software

... such as the Fender SRV Signature Strat for example, do you live with the staggered polepiece single coils or switch to flat polepiece pickups?

Like to know your choices and why.

Either will work, though for a truer to vintage sound, the staggered poles are a must. If they sound a bit thin for you, flat poles will sound a bit fatter and will have a bit more mids to them.

I didn't realize the SRV strat had a 12quot; radius until you mentioned it.. wow.

as far as I can tell, most people consider 10 inches the quot;change over pointquot; anything under 10 is better off staggered, over 10 is better off flat, but to be honest, I prefer staggered no matter what the radius it...they just sound more quot;Strat likequot; to my ears

Im confused by this pole peice discussion.. how do you know the difference between staggard and flat?? The poles height??

I use staggered Alnico Pro II's and do the SRV trick of pressing all of the magnets flush with the top of the pickup cover so they protrude out of the bottom of the pickup.
This sounds perfect on flatter radius necks... on traditional radius necks I push only the G string magnet flush to get a better balance with the plain 3rd string.

12quot; is the perfect fretboard radius.


Originally Posted by Kamanda~SDIm confused by this pole peice discussion.. how do you know the difference between staggard and flat?? The poles height??

The difference is very obvious, nothing that requires a trained eye.

Staggered pole Strat pickups have rod magnets that are different heights and so some protrude more from the surface of the pickup than others. On a staggered pole Strat pickup, the B-string pole is even with the surface, maybe even slightly below, while the G-string pole sticks out almost 1/4quot;. The rest are somewhere in between.

Flat poles are flush with the surface of the pickup cover.

Some pickup makers make Strat pickups with radius-ed poles (Kinman comes to mind), meaning they more or less follow the radius of the fingerboard and strings -- e.g., low on the E-strings, a little higher on the A and B strings, and highest on the D and G strings.

The traditional/vintage way is staggered. (FWIW - This is part of what gave Jimi Hendrix his sound because he would flip a right-handed Strat over and string it the other way, meaning the stagger pattern would be reversed.)