Fender Pickups

[Donovan]

I only own Fender/Squier guitars, so I am not familiar with pickups for non-Fender'ish guitars. The question is, why are the mag poles set as to not lie directly beneath the strings on the outer strings? All my fender pickups seem like in the neck and middle positions, the pickups were designed to fit under the bridge, but in the neck and middle positions, anything other than the D and G strings has an offset which becomes most pronounced on both of the E strings. Is there a logical reason for this? Further, are there aftermarket pole pickups that have pole pieces that WILL align directly beneath the strings?

Thanks.

[psw]

Hi

Gibson guitars have a narrower string spread all over the neck and at the bridge end than a fender. Even squiers have a narrower spread, MIM strats different again. So a gibson HB typically won't align (see how EVH's guitar had his pickup tilted a bit) although it doesn't hake a heap of difference. Fender now make the bridge pickups a little wider than the others...many makers have followed this too. There are a bunch of special HB's about though often called F-spaced or Trembuckers and the like which indicates a wider string spread to alighn the poles better on fender like guitars.

Often though, there is not that much difference if the poles are a little out of alignment...the magnetic field is obviously a lit wider than the pole or it would drop out when you bend strings. There are of course blade designs and things like the 11 pole carvins for instance

pete

[Donovan]

...the magnetic field is obviously a lit wider than the pole or it would drop out when you bend strings. There are of course blade designs and things like the 11 pole carvins for instance

So it is a standard thing to do (have the poles wider/shifted? Does any well-known manufacturer Not do this? What you said makes sense about the bending, but I guess it didn't occur to me since you can't really bend more than an eighth or quarter step before the strings roll over the fret edges.

I just noticed my bridge position JB is afflicted with this in the opposite (poles misaligned smaller than the string width)... is this because it was originally designed for something non-Fender? ...I am hoping there aren't several flavors of JB and I got the wrong one.

Edited February 26, 2009 by Donovan

[SwedishLuthier]

you can't really bend more than an eighth or quarter step before the strings roll over the fret edges

Have a look/lend an ear to David Gillmore. He does those 2 1/2 note bends and he probably cross several poles during those bends and you newer hear any volume drop or anything like that wehen he gets going.

[Paul Marossy]

you can't really bend more than an eighth or quarter step before the strings roll over the fret edges

Have a look/lend an ear to David Gillmore. He does those 2 1/2 note bends and he probably cross several poles during those bends and you newer hear any volume drop or anything like that wehen he gets going.

Yeah, I think people try to split hairs too much over this sort of thing. I would also say that people that have been playing a long time, if they think that they hear a drop in volume, probably compensate by picking a little harder when bending the strings. If you hear a volume drop off when bending strings, it's a problem with your technique, not the pickups.

My feelings on this is that it is another wive's tale kind of thing. I've been doing a lot of string bending for years and never heard a perceptible "volume dropoff". I bet if you could see the magnetic fields around each pole piece, that they would actually be invading eachother's space a bit, and there is no weak spots to speak of. At least nothing significant.

Edited February 26, 2009 by Paul Marossy

[Donovan]

you can't really bend more than an eighth or quarter step before the strings roll over the fret edges

Have a look/lend an ear to David Gillmore. He does those 2 1/2 note bends and he probably cross several poles during those bends and you newer hear any volume drop or anything like that wehen he gets going.

I think you missed my meaning or I didn't phrase it properly. I was referring to the high and low E strings (where the bulk of the misalignment is), that one can only bend a very small amount (to the edges) before rolloing over the fret edges, meaning the edge of the fingerboard, where pitch usually jumps up some ridiculous amount, depending on what becomes the new magic fret surface when you lose the intended fret surface. I do realize the only way to get more than the 1/8 bend on these string is to bend them inward toward the center strings or center of the fretboard. For this reason, I would venture (and yes, this is totally speculative) that most players bend the high and low E strings toward the center of the fretboard, not toward the edges, except maybe for vibrato effect, if nothing else to avoid running out of fretboard. So, that being the case, it just seemed it would make more sense to place the poles for the E's where the strings most likely will be, not outside of them, on the fretboard edge, where most players do not want to go anyway (for me, out of fear of dreadful upward pitch shift upon fretboard rolloff).

Edited February 27, 2009 by Donovan

[AndrewCE]

you can't really bend more than an eighth or quarter step before the strings roll over the fret edges

Have a look/lend an ear to David Gillmore. He does those 2 1/2 note bends and he probably cross several poles during those bends and you newer hear any volume drop or anything like that wehen he gets going.

I think you missed my meaning or I didn't phrase it properly. I was referring to the high and low E strings (where the bulk of the misalignment is), that one can only bend a very small amount (to the edges) before rolloing over the fret edges, meaning the edge of the fingerboard, where pitch usually jumps up some ridiculous amount, depending on what becomes the new magic fret surface when you lose the intended fret surface. I do realize the only way to get more than the 1/8 bend on these string is to bend them inward toward the center strings or center of the fretboard. For this reason, I would venture (and yes, this is totally speculative) that most players bend the high and low E strings toward the center of the fretboard, not toward the edges, except maybe for vibrato effect, if nothing else to avoid running out of fretboard. So, that being the case, it just seemed it would make more sense to place the poles for the E's where the strings most likely will be, not outside of them, on the fretboard edge, where most players do not want to go anyway (for me, out of fear of dreadful upward pitch shift upon fretboard rolloff).

right, you're supposed to bend pretty much all strings toward the center of the fretboard, or else you run the risk of going off the edge. i dont think the pickups were DESIGNED for going off the edge, they probably just make them a bit wider than they have to just in case they get misaligned a bit in assembly

[Keegan]

But Fender puts the bridge single coil at an angle anyways...always putting the poles misaligned with the strings, and it doesn't seem to make a bit of difference.

Besides, on a humbucker with adjustable polepieces, you can always just bring the outside poles up a little.

[Donovan]

Well, I guess I was looking for a methodical reason as to why. Perhaps at one point they were all going to be on a slant. There hasn't been one provided yet. It seems like the configuration is not ideal and another question is how would we know if it makes no big difference without something test bed to immediately compare/contrast? I am not suggesting anyone go rip a guitar apart for the sake of answering this simple question, but I am beginning to think maybe it came down to something like manufacturing cost savings in creating one set spacing and using for all 3 positions. The second part of this question is, does any manufacturer put OEM pickups in their guitars where the pole spaces DO line up with the strings?

It really is not of consequence for playing, as has been commented repeatedly, so I should explain why I asked. The question came about after attempts at turning a single coil pickup into a sustainer driver. In that configuration, the pole spacing is VERY critical, hence a lot of the DIY stuff in the sustainer ideas thread is based around a blade design to distribute the field.