth 24.75" 12-16" radius neck. I use nickel plated steel strings. So far I haven't noticed any weird volume differences string to string, but I set my pickups a bit lower than spec and angled down towards the low E.
Something that younger players are often unaware of is that at the time that Leo Fender was developing his Telecaster pickups, modern roundwound guitar strings didn't exist. All wound guitar strings were flatwounds. When the new technology of round wire wound on a hexagonal core appeared in the mid '60s as an alternative to the traditional flat ribbon wound on a circular core, blues, pop and rock players started to switch in order to have the combination of easier bending and greater sustain.
The difference in output and sustain between flatwounds and roundwounds is considerable, and that alone would have necessitated a change in the polepiece configuration. But the fact that the G polepiece was so high suggests that early Telecasters and Strats were still being supplied from the factory with a wound G string. I think that the real driver for unstaggered pickups was the switch to lighter roundwound strings with a plain G.
The very low polepieces for the B and high E make sense in terms of the strings available at the time. Very light gauge plain guitar strings were not standard, and the stock top E would probably have been a 12, with the B a 16. (In a modern set, those would be a 9 or 10, and a 12 or 13, respectively). Those heavy plain strings had a lot of steel in them, so the polepieces for the B and E had to be set lower than would be the case now.
The problem came when players wanted to use lighter plain strings. Old school players who wanted to bend could get around the heavy stock gauges by swapping in a banjo string for the top E and moving the other strings down to get an unwound G. Unfortunately, this would immediately throw out the designed-in pickup balance for each string, with only fairly crude adjustments possible. In particular, that unwound G would now be too close to the very tall G polepiece, and the lighter B string too far away from the very low B polepiece. The result would be a G string that sounded too loud relative to the B and high E.
Fender's return to flat polepieces in the '60s coincides with this move to lighter string sets. It's only later, in the early '70s, that Fender changed their standard radius from 7.25 to 9.5. This also reduced the problem of string-to-string pickup balance somewhat, but I believe that that was incidental to the main aim of improving general playability and addressing the different problem of strings 'choking out' when bent in the higher positions on a 7.25" radius neck. The need to go back to a flatter polepiece stagger was a response to changes in string technology and players' choices.
(Lest anyone think that this kind of problem with strings was exclusive to Fender, we see a similar problem on Gibson guitars that have a 'zigzag' stoptail bridge, with the 'saddles' cast into the metal of the bridge. On early Gibsons, these bridges are clearly intonated for four wound strings and two plain. It was only after the lighter, three plain and three wound string sets became the norm that these bridges were changed to the correct configuration for a plain third. If you try to use a modern light string set on one of these old bridges, the G string cannot be correctly intonated. This created a market for adjustable stoptail bridges by other manufacturers.)
Something that younger players are often unaware of is that at the time that Leo Fender was developing hisTelecaster pickups, modern roundwound guitar strings didn't exist. All wound guitar strings were flatwounds. When the new technology of round wire wound on a hexagonal core appeared in the mid '60s as an alternative to the traditional flat ribbon wound on a circular core, blues, pop and rock players started to switch in order to have the combination of easier bending and greater sustain.
The difference in output and sustain between flatwounds and roundwounds is considerable, and that alone would have necessitated a change in the polepiece configuration. But the fact that the G polepiece was so high suggests that early Telecasters and Strats were still being supplied from the factory with a wound G string. I think that the real driver for unstaggered pickups was the switch to lighter roundwound strings with a plain G.
The very low polepieces for the B and high E make sense in terms of the strings available at the time. Very light gauge plain guitar strings were not standard, and the stock top E would probably have been a 12, with the B a 16. (In a modern set, those would be a 9 or 10, and a 12 or 13, respectively). Those heavy plain strings had a lot of steel in them, so the polepieces for the B and E had to be set lower than would be the case now.
The problem came when players wanted to use lighter plain strings. Old school players who wanted to bend could get around the heavy stock gauges by swapping in a banjo string for the top E and moving the other strings down to get an unwound G. Unfortunately, this would immediately throw out the designed-in pickup balance for each string, with only fairly crude adjustments possible. In particular, that unwound G would now be too close to the very tall G polepiece, and the lighter B string too far away from the very low B polepiece. The result would be a G string that sounded too loud relative to the B and high E.
Fender's return to flat polepieces in the '60s coincides with the move to lighter string sets. It's only later, in the early '70s, that Fender changed their standard radius from 7.25 to 9.5. This also reduced the problem of string-to-string pickup balance somewhat, but I believe that that was incidental to the main aim of improving general playability and addressing the different problem of strings 'choking out' when bent in the higher positions on a 7.25" radius neck. The need to go back to a flatter polepiece stagger was a response to changes in string technology and players' choices.
(Lest anyone think that this kind of problem with strings was exclusive to Fender, we see a similar problem on Gibson guitars that have a 'zigzag' stoptail bridge, with the 'saddles' cast into the metal of the bridge. On early Gibsons, these bridges are clearly intonated for four wound strings and two plain. It was only after the lighter, three plain and three wound string sets became the norm that these bridges were changed to the correct configuration for a plain third. If you try to use a modern light string set on one of these old bridges, the G string cannot be correctly intonated. This created a market for adjustable stoptail bridges by other manufacturers.)
Surely the most arcane subject concerning electric guitars. Now I understand a bit more. Thanks.
Was just in the process of replacing single coil PUPs, wondering about staggered poles. So huge thanks to Dylan!
Really great video! It begs the question about the “correct” strings for a vintage guitar. But now with all this fandom knowledge the players can make an informed decision, and not just vintage but modern aftermarket pickups as well. Thanks!!!
A wound G is the key to a great playing and sounding vintage or reissue Strat. And a .018w is just as easy to bend as any standard unwound G I've ever used.
Man that explanation was just perfect! Thank you very much. Flat it is then.
Fantastic video Dylan. Probably one of the best explained videos on this situation. Thank you very much!! I'd press like 2x if I could.
Thank you for information. I have a Stratocaster Ultra SSS. And there the polepieces have different height, but not as on your picture, but so E-B-G-D-A-E high-mid-low-high-mid-low. And the loudness of strings is obviously not the same. The pickups are Fender Ultra Noiseless Vintage. The radius is 10-14
I started putting single coils in my Ibanez and other guitars because I got tired of Fender's inferior guitar design.
So now I have better fret access, more sustain, flat pole pieces, more frets (on one guitar), less weight, quick change pickups, better tremelo.
Fender really doesn't have an inferior design as you have to remember that fender had these designs in the early 50's and it was a state of the art design for the times. Ibanez mostly were designed in the 80's as an improvement over the 50's design which they are. Nowadays there are even better designs than ibanez out there. It's just guitar evolution.
Yes! At last an explanation that fully makes sense.
I discovered this for myself when I got a guitar with a wound G and pick-ups with adjustable pole pieces. I had to raise the pole pieces under the much weaker G string to restore some balance.
Great points, I got used to compound radius fretboards years ago so have been using flat pole pickups along with those necks. I think flat poles sound the most balanced Overall in my guitars .
I struggled with string-volume balance on a set of CS69s. In a desperate mood, I changed the pole piece heights -- mostly for the G string. On the first attempt it worked fine, but pickups 2 and 3 were ruined. If pickups have plastic bobbin construction, then changing the stagger can work, but if no plastic bobbin -- don't do it.
I totally understand that desperate feeling! Sorry about your pickups. I lucked out that my pickups survived after I pushed the G polepieces all down
Thank you so much for the explanation of the staggered pole pieces.
Thanks for advising on beating down pole pieces. I did that to 1 of my strats and it was fine, and was thinking about doing it to anotheer bc my pick get caught on the edge sticking up sometimes. Gonna leave it after hearing this.
And that's why I use a Compressor with my Fender CS 69's and sounds delicious, well explianed and great work Dylan!
Thanks for clarifying the difference between a nickel plated steel string and a purely nickel wrapped stringed, strangely enough I couldnt find this info anywhere else when researching staggers.
Mine are staggered. It's a 9.5" radius and I've always used D'addario nickel strings. Before watching this, I'd always assumed it had something to do with the magnetic properties. Good to know I was right.
Well, here's my input.... I have a '97 MIM Strat, which I've pretty much always strung with Ernie Ball Super Slinkys. Fingerboard radius is 9.5", and I swapped in a set of Texas Special pickups, which have staggered pole pieces. Maybe my ear isn't as finely calibrated as some others' are, but I've never noticed the G string (unwound, of course) being louder than the others.
I've got 2 Strats, one has staggered pole pieces, the other doesn't. The flat ones sound way better, and are on a 95 American Standard.
Do you use the same types of string on both? Given Dylan's explanation of the stagger being needed to compensate for old-school string construction, then if you have vintage staggered guitar, you're not going to be able to use modern strings on it (without unbalancing the response across the strings). The pickup style and strings would have to match if you wanted even response.
I use Ernie ball slinky 10-48 strings on both guitars. To my ears, and I've been playing a long time, it doesn't matter what strings I use on both types of pickups. I even throw 11's on sometimes. To me, the gauge is the only thing I think about. I never have matched particular strings to specific pickups. I match strings to the individual guitars and how I plan on playing. I hope that helps. In all the years I've played I've never heard that the pole pieces should determine the strings.
And note the Gibson PAF was original
p90 dual slug coils until marketing demanded the adjustable poles of the p90, but the effect there is different in moving the screw head in and out of the coil alters the inductance.
I was just about to drop the hammer on yet another set of pickups and was using the old mentality of Its an early 70's strat, so I need vintage stagger. ...well you saved the bad choice. I >think < my radius is a 12, and I will now verify with the luthier tools I bought before ordering. You did address that it's not wise to peck the pole pieces up or down as it can ruin the pickup. I did this on a few I have trying to adjust the volume and maybe I got lucky. I >think< you meant no pecking polepieces on either style (flat or vintage). In the sound comparisons I heard in a few comparisons though (Flat vs vintage) The vintage one was the sound I was looking for but I do think the guitar used was a for-real 60's. Not sure if I can get the same sound from my flatter radius early 70's (Japan) using flat pole pieces. Nothing was mentioned about if he was using a wound 4th ... So I still am not sure which pick stagger I really need to get?
Your vids just keep improving. Keep up the good work.
i just built a guitar and i chose a sl1 for my neck. it is staggered, but i was just after a sweet OG strat neck sound. it sounds very nice, but i unwittingly strung it with pro-steels solidifying 2 mistakes at once. furthermore the neck is 12 inch radius. so i guess i learned something valuable and interesting from the video. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
First I've stumbled across your channel. You cut right to the chase and gave an excellent lecture. Thank you, sir! You have a new subscriber.
There needs to be link for every gearhead who ever made a video trying to explain the radius of a fret board, to this video you have made, dude. Sorted in the first minute and a half. Crystal. Lol.
I'm reminded of that meme from it's always sunny in Philadelphia, conspiracy theory, thinking of all the others.
Well done.
Great information. Maybe some of the great players learned to adjust how they played because of the pickups and strings being mismatched, and they didn't even realize they were doing it.
Thank you! I'm new to electric guitars and have been researching alot lately, so it brings alot of clarity to my overloaded brain.
Where you can easily test poll piece height is on a humbucker guitar with screw poles. You can try the classic Strat, the equi-distant, and flat. You'll find different tones out of them. I tend to put stagger poles (like Strat and humbucker screw poles) on the neck pickups and flat across on the bridge pickups for everything else (Tele, P90, Humbuckers) because they tend to sound best for me. Flat across gives a little 'mid-scoop'. You can also bias pickup height E vs e, the amount of pickup 'tip' too -- I saw an old video of Hendrix recently where the video person paid attention to his picking more than the fretboard which was useful to see.
I am learning so many obscure bits of information from your channel. Thank you!
I had Texas Specials, staggered, that had a huge problem with G-String 'warble.' 9.5" radius. So, you lower the pickup height until the warble goes away . . .
that still made the G-string dominant.
So, used pliers to 'push the pole' down for the G-String and that solved everything.
No . . . hammering will demagnetize the pole so use pliers and a piece of thick paper to protect the surfaces.
I can see why you warn NOT to do this . . . I got away with it. After all, the windings while of different gauges are coated . . . but, 'flush' poles on Fender, only on Yosemite, Direct Drive, and a Hot Noiseless . . . all the rest are staggered and I got 14" Korean and Elite fretboards.
excellent explanation - I agree with you that there is no need for staggering on modern radius fretboards .My only problem is that I still use wound 3rds....
Wow, I had always wondered about that, thanks for breaking down in such detail!
Dylan, you've done it again. Mind blown, with logic!
Interesting video. I bought a China Tele recently and used toothpaste with baking soda to polish up the frets, but may have resorted to a pot scrubber at one point. Now I learn that steel wool is bad for frets. hmmm. I need to learn what is the best way to polish frets on a guitar.
YES! thank you!
I mostly use Lace Golds...love the sound and the flat look. And I find the dynamics much more even than a vintage staggered strat pu 😇
Ernie Ball Music Man Cutlass still uses staggered pole pieces but it appears to conform to the radius of the fretboard, not the old school stagger where the B string has the lowest pole piece.
Had the problem with g string out of balance too loud against the others this was a long time ago I was advised to change it to a wound g I think that sorted it learned a bit today thanks Dylan as always good content 👍
I tend to use humbuckers more so I'll adjust the screw pole pieces to try to balance the output of the strings. If I'm using single coils, I think all of them are flat, except one set that has a slight, even curve to them. I think flat is probably the best all around option for simplicity's sake, but personally I do like to balance the string volume. My single coils are ceramic and have the magnet on the bottom, the coil isn't touching the slugs at all but wrapped around a plastic bobbin, so I'll probably just get some different sized pole pieces to stagger them like I do on my humbuckers screw pieces.
Thank you sir! Very informative as always!
Bro, you are a wealth of information. Thank you for all you do.
When I first used Fender guitars I noticed some Strats and some Teles had a much louder G string - even the very new Strats. The retailers and my luthier denied that reality. We are "Lions led by Donkeys"
Yes, I now play a G&L with adjustable pole pieces... don't know why certain manufacturers still use staggered pups. Uneven output drives me mad...
G strings came "non wound" as well in the old days. I've used a steel string G on an acoustic with a mag pup in it because it disappeared without it! What a pain, I replaced it with a Baggs M1 - problem solved. Adjustable pole pieces. But yea, science, nickle and bronze are not like steel to a magnet.
Interesting. TY The core size of the string vs or plus the wrap is what affects how the string feels. Dylan has added greatly to strings vs how pickups work. 🤠
I couldn't agree more with the steel wool comment. Not sure how that bit of useless/damaging advice got so popular. I clean, polish and maintain all of my equipment. I even do modding. I have never used steel wool on my fretboard.
I also sport staggered pole peices. 7.25 radius. Love it.
The frets themselves or the fretboard? If both, then why is not a good idea? I've never used steel wool but I've seen reputable ppl use 0000 grade wool to polish the frets. They use painters tape to cover the pick-ups, and the isolate the fret from the board with a steel fret cover.
Very cool. I have Mexican Strat pickups from the 2006 with staggered poles. I always wondered why. THX
I hit my D and G pole pieces down with a hammer after 7 years of fighting with my SSL-1s. They are still slightly higher than the rest of the pole pieces but significantly lower than before. I have a 12-16 compound radius neck. I can't believe how incredible these pickups sound now. I don't think they would sound as good if the pole pieces were all the same height, and other pickup companies seem to agree, as they set the D and G pole pieces lower than vintage but still a little higher than the rest.
This was cool. I always wondered why that was. Thanks for the great info, as always
Thank you soo much Dylan!
Hey man. Really enjoying your channel. One piece of advice: Normalize your audio to a regular level (broadcast standard is something like -10dBfs iirc but I don't know what people use on TH-cam as a standard). I'm trying to listen late at night and the volume keeps dramatically jumping between videos ;)
If your fingerboard radius are 9,5" or smaller go with staggered if your fingerboard radius are 10" or bigger go with flat
@DylanTalksTone - Thanks for clearifying this. Many ignore or even do not belive this. Stagered pickups are for old slyle sets with woud G! And they work very well in this combination. ... And by the way, try some nickle wound flats (those "Jazz" strings) on a Strat with stagered poles, works very well!
Very cool explanation, I never knew about any of this.
This is a great video and you explained a lot of things! Thank you. Nice to see your new office too :D.
Thanks for the tips explained perfectly now i understand the process thank you ...
Timely advise my man! Way to properly inform!
lovely explanation! LOL of hammering the pole pieces... cheers from Costa Rica!! CHEERS!!
I both flats and staggered pole pieces in 2 strats, the flats go quiet when doing whole tone bends, but they s kind better with overdrive,the staggered set definitely open up my amps more, they are creamy sounding from 7 up on the vol knob. Both are fine,...
There is a guy who uses a soldering iron for 30 seconds and then presses them down with the back of a small screwdriver. Besides that, the reason I'm interested is because I'm setting up a Rogue 6 string electric lap steel guitar and it has staggered pole pieces. The fretboard is completely flat and the 3rd string is solid. So I was looking for advice. From what you're saying they should be flat. There's no radius. I guess they grabbed whatever single coil pickups that were available. I have seen others with a humbucker. If I should replace it, what harm is there in trying the warmed up method first? He says there's wax holding it in place. His video was just before yours. Something about Strata-something.
My '91 Telecaster has staggered pole pieces, whereas my newest Tele has , (what the mfgr. swears) is a 12.5 radius, with flat pole pieces. Not playing with a slide rule,I am quite happy with both guitars!
Best elucidation of this issue I've seen!
I don't do those tiny radius Fender style fretboards, and I've always used flat singles. But personally I prefer singles with adjustable pole pieces like you find on humbuckers . I just prefer the magnets on the bottom instead of as the pole pieces.
Dylan, you so need to test a pickup that never gets talked about. The Deathbucker. It seems to sneak past everybody. It's one of the most interesting pickups out there and very few people know they exist. I'm curious as to see how the hell they work. Cuz once you see it all you can say is "wtf, how does that even work".....You're the perfect guy to check em out and would make an awesome video trying to figure them out. Since nobody knows about em, it would be a first for ALOT of people
But yeah definitely worth checking out man.
Makes sense Dyl! People often don't take string composition and build into the equation!
Back in the 50s the most common type were MONEL strings which were an alloy of steel, nickel and copper!
Gibson's pick ups, (P90, Staple and PAFS) were built to perform with these strings as standard!
With modern strings, they do NOT perform or sound the same as they did back in the 50s/60s!
Cheers dude! Stay safe!