Zhangliqun
New member
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2001
- Messages
- 5,204
Shortening/cutting pole pieces on humbucker pickups to change the tone of the pu (by changing the shape/position of the magnetic field) is hardly a new idea. But I've never heard it discussed in any application other than cutting them all at once and to the exact same length.
From my little experiments over the weekend, you can really "tune" each pole piece to get the exact tone you want from each string. The rule seems to be that the shorter the pole is, the beefier the midrange, and obviously vice versa. (Within reason of course -- I imagine that if you cut it so short that it no longer is in contact with the bar magnet, the output might drop, but I'm not sure.) I like a fat, sensitive high E-string on my neck pu's so I tried this. I ground 1/4" off the high E pole with a big file and found it to be a little TOO beefy. I grabbed another Gibson pole from my box o' parts and ground only an 1/8" off this time. Voila! Just right...
The rest of the strings sounded fine so I left the other 5 poles as is.
Anyway, it's a free and easy mod to consider BEFORE blowing $75 to $150 on a new pickup for want of mids.
From my little experiments over the weekend, you can really "tune" each pole piece to get the exact tone you want from each string. The rule seems to be that the shorter the pole is, the beefier the midrange, and obviously vice versa. (Within reason of course -- I imagine that if you cut it so short that it no longer is in contact with the bar magnet, the output might drop, but I'm not sure.) I like a fat, sensitive high E-string on my neck pu's so I tried this. I ground 1/4" off the high E pole with a big file and found it to be a little TOO beefy. I grabbed another Gibson pole from my box o' parts and ground only an 1/8" off this time. Voila! Just right...
The rest of the strings sounded fine so I left the other 5 poles as is.
Anyway, it's a free and easy mod to consider BEFORE blowing $75 to $150 on a new pickup for want of mids.