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hey, i was just wonderin' what exactly (i.e. technical terms) happens when you screw in or out the screws? what is the normal height with them? i see most ppl have there pretty much flush witht he plastic. Since i use GHS ZW strings, the low E is a bass string so i tend to pull out the screw some to loose all the bass i get from it. is this ok? what if i took it out so that the whole screw head was just out of the hole??

Those are really just for fine adjustments. Whatever suits your ear- go for it. I have heard of people breaking the coil windings inside pickups by remoing the screws, but I've taken six completely out with no trouble at all...just be careful.

if i understand it correctly, when you raise or lower the screw pole, you are raising or lowering the 'focal point' of the electro-magnetic field that 'picks up' the vibration of the string ... if the string is vibrating in a 'fatter' portion of the field, it will generate a stronger signal (likely to include more naturally occurring harmonics) ... if the string is vibrating in a 'thinner' portion of the field, it will be produce a lower powered frequency response ... this is a loose approximation, but i think it gets to your point ... the total length of the screw, magnet strength, and overall pickup height are also very much involved ...

t4d

If you raise the pole pieces, you increase the overall output and increase the brightness of bridge pickup and in general make a humbucker sound slightly more single-coil-ish, because you are emphasizing the signal of one coil over the other. Lowering them, needless to say, has the reverse effect.

Whoever said that you can ruin the coil by raising or lowering the pole pieces is wrong, or must have been thinking of an incident where someone was trying to raise the rod magnets of a single coil pickup, which DO touch the copper coil (humbucker pole-pieces don't).

Or they were using a very small screwdriver and it slipped and gouged into the little square hole on the end of the coil where you can see the wire, something that could only happen on an uncovered humbucker.


Originally Posted by ZhangliqunWhoever said that you can ruin the coil by raising or lowering the pole pieces is wrong, or must have been thinking of an incident where someone was trying to raise the rod magnets of a single coil pickup, which DO touch the copper coil (humbucker pole-pieces don't).

STRATDELUXER told me it has happened to him.


Originally Posted by big_blackSTRATDELUXER told me it has happened to him.

AAAH, I see the misunderstanding.... On many single coils, esp. vintage style ones (so I´d guess about 90% of what John uses ), the wire is wound directly around the poles.... here pulling a pole CAN break windings or the enamel insulation

But on a humbucker, which Zhangli is thinking of,the bobbin encases the poles fully, so this can´t happen...


Originally Posted by ZerberusOn many single coils, esp. vintage style ones (so I´d guess about 90% of what John uses ), the wire is wound directly around the poles.... here pulling a pole CAN break windings or the enamel insulation

That is weird ... I found a pickup sitting in the electronics shop in my school one day long ago, and being the curious boy that I was I decided to unwind it. The magnets on that one did not directly touch the copper wire. They were mounted inside the bobbin, and there was a layer of plastic between the magnet and the wire.

I believe it was a Fender American Standard pickup from the early 90's, the one with the flat pole pieces.

There probably are some Strat/Tele-style single coils where the rod mags are encased in plastic, but the traditional way is wire wrapped directly around the rod mags.

Strat-style pickups with adjustable poles (or any pickup with adjustables) would by necessity not have the wire touching the poles.