How to set Humbucker Polepiece Screw Height
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ธ.ค. 2017
- In this video we at Radioshop Pickups take you through where to set your polepieces for the best tone from your covered humbucker pickup.
Order your Radioshop Humbucker Set at www.radioshoppickups.com/prod...
I just did my Seymour JB Bridge PU and a Pearly Gates Neck PU like this!!!!!!!!! My guitar is alive!!!!!! I cant put it down now, totally amazing and the string volume and tone really picked up on the A,D,G and B strings. I wasn't at all happy with with either PU, now they are AWESOME!!!!!!! Seymour Duncan take note. Thanks a ton Bro!!!!
Why can’t other people do such clear, well informed videos like this one. Well done, really informative. At last I can now set pickups properly. Thank you!!
Shut it
Bro I'm telling you 4 years later. This is a factory set humbucker. Do you know you can change the tone to your liking by adjusting the pole pieces? And height? So this video is not good at all. 😂
Thanks so much for this video!! I reset my pole pieces to your specs, and they sound amazing now - and it's even an Epiphone LOL. You made me fall in love with my LP all over again!
Just did this to my stock Squire Telecaster Deluxe and holy crap you are my hero! Saved me $200 on a pickup upgrade (adjusting the pickup height helped a ton too, and strangely taking off the factory plastic protective film from the pickup made them more open sounding too, which seems like a placebo thing, but after enough research I found someone testing it and proving that I'm not on crack haha). THANK YOU!!!
Thanks for the info. I had set mine that way, but done by assumption, so it is good to know that I did it right. Much appreciated!
Every days a skool day.
Well presented, informative video for adjusting and setting up
Pole pieces on humbuckers.
Keep up the excellent work@RadioshopPickups
Love & Light from a very much, rainswept Scotland 🏴
Saw this and set up mine on an Epi Les Paul and wow what a difference. Many thanks and keep up the good work!
It's crap on probuckers, on probuckers that's exactly what you don't want to do.
Outstanding vid. Thanks very much. Well done.
Absolute gem of a video!
Thank you for the great content :)
Very informative
I love this quick tips... thank you sir
Super usefull video! Thanks mate!
I JUST REPLACED THE SCREWS ON MINE WITH BOLTS FOR A MORE HEAVY METAL SOUND.
9.9Z
I heard they’re brighter and have tighter bass response though I like my stock Epiphone probucker treble pickup fairly bright despite having the more common slot screw and alnico v magnets but it’s not overwound
Great video. Thank you
amazing video thanks!
this is awesome! no more bassy muffled ES-339… much more woody tone …love it! Thanks a lot!
First Class Instruction
This is great, thank you
Ohhhhhhh, okay, now it makes more sense.... there is a bar magnet, and as you lower a (steel) screw, then more of it merges with and thereby strengthens the magnetic field (but the "core field" stays close to the magnet). However if you raise the screw then less of it is in direct contact with the magnetic field, so although it doesn't have a strengthening effect in the direct sense, it does help "spread out" the field to be closer to a particular string.
Before watching this, I thought maybe when you tightened a screw that it also pulled an individual magnet upwards closer to the screen. I really just didn't know the inner mechanism. The opening few minutes really clarified that immediately :)
Trying to adjust my pole pieces on my stock Epiphone Sheraton II pick ups. They won’t screw down flush due to the wax potting. They’re completely covered in wax. Should I melt it again with a hairdryer or something to get them flush? or bad idea?
Really good videos by the way. Nicely done.
I did this to a guitar that I hated the imbalance of the neck and bridge PUs. After some experimentation and learning, I goth them both sounding great and balanced just by adjusting the PU heights and pole piece heights. This really works folks! Try it, it just might save you money and make you happy with your PUs.
Such a great video! I learned a lot and very cool to see inside a humbucker pick-up.
I bought a epiphone sg standard and changed the harness and put seth lover pickups in the guitar the bridge sound great but the neck soumds somehow muddy no matter what pickup height i tryed it sound not great so dont know why but i screwed a bit on the poles and the e,b and g sound now fantastic the low e, a and d i still try finetuning.
Kind a fun :)
Thanks. Very clear
Thanks it helps me alot
Great vid , thanks
Brilliant. Thank you.
"Hi guys.. Pole here."
lol
instant flash of laughter
This is great,thx!
Thanks. I bought a used set and the poles look scattered in height, so I'll try this setup.
thank you brother
I’m trying to get good pole piece and pickup height on my Sg standard with pickups mounted in pick guard...any help is appreciated
Are you using the same adjustment method on both pickups? Great video btw, informative to the point.
Very useful. Thanks. Diolch.
Thank you a lot for this video! The sound of my pickups improved quite a lot.
Had some real P90s installed on a Epiphone LP how about the pole pieces on those or jazz masters ?
Would the same go for Fender Wide Range Humbuckers?
Hi Paul! This video was super helpful, thank you! Are you still planning on doing a video on uncovered humbuckers?
Tim Puchner Definitely! On the way pretty soon, thankyou Tim :)
Awesome! Thank YOU!
Can’t wait for the uncovered setup, mine are driving me nuts
why wouldn't it be the same
Hi. Great video! In order to compensate for neck radius,what pole heights/no. of turns would you recommend on an epiphone sg? Thanks
Follow the string curve, with a gauge that fits under the strings, also adjust eight of pickup and pole prices to make strong volume as equal as u can because low e string makes far louder output than high e etc. listen to guitar adjust to taste
What happens when the Humbucker is not covered? I have a Ron Ellis pup that looks like your Spanish pups. The pole pieces where actually very high. I am using it in my Fender Strat Ultra. I did lowered the pole pieces almost as low as to match the other side since I wanted a pickup that sounded a bit more like a paf and not too much as a single. Is that alright? I mean, can I lower then to where I did or is there a reason not to?
I've been playing for 30+ years and in my experience, the pickup output is key and they are all different so their is no "one size fits all" pickup height.. Starting with my volume and tone knobs turned all the way up.. I set my pickup height to around .125 inch on both sides. I then pick a nice distortion tone setting that I know and like..I then switch to each individual pickup and lower or raise it about a 1/2 turn of the screwdriver at a time until I get the best clarity I can with the distorted signal . ..This way you optimize the use of your tone and volume pots. Of course this assuming that your ax is set up properly. If your string vibration is fouling because of a weakness in your setup, the pickups will just put out that muddy, inconsistent, shitty tone no matter how precisely adjusted they are. And just to throw it out there.. My Humbucker's end up being set at about 6 mm treble side and about 7 mm bass side.. My single coils are about 5 mm treble side and 6 mm bass side..
I mostly agree. Although I’m a bit partial to spam.
I’ve just bought a Gibson Custom Shop SG. Would this already have been done?
Nice vid.
I just wish you would have explained more in detail the difference between the 'bobin' and the 'slug' poles. What their differences are and what reversing them or the magnet 180° would do for the tone. Instead if ''screwing around' at 4:30! Seriously though, good video. 👍👍👍👍
Great tip...2020 50s Les Paul Standard sounds better. Hard to believe these small adjustments have a distinguishable influence on tone. I have found your pickup height video beneficial as well, I also found that Neck works best at 3/32 and Bridge at 1/16.
Any idea what that is in metric-my fritzl ruler is in millimetres?
@@koolkutz7 3/32 is 2.38mm and 1/16 is 1.58mm
@@Bad_P0tato thanks appreciated 👍
Accidentally came across this video. Made these changes to my 2012 Les Paul Traditional pickups. It's really helped it sound like a Les Paul should sound like. Why don't Gibson send out guitars with the pickups setup like that?
Hi Jim! Not sure why not really. We've all got our own take on how it should be done I suppose and we just think it sounds great this way 👍 Glad you found it useful
@psycho'si carter NO BUT IT IS FLOWER POTTED. I HOPE THAT HELPS.
WHO DON'T GIBSON SEND OUT GUITARS WITH THE PICKUPS SETUP LIKE THAT ? DUDE WHAT THE FLUCK ARE YOU TAKING ABOUT ?
It's good for you to do things little repairs on your guitar it helps for you to bond with a guitar and make it your own the pickup pole pieces are like little microphones once you get him in the general neighborhood you adjust them in case they're too loud for the individual string or too quiet and you can increase the volume of the string or decrease it based on the height of the screw the closer to the string within reason will turn it up and farther away will turn it down
if you have an uncovered humbucker is the housing called an un-buckered hum cover?
Output is proportionate to distance ^2 to strings so the further your pickup height, the less the polepiece adjustment matters with regard to string radius. Also you don't factor in string output which you can also balance for. For example huge output differences between G and weaker D and E strings
Great points to mention! I want to talk about the string output real quick for anyone reading... Only ferrous (iron-containing materials) are magnetic and likewise affect/amplify magnetic fields. The G string is a steel wire. D, A, and E however are thin steel wires and most often wrapped with a non-ferrous wire (nickel or maybe also bronze etc). So even though D, A, and E are the thickest strings, they are less magnetically responsive than the G. However if you use D'Addario "Prosteel" strings (I don't, but just as example) which are steel wound, then they will have a much stronger sound than even the G! (But honestly I don't recommend them, namely because they will wear down the frets much more quickly than nickel wound!)
@@adamcolbertmusic I had a similar problem on a pacifica 612 hss - great guitar except for the B and high E being noticably quieter than the G (more so than others I have tried recently), especially on the neck. I tried adjusting the height but didn't balance out. Can this be remedied? The strings were 9-42
@@spiral-m I really don't have the technical know-how to answer that, sorry, but thanks for your reply!
@@adamcolbertmusic no problem. Thanks for your video!
@@spiral-m bumping the gauge up to 10-46 might help. Had a similar problem when I was using light gauges, 9's, on my hofner galaxie. Also check the pick up height in relation to the string. Cheers!
I use a radius tool. And I set the G lower because that is a loud string.
I wonder if we guitarists should set the pole piece radius for any guitar BEFORE installing the humbucker cover.
It's definitely an idea, although quite often small variations in overall bobbin height, baseplate thickness and other aspects of the overall pickup's height mean I like to size things up, get the cover on and then set this as it can sometimes be a tiny bit 'out' if doing it that way and might need to be raised or lowered after fitting the cover. Hope that helps, Paul
When do you do the pole piece adjustment is it before or after you set desired pick up height?
Christian Ebisa Hi Christian, I would do it before setting the pickup height. I'd lower them a little (although not too much as the Humbuckers can drop off the two height screws if you go way too far) to give yourself some room to work with and set the polepiece height and then do the pickup height following. Hope that helps. Paul @ Radioshop
And here's a link to our pickup height setting video too :) th-cam.com/video/wLS7yaUzApI/w-d-xo.html
Any info on enforcer humbuckers?
I got a Fender Pawnshop Stratocaster deluxe reissue. It has a Tele neck pickup coil and a chrome covered humbucker that has 3 screws on the higher part of the cover and the other 3 on the lower part of the cover. Always wondered ..like the hidden bobine has 3 screws sticking out of the cover for the high small strings...
I am gonna say the metal covers are doing more for mid and treble something I noticed with an sg with pickup covers against just plastic
I was really looking for a long long time till i found this great explanation. BUT - i screwed the high e and the b pole a bit deeper, they seem to bit a bit tooo loud at this setting.
you are very close to the common sense need to adjust polepieces and the video maker is wasting time acting smart.
@@DougHinVA I dont get it, what are you talking about?
Hi everyone ,I was wondering if you could help me out here.
I was planning to change the cover of my pickups ( Gibson Humbucker 490r e il 498t) in gold tone so I would need to change the Pole Screws too in the same colour.
I bought Pole Bolts - Slot Head 5-40 x 18mm (imperial).
Did I get the right POLE Screws or did I need to buy different ones?
I am still waiting to receive the guitar with those pickups so I can not really tell but these pole screw looks a little too small to my eyes.
I am not an expert so I was wondering if you could help me out
Thanks!
So what does the poll piece do to the sound? So you can customise the sound better on the guitar?
Yes, you can change the tone by adjusting the pole pieces. For example, if you have a bassy pickup you can raise the poles on the treble strings, or lower the poles on the wound strings
On a Les Paul, would you set the radius for the humbucker’s pole pieces at the neck as well?
Hi David, I would indeed, although you could go a tiny bit less pronounced if you feel. Perhaps let them out by half of what I recommend 👍 Paul
@@RadioshopPickups Thanks! Do you have any content with recommendations for setting dog-ear P90 pole pieces?
What if my replacement Humbucker pole pieces are too long for the humbucker cavity in my guitar?
Would it be best to bolt cut the excess poles length - or try to route out a deeper hole in my guitar??
world love to know what you did
@@user-to9jo2oq2f I played it safe and just routed out a deeper cavity.
You could probably use a Dremel tool if you have it and the patience.
I tried this,the screw won't move up or down,and wax comes from around screw,what's the deal,does that mean their wax potted?
My bridge humbucker high e string side seems louder than the other strings, I wondered if it's because the wrapover bridge is lower on that side or the pole piece is too high?
if that’s the case for both of those things that’s why but also some strings are louder than others so if you wanna compensate like I do utilize the poles with the bobbin all the way down otherwise you have to make use of the actual bobbin like if the poles are fixed or if there are none most people leave both the bobbin as close to the strings without touching and the pole flat because they don’t mind the natural volume per string
Based on this video. Does this mean that all radius tools are wrong? Because if you adjust the pole pieces according to the radius tool. The poles are set much higher than they should be if what you say is correct.
Check this one hazeguitars.com/blog/how-to-set-pickup-pole-piece-height?rq=pole%20pieces
That Haze article is well done.
Just wondering...I have a Gibson SG with the full size pickguard, so the pickups don't tilt with the string angle. Would this affect how you set the pole pieces?
Yes, I'd set the pickup slightly lower and use the pole pieces to get the desired distance on the 6th and 1st then set the rest to to make a straight line across them. I'm not great at explaining stuff so I hope that makes sense lol
Wouldnt it make sense to have the G and B polepieces lower than the radius height because they have more relative magnetic interaction?
EXACTLY WHAT I WASN'T THINKING TOO.
yes. ever notice higher end pups with staggered poles. there are way too many variable here to measure with a ruler.
I have a problem where my open G string doesn’t ring out. Someone suggested the pole piece might be too close to the string?
My screws are all flush with the pickup cover like you started. I messed with those a little but nothing changed.
Do I need to take the covers off and change the actual pole pieces on the pickups?
you could try dropping the pickup height and raising the pole peices.if its a neck pickup that will also give it more clarity.
Thanks for the help. I tried that and it still doesn’t seem to make a difference with either pickup. I’ve tried adjusting the saddle and break angle too and nothing seems to help. It’s only the open G string. Maybe the nut is not cut right?
Also, the pickups already came very low height. I tried raising them even and still the G string sounds so dead and un-resonant. Funny thing is, when I play it unplugged everything seems to ring out just fine.
@@mralgebro possibly old strings could be the cause but also I'd recommend switching the neck and bridge pickups (assuming it's a HH) just briefly to check that it's not a pickup fault
Strings were the first thing I tried. Tried different brands, different gauges. Even tried a wound G string. Nothing helped.
Swapping pickups sounds too complicated for my skills.
Wow, a lot of people saying this advice is plain wrong… it’s just one way to do it that is tried and tested. The bit about high pole pieces making a “spiky” tone says a lot.
These guys have run the gambit on playing with pole pieces, and they make humbuckers, and are trying to teach us how to make their humbuckers sound like humbuckers. If you want a single/hybrid sounding pickup, which is cool too, DONT follow this vid’s advice lol, but these guys ain’t wrong.
I keep the E, B, and G poles a bit higher than the lower strings. That gives me more volume e it is easier to get the sound out of them without much effort. And you get less bass and overtones and feedback. I play a semi holow 335 type guitar. IMO
Nice.
Why do my humberckers have 12 screws. I don't have any flat they all have screws. For instance both of my humbuckers have 12 screws each. So I can't put the classic 57 looking covers on because they only should have 6 screws. I think the luthier that I hired didn't realize I wanted to keep the style when I upgraded
Doesn’t the magnetic screwdriver screw up the magnetic field of the pole pieces?
Question to see if any one else does this....I have found that, at least on my neck humbuckers, I actually remove the low E pole screw completely, to get rid of an unbalanced boom of that string. And no I am not doing anything weird with amp EQ settings, string gauge or general PU height, all pretty normal. Its certainly easy enough to try and put back, but I have never put one back out of a dozen guitars I own.
That's a great idea. I may try that. When referring to E strings, don't use 'High' or 'Low'. It's proper to refer to them as "Fat" or "Skinny" Reason being...
as you hold the guitar in the playing position, the E string that is closest to the floor is higest in pitch. But in position to height , it's the lowest on the guitar.( closer to the floor, not the ceiling)
So it shouldn't be called 'high' It should be called "Skinny E". Same is true for the E string closest to the ceiling. It shouldn't be called the "Low E". It should be called the "Fat E". Position vs Pitch is a better. Easy to see, difficult to explain.
@@johnroseman9087 It not hard to understand if you are a musician, its the low E.
@@nickf9392 You da Man Nick!! Sorry..
@@johnroseman9087 41 years playing guitar, I've never heard fat and skinny until now! I think it's just you mate! 😁🙂
@@Dave-Rough-Diamond-Dunn 🤔 Not my term. It was the guy I took lessons from 48 years ago. Must be an an old school term or totally extinct now!🤣
Great video. Maybe in the beginning, you could hold the pieces still a little bit so we can get a good look at the parts? It would help those of us who don't have a humbucker in front of us that we could disassemble. Thanks!
Why not deeper than flush?
It can damage the pole pieces and your pickups. Sort of like how over adjusting truss rods can damage the Truss Rod and neck
4:38 Does Anyone Know what he Means by “Flesh”?
Flush
I was recommended to raise the poles according to the neck radius or lower only A and G, and in a matter of fact I totally agree with you. Flattering all gives a great clarity and more flexibility with the pickup hight. All flat is my way to go. At least as a starting point.
No, all flat is shit on low to medium output pickups like probuckers. They become too bass heavy. Lowering the pickup helps but kills the low end, so raised poles is the best compromise.
I play high output high gain…
@@elireut5770 Then your pickups should probably have no poles :D
Gibson Burstbucker 3
Why not just do it by ear? I had a boomy P90 and solved it by raising the poles on the treble side
lmfao @ 9:13
You don’t set the pole heights by sight. C’mon. The g (assuming it is unwound like most gauges) should be screwed down as it is the loudest string. You then blend pairs of strings to one another with your ears. Play through your amp with as much gain as you would normally use and double check with a clean tone.
yeah, way to many variables to measure with a ruler. i wonder if he has ever noticed factory stagger on higher end pups. i can see people right now destroying $350 lollars in order to match the radius of a board.
So your name is actually "Pole"?
It's Paul 👍 Paul Piece. Only joking, it is Paul though - a very common name, ha!
@@RadioshopPickups Paul thanks for the video it was very informative.
Great but don’t do the trick with Fender widerange Humbuckers….!
Hey Pole....Piece Man☮️
Ok, ok, ok ……. ok
What a windbag! The first 9:00 minutes the only advise he shares is setting the pole pieces flush. That should have taken 0:09 seconds! He must get paid by the word!
The screws are a cosmetic decision by Gibson. The magnetic field from Humbuckers is so great finite adjustments make absolutely no difference unless you go mad with the heights. This video is ridiculous. Absolutely no reason to adjust the screws unless the guitar has a very small radius fingerboard to compensate for the curve. The screws are a hangover from when Soap Bar pickups were the norm.
Leslie Pek you obviously never tried to adjust polepieces. The difference this adjustment can make is so big that you might change your idea about selling an humbucker when the only thing that was missing was a good polepieces setup!
he wants to hear himself talk and will not get to the point that takes about 30 seconds to say
Aren't the imperial rulers racist in thier origin?
Wrong ... wrong ... wrong
Care to elaborate?
Never take advice from someone telling you to adjust your pile pieces by sight! Would you set your amp knobs by sight? No. The idea is to balance the output for individual strings. The unwound G will be the loudest string. If it’s set the same as the wound D beside it ,it sounds MUCH too dominant. Also, your fretboard has the radius, but what about your bridge? Bad advice, my man 👎🏼
There’s always one 🙄
this one happens to be right. ever notice higher end pups that come with pole already staggered wildly? way too many factors here to measure with a ruler but you go ahead and tear your stuff up. you bought it.@@mickthebandit
@@mickthebandit Yes, one that knows what he's talking about. And there's always the rest of the ignorant herd.
I think he's pointing out an adjustment that may have been otherwise unknown to beginners. Obviously, there will be other steps during which dime adjustments of the pole pieces are done.
Don't be so quick to shit on things.
@@RobertMurphy-wm3ge The adjustment suggested in the video is garbage and will result in uneven volumes of the different strings, since some strings are naturally louder e.g. the unwound G string. There is a perfect tutorial how to do the proper adjustment on the mylespaul forum if you search there for pole adjustment. And there, it's explained quite well why you shouldn't do what the guy in the video does.
Nobody wants to listen to someone talk endlessly.
Au contraire - I love a good Podcast, Sapling 👍 Thank you for you comment, Paul
@@RadioshopPickups your welcome my friend, just keeping it real:-O
@@RadioshopPickups Hey radio I have a question for you. how long have you been playing and could you tell me why the pickups on the Epi le es pro though sustain is great it will not hold to a full bend, I just bought one because the lightness and affordability. Its a cute guitar but the fret board is tacky, plastic of a sort. but the pickups need to be changed I think.
Get to the point!! Non stop useless chatter!
what an annoying speaker
Cheers babes
Great but don’t do the trick with Fender widerange Humbuckers….!
did you just post the same comment twice and did he just use an alnico magnet to see if the adjustable poles were flat