Adjustable pole pieces?

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Adjustable pole pieces?

Postby pjr » Thu Mar 24, 2022 11:01 am

I'm aware of some G&L strat type pickups having adjustable pole pieces but does anyone know of or have experience of aftermarket strat pickups with adjustable poles?


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Re: Adjustable pole pieces?

Postby Tigerdaisy » Thu Mar 24, 2022 12:37 pm

I'm interested in trying out some pickups as fitted to the S500 G&L guitars. To me it's a great weakness to many single coil designs that you get such awful uneven volume over your strings because of pole pieces that don't match the curvature of the neck profile. I've had so may guitars over the years that have been pretty crap in this dept- probably why humbuckers are as popular as they are.
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Re: Adjustable pole pieces?

Postby dave robinson » Thu Mar 24, 2022 1:20 pm

I'm struggling to find a problem with the stock pickups on any of my Fender Strats', some are the vintage staggered type and some are all flat, but they all sound great with no issues. I have to wonder if the strings are the main issue rather than the pickups.
Originally the early Strats had heavy stings with a wound third, possibly 13/56 gauge and I always remember the third string sounding weak on my '63 Strat. When I switched to lighter strings the problem wasn't there any more.
Recently I have been experimenting with different guitars and strings to obtain maximum comfort in playing, due to my hands being damaged by the chemo therapy I had and I can say that I have discovered my PRS SE Custom 24 is the most comfortable profile for me in my current situation. I have tried numerous different string gauges and settled on Ernie Ball 'Mighty Slinky' which are 8.5/40 with a plain third. Using the coil tap on the BareKnuckle Mule humbuckers which I fitted to the guitar I get a very good early Strat sound that is more than acceptable for my favourite Shadows tracks. This is something that I would have dismissed a few years ago, but my patience has led me to a very comfortable way of keeping up my musical activities.
I have a G&L S-500 with the pickups described by Pete and they are excellent and I would go as far as saying they are possibly the best Strat pickups that I own. They are nothing remarkable other than they have adjustable pole pieces (which I have never adjusted) but the sound is always excellent. I think Leo Fender's tone circuit on these guitars has a lot to do with the quality, the guitar is equipped with bass and treble controls that actually work. :)
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Re: Adjustable pole pieces?

Postby roger bayliss » Thu Mar 24, 2022 6:28 pm

I have a G&L S500 and the pickups do have adjustable poles . Great for plain G strings . They are great pickups. The fretboard radius is 12 inches on that guitar.

I often felt the same way about single coils not having adjustable pole screws and have even bought some tiny magnets to use on some pickup poles .

The other issue with vintage pickups, is the fretboard curvature and flatter modern boards need a flatter pole design. I found Toneriders were good for flatter modern profiles and some manufacturers do take this into account. My USA American Professional Strat has a compound radius.

I have moved the pole pieces on a few pickups, using a soldering iron on the pole to soften the wax for about 5-10 seconds then pushing it through to the new height . Generally okay to do on modern pickups as the pole pieces are usually in a plastic sleeve and coil winding not in contact with pole.
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Re: Adjustable pole pieces?

Postby JimN » Thu Mar 24, 2022 11:44 pm

roger bayliss wrote:I have a G&L S500 and the pickups do have adjustable poles . Great for plain G strings . They are great pickups. The fretboard radius is 12 inches on that guitar.
I often felt the same way about single coils not having adjustable pole screws and have even bought some tiny magnets to use on some pickup poles .
The other issue with vintage pickups, is the fretboard curvature and flatter modern boards need a flatter pole design. I found Toneriders were good for flatter modern profiles and some manufacturers do take this into account. My USA American Professional Strat has a compound radius.
I have moved the pole pieces on a few pickups, using a soldering iron on the pole to soften the wax for about 5-10 seconds then pushing it through to the new height . Generally okay to do on modern pickups as the pole pieces are usually in a plastic sleeve and coil winding not in contact with pole.


I got my son (in the USA) to order me a pair of ASAT (Telecaster) G&L pickups. Only $100 the pair!

I still keep meaning to install them in my 2012 American Standard Tele.... but the guitar sounds (and balances) better than I expected with the original Broadcaster bridge unit and Twisted Tele neck unit.
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Re: Adjustable pole pieces?

Postby John Boyd » Fri Mar 25, 2022 8:53 am

If I may sound boring, why change what sounds ok to you?
Cheers from an oldie in NZ.
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Re: Adjustable pole pieces?

Postby roger bayliss » Fri Mar 25, 2022 9:31 am

If it ain't broke Jim !
American Pro Series Strat 2017, G&L S500 Natural Ash
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Re: Adjustable pole pieces?

Postby JimN » Fri Mar 25, 2022 1:37 pm

The main reason for the need for adjustable polepieces is that using medium gauge strings with a wrapped G gives unacceptable results unless the third string can be correctly compensated in volume. That string is too quiet (Dave said the same thing).

This is something I learned - to my cost - when I got my first Fender guitar when I was 18. The Jazzmaster pickups with flush poles simply would not balance acceptably - despite anything anyone else might claim - with medium gauge strings (13-56 or similar). OK, they may balance less badly with very light strings (10-46 or lighter), but the balance problem then changes because the G string is too loud, especially when using a warm tone, which senses magnetic imbalance more than does a "twangy" sound. At 19, I was not enamoured of very light gauge strings (something like 11-50 was as light as I would use) and I was thereby disabused of playing Fender guitars as a general versatile instrument in a variety of styles. It isn't peculiar to Fender, of course. The same was true of Vox and most Burns pickups.

I've used various workarounds, the best being being having pickups specially made for a Jazzmaster and a Jagmaster with the internals of a P90 (adjustable pole screws!) fitted inside Jazzmaster and HB-size covers. Result: perfection.
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Re: Adjustable pole pieces?

Postby Uncle Fiesta » Sat Mar 26, 2022 11:53 am

I recently bought a set of Entwistle XS 62N's which have adjustable pole pieces (via slot headed screws - very old skool!) and will report back when I've had a chance to fit them to a Strat and try them out.
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Re: Adjustable pole pieces?

Postby Tigerdaisy » Sat Mar 26, 2022 12:26 pm

I suppose one explanation that Fender have been able to get away with unbalanced pups is that many players don't tend to play Shadows type melodies but more tend to play chords and 'blues' type things. I have a Yamaha Pacifica 612 with Seymour Duncan pups- these are better balanced for volume on a fairly flat radius neck. My Squier CV Tele to which I've fitted Tonerider third party pups,(Vintage Plus) are not at all balanced and I've needed to put a pretty severe adjustment to them...
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