Best Way To Position Strings Over Polepieces?

[monkeyhaiku]

So I'm working on an 8-string bass (octave kind) from Warmoth parts. I went with Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups. The pickups have 8 polepieces. My question is: do I want to cut the divots in the bridge such that each string is directly over a polepiece? Should I maybe try to postion both strings between the poles?

Thanks!

[GregP]

The magnetic field isn't nearly as precise as people like to think. That said, you generally want to position your strings OVER the polepieces, right? Problem being, it's an octave-style bass, so the strings are essentially "doubled". Conventional wisdom (though I don't know from personal experience, so someone can correct me) dictates that you will put your doubled strings quite close together, and position them over the polepieces so that the overall "width" of the combined strings is centered over the polepiece. You'll probably catch the outside edges of the polepiece with the strings in that kind of setup. But since you're building it, you get to be creative! Since the bass notes are more important ultimately, you can position it so that the bass strings are centered over the polepieces, with the secondary strings catching the outside edge. Make no mistake, they WILL be picked up in the magnetic field, but they'll theoretically be less pronounced.

In any event, whatever configuration you come up with, try to get as much string mass over the polepieces as you can, and do not set it so that the strings go between.