Great post, Joe, I was surprised how big the difference was when you adjusted the height of the pole pieces. I had to lower the pickups on my Les Paul because it was too bass heavy, but now you have me wanting to fine tune them further. Cheers!
The funnest part of moving polepieces for me has been the change in attack. Polepieces down, the pickup seems rounder on the pick-strike and more fit for sustain. With them up, the attack is way heavier w/ an immediate low-end “bump” that goes away (like a compressor knee), but you can over-do this. It can sound a bit like the bass overload from someone speaking too close to the mic. It kinda sounds like a WAY overwound single coil. It’s worth noting that the way it changes EQ is more nuanced than just adding treble, too. Polepiece changes seem to make some highs increase, and others decrease, in a strange but predictable way. Best way to hear it is to “feel” the difference as you try it yourself! ^some food for thought, for those trying this out
FWIW, my approach to this is both similar and different. First, I dial in the height of the bridge pickup to where I think it sounds best. Next, I dial in the height of the neck pickup to where it has the best volume match to the bridge pickup, which may be the same or a bit lower depending on the guitar, pickups, and whether I intend to have an out-of-phase middle position (either hard-wired or on a switch). Finally, I adjust the screw pole pieces to get the best string-to-string volume balance across each pickup.
Hello Perky, I learned a good thing with tuning in humbuckers watching a Joe Walsh video. Raising the treble side a little more than the bass-side will get a nice clarity and bite, also avoiding some muddyness...
Yep, that's a good tip! You can move the balance of the whole pickup that way....to be honest, I rarely find it to be necessary, but it definitely works if things are significantly out of balance.
A lot of good info there Joe! Adjusting pickup height and polepiece is essential to get the best out of them and that varies from guitar to guitar. The polepieces help balance the string to string volume too. Before anyone decides to replace the pickups on a new guitar I would advise spending an hour or so with a screwdriver and it's free! One thing I have noticed about my OX4's is that no matter what guitar they have been in they have the best middle sound of any pickups I own or have tried. Keep up with the vids Joe! Appreciate it.
Absolutely Brian - you might be able to see in the thumbnail that after I'd shot this video, I did raise the D string pole up a tiny bit more as that string was a little lower in volume than the others! But the video was shot and uploaded by that point :P Haha
My approach to string output balance, for 35 years now, has been to get the string gauges right so they're equal for tension and to leave the pole screws alone - just getting an overall height set for the pickups rather than adjusting pole screws. Standard string sets are mostly unbalanced - 9 to 42 for example is weak and flabby on the lower strings and these days I'd go with one of the hybrid sets available now as a much better way of achieving balanced output.
subscribed! I've read that using a strat style stagger makes a positive difference and accounts for the output of the unwound G (that pole piece would be lowest). Whatever you're doing sounds great though!
I first place the humbucker as close to the strings as possible. Then I compensate for the difference in volume by lowering the louder side. Then I adjust the pole pieces until I like the sound and then equalize the difference in volume again. Done
In my situation (70s classic rock) I'll break it down to the days of my 100 watt Marshall Super Lead stack and my Les Paul jr P-90, back in 72 I sit the guitar on a stand facing AWAY from the amp at about 5 feet I turn the amp up to playing level which for me was about 4 Then turn up the guitar and let the strings ring. Turn down the screws of the boisterous notes and turn up the screws that are reluctant to feedback until they are all even. Now when I play, I can cut the guitar volume to 4-6 during the verse and kick it up to 10 when soloing capturing all of the long "Santana, Nugent" type notes So with your humbucker, same principle So depending on the acoustics of the venue, you adjust the amp and it should work for your style. You can always get quiet, but you don't want the bottom falling out during your solo. Now get out there and kick Out The Jams Mer Fers!!
7:18 - yeah I could hear that too! 10:46 - Wow! Got it! I’ve been looking at buying a Seymour Duncan bridge humbucker, but I wanted to be sure about the benefits before spending on them, and here’s where you answered my question about why it’s worth it. All these years I never really knew what a humbucker was - until now. So I just placed the order for a Seymour Duncan TB59 Trembucker Zebra. After seeing this, it’s a no-brainer. Thank you!
I've never really noticed any significant tonal change, but I do think it makes my heavy strings feel a little easier under the fingers. Plus, it looks cool :P
My humbuckers are around 7.1k for neck and 8.5 for the bridge and are quite balanced in volume. I use the same setting for each pickup (2.4 mm). I wondered what your starting point was for the pickups height? I just raised the pole pieces again recently thinking it may give me the sound i want, but the output wasn't enough for me, despite the tone being pretty good. I may even raise it to 2 mm if need be, though the tone could be too harsh.
They were just thrown in, to be honest...didn't measure them to begin with as I was always going to move them. It's all a balancing act depending on pickups, the individual guitar, and personal preference. For the cost of a screwdriver though, there's so many tones to be found just with a few twiddles! :-)
I have an Epiphone les Paul and one if the poles on the neck pickup seems to be turning freely- it doesn't raise or lower when you turn it either way- just turns. That string- the G string- sounds unbelievably dead- the pole is really low, like level with the face of the pickup cover. But I can't get it to raise- like I said, it just turns. I'm going to take it out and see if I can figure it out, I guess- it's the only thing left to do really. If I can't- new pickup time, I suppose. The intonation is horribly out as well- it was put up and my nephew (10 yrs old) got ahold of it and just went to turning screws so- considering that I'm lucky it's just the G string giving me fits. Other than that- it actually sounds pretty good. But I don't have a strobe tuner so- I can't set the intonation. I use a pitch pipe to tune up- no way I can set it with that- my ear isn't that refined. Always has to be something huh- never simple.
You might be able to apply pressure from underneath as you turn the screw and get it to shift upwards - sounds like the internal thread in the plastic might have let go. Intonation should be simple enough to sort - you'll likely be able to get the intonation close enough just using your ears; but a tuner would be a good investment; even one of those cheap headstock clip-on ones would help.
@@JoePerkinsMusic Changing strings helped tremendously- they weren't that old but apparently the G string was just dead for some reason. And I looked at someone else's Epiphone les Paul and set my intonation the same way- it's pretty close now, I can hear it's just slightly out when I'm fretting bar chords way up the neck but- not by much. With a tuner I should be able to dial it in now. As for the screw in the pickup- it doesn't seem to be affecting the sound quality too much so, I may leave it like it is. Now that I see it's not really causing much issue, I wonder how long it's been that way- may have been this way when I bought it.
I'm adjusting a pair of low wind OX4's at the moment! Trying to find that sweet spot where the note "blooms" when decaying, but not quite there yet. These guys are picky on the height! Sounded awful at first, but it's getting there.
Hi Perky, just wondering if you usually compensate for the radius of the strings by having the outer pole piece screws lower than the inner ones? I was thinking this would balance the volume across the strings.
It's very guitar dependent, I find - I don't do it routinely, but if any of the strings are sounding louder/quieter than the others I'll nudge things around until they're more equal. I just play all around the neck and see if anything jumps out as being uneven. But it's not something I find myself doing too much :-)
@@JoePerkinsMusic I’ve been experimenting with it these last couple of weeks and it does seem to make the humbuckers more dynamic and gives them a bit more of a single coil feel. I’ve also tried staggering them according to the magnetic strength of the strings, which seems to work better than the radius arrangement. Future comparison video idea for you perhaps? 😉
In the old days, the local music store salesman showed me how to adjust pole pieces on the big hollow body Gibson Jazz guitars. Basically adjust pole pieces to the radius of the neck and individually adjust as necessary. He showed me how to do it: Start with all pole pieces flush with the cover. Turn #2 and #5 up one turn. Turn #3 and #4 up two turns. Here is the description in more detail. Reference: Dan Erlewine Long Post - Copied from the Les Paul Forum www.lespaulforum.com/index.php?threads/dan-erlewine-les-paul-set-up.184647/ The pickup polepieces [on the '59] were set up to match the 12” (305mm) string radius created by the bridge saddles. I asked some repair techs and Gibsonelectric expert Phil Jones about this polepiece adjustment. Jones was the Gibson Custom Shop’s first builder, and worked there for fifteen years before joining the world-class, six-man repair team at Gruhn Guitars in Nashville, Tennessee. “Gibson set the outside polepieces flush to the pickup cover,” Jones says. “When flush with the cover, the screwdriver slots of a typical humbucker are at a 45-degree angle. When you raise the middle polepieces to a 12” (305mm) radius, you end up with an almost perfect zig-zag pattern from side to side. In later years, Gibson started putting anything with a slot-stop-bar studs and polepiece slots-in neat, straight lines going at right angles to the strings, to look good.” My friend Albert Garcia of Whittier, California, an expert setup man, uses a set of .010” to .046” strings (.3mm to 1.2mm) on his Les Paul and adjusts the pickups as follows: “I use the same zig-zag radius setup that Phil Jones described. Gibson used to recommend lowering the B-string, but I don’t. I set the polepiece radius, then adjust the neck pickup to exactly 1/16” (1.6mm) on both sides, and the bridge pickup the same. Since the screwdriver slot in a polepiece means that metal was removed, zig-zagged polepieces place more metal under each string than a polepiece adjusted with the slot going in line with the strings. “Then I go back and drop the bass side of the neck pickup another 1/32” (.8mm) or so-until it knocks off some of that ‘whoofiness’ that the neck pickup on a Les Paul always has. I use the exact same setup on P-90s. Also, when I’m done adjusting the polepieces, I remove the pickups and cut the bottoms of the polepieces off-there’s less capacitance if you remove the metal, and it tends to brighten up the sound. I wouldn’t do this on a vintage, however.”-Albert Garcia, Wittier California Here’s the final setup for the black ’78 Les Paul I’ve been working on through-out the book. In the end, it played great. I radiused and zig-zagged the P-90 polepieces just like the humbucking pickups mentioned above. The heads of the two oval-head Phillips screws that hold the P-90s into the body were catching the B-, G-, A-, and D-polepieces when I tried to raise or lower them (not an uncommon occurrence). I removed the screws, chucked them into my electric drill, and ground their heads against a smooth file to downsize them. It worked perfectly.
They're screws (& not slugs) to allow for adjustment :) If you slip with the screwdriver you could scratch the covers/bobbins or mash the screw heads, but otherwise that's their exact purpose.
@@kodykindhart5644 I knew about this years ago.otherwise theyr wouldn't be screws.dont be a pussy and affraid you'll ruin your $5000 Gibson...lol.even if I could afford one I would turn those screws quicker than your head could spin like the Exorcist.
Ppl will complain but you showed exactly what this does Amp and pedals will react differently as will cabs and rooms so it’s hard to know the true effect but appreciate the video
I think this has been one of the most useful pickup adjustment videos I’ve ever heard. The pole piece analysis in particular was gold.
Great post, Joe, I was surprised how big the difference was when you adjusted the height of the pole pieces. I had to lower the pickups on my Les Paul because it was too bass heavy, but now you have me wanting to fine tune them further. Cheers!
It's amazing how much of a difference you can get with just a few twists of a screwdriver :-)
The funnest part of moving polepieces for me has been the change in attack. Polepieces down, the pickup seems rounder on the pick-strike and more fit for sustain. With them up, the attack is way heavier w/ an immediate low-end “bump” that goes away (like a compressor knee), but you can over-do this. It can sound a bit like the bass overload from someone speaking too close to the mic. It kinda sounds like a WAY overwound single coil.
It’s worth noting that the way it changes EQ is more nuanced than just adding treble, too. Polepiece changes seem to make some highs increase, and others decrease, in a strange but predictable way. Best way to hear it is to “feel” the difference as you try it yourself! ^some food for thought, for those trying this out
FWIW, my approach to this is both similar and different. First, I dial in the height of the bridge pickup to where I think it sounds best. Next, I dial in the height of the neck pickup to where it has the best volume match to the bridge pickup, which may be the same or a bit lower depending on the guitar, pickups, and whether I intend to have an out-of-phase middle position (either hard-wired or on a switch). Finally, I adjust the screw pole pieces to get the best string-to-string volume balance across each pickup.
Hello Perky, I learned a good thing with tuning in humbuckers watching a Joe Walsh video. Raising the treble side a little more than the bass-side will get a nice clarity and bite, also avoiding some muddyness...
Yep, that's a good tip! You can move the balance of the whole pickup that way....to be honest, I rarely find it to be necessary, but it definitely works if things are significantly out of balance.
Great video, I appreciate all the work you put in to produce these video's, and it's great to be able watch a fellow lefty play!
A lot of good info there Joe! Adjusting pickup height and polepiece is essential to get the best out of them and that varies from guitar to guitar. The polepieces help balance the string to string volume too. Before anyone decides to replace the pickups on a new guitar I would advise spending an hour or so with a screwdriver and it's free! One thing I have noticed about my OX4's is that no matter what guitar they have been in they have the best middle sound of any pickups I own or have tried. Keep up with the vids Joe! Appreciate it.
Absolutely Brian - you might be able to see in the thumbnail that after I'd shot this video, I did raise the D string pole up a tiny bit more as that string was a little lower in volume than the others! But the video was shot and uploaded by that point :P Haha
@@JoePerkinsMusic Funny enough Joe, but all my humbuckers have the D string polepiece a fraction higher!!😊
My approach to string output balance, for 35 years now, has been to get the string gauges right so they're equal for tension and to leave the pole screws alone - just getting an overall height set for the pickups rather than adjusting pole screws. Standard string sets are mostly unbalanced - 9 to 42 for example is weak and flabby on the lower strings and these days I'd go with one of the hybrid sets available now as a much better way of achieving balanced output.
subscribed! I've read that using a strat style stagger makes a positive difference and accounts for the output of the unwound G (that pole piece would be lowest). Whatever you're doing sounds great though!
I first place the humbucker as close to the strings as possible. Then I compensate for the difference in volume by lowering the louder side. Then I adjust the pole pieces until I like the sound and then equalize the difference in volume again. Done
In my situation (70s classic rock)
I'll break it down to the days of my 100 watt Marshall Super Lead stack and my Les Paul jr P-90, back in 72
I sit the guitar on a stand facing AWAY from the amp at about 5 feet
I turn the amp up to playing level which for me was about 4
Then turn up the guitar and let the strings ring.
Turn down the screws of the boisterous notes and turn up the screws that are reluctant to feedback until they are all even.
Now when I play, I can cut the guitar volume to 4-6 during the verse and kick it up to 10 when soloing capturing all of the long "Santana, Nugent" type notes
So with your humbucker, same principle
So depending on the acoustics of the venue, you adjust the amp and it should work for your style.
You can always get quiet, but you don't want the bottom falling out during your solo.
Now get out there and kick Out The Jams Mer Fers!!
7:18 - yeah I could hear that too!
10:46 - Wow! Got it! I’ve been looking at buying a Seymour Duncan bridge humbucker, but I wanted to be sure about the benefits before spending on them, and here’s where you answered my question about why it’s worth it. All these years I never really knew what a humbucker was - until now.
So I just placed the order for a Seymour Duncan TB59 Trembucker Zebra. After seeing this, it’s a no-brainer.
Thank you!
Happy to help mate :-)
Well explained good work,do you find top wrapping an improvement in tone
I've never really noticed any significant tonal change, but I do think it makes my heavy strings feel a little easier under the fingers. Plus, it looks cool :P
Joe, what is starting point for pickup height for bridge and neck in 64ths?
Cereal tweaker here! I spend a lot of time on details rather than playing....and it feels great!
My humbuckers are around 7.1k for neck and 8.5 for the bridge and are quite balanced in volume. I use the same setting for each pickup (2.4 mm). I wondered what your starting point was for the pickups height? I just raised the pole pieces again recently thinking it may give me the sound i want, but the output wasn't enough for me, despite the tone being pretty good. I may even raise it to 2 mm if need be, though the tone could be too harsh.
They were just thrown in, to be honest...didn't measure them to begin with as I was always going to move them. It's all a balancing act depending on pickups, the individual guitar, and personal preference. For the cost of a screwdriver though, there's so many tones to be found just with a few twiddles! :-)
I have an Epiphone les Paul and one if the poles on the neck pickup seems to be turning freely- it doesn't raise or lower when you turn it either way- just turns. That string- the G string- sounds unbelievably dead- the pole is really low, like level with the face of the pickup cover. But I can't get it to raise- like I said, it just turns. I'm going to take it out and see if I can figure it out, I guess- it's the only thing left to do really. If I can't- new pickup time, I suppose. The intonation is horribly out as well- it was put up and my nephew (10 yrs old) got ahold of it and just went to turning screws so- considering that I'm lucky it's just the G string giving me fits. Other than that- it actually sounds pretty good. But I don't have a strobe tuner so- I can't set the intonation. I use a pitch pipe to tune up- no way I can set it with that- my ear isn't that refined. Always has to be something huh- never simple.
You might be able to apply pressure from underneath as you turn the screw and get it to shift upwards - sounds like the internal thread in the plastic might have let go. Intonation should be simple enough to sort - you'll likely be able to get the intonation close enough just using your ears; but a tuner would be a good investment; even one of those cheap headstock clip-on ones would help.
@@JoePerkinsMusic Changing strings helped tremendously- they weren't that old but apparently the G string was just dead for some reason. And I looked at someone else's Epiphone les Paul and set my intonation the same way- it's pretty close now, I can hear it's just slightly out when I'm fretting bar chords way up the neck but- not by much. With a tuner I should be able to dial it in now. As for the screw in the pickup- it doesn't seem to be affecting the sound quality too much so, I may leave it like it is. Now that I see it's not really causing much issue, I wonder how long it's been that way- may have been this way when I bought it.
Thanks. Good info.
I'm adjusting a pair of low wind OX4's at the moment! Trying to find that sweet spot where the note "blooms" when decaying, but not quite there yet. These guys are picky on the height! Sounded awful at first, but it's getting there.
They can be a little finicky, but once you get there......sublime! :-)
@@JoePerkinsMusic Where did yours end up? I'm still working on it...
@@rjansvendsen6014 Sat a little lower down, but with the pole screws raised up a turn or two....lovely PAF clarity & quack 🙂
@@JoePerkinsMusic Thanks man. Could i bother you with a measurement on the bridge? Still looking =P
Joe, I can't figure out what you have on both guitars between the bridge and the tail piece. What is that? Thanks...
...strings? :P They’re top-wrapped over the tailpiece though, so maybe that’s what you’re seeing? Can’t think of anything else!
Oh - maybe it’s the little cartoon grim reaper sticker you’re meaning?
Hi Perky, just wondering if you usually compensate for the radius of the strings by having the outer pole piece screws lower than the inner ones? I was thinking this would balance the volume across the strings.
It's very guitar dependent, I find - I don't do it routinely, but if any of the strings are sounding louder/quieter than the others I'll nudge things around until they're more equal. I just play all around the neck and see if anything jumps out as being uneven. But it's not something I find myself doing too much :-)
@@JoePerkinsMusic I’ve been experimenting with it these last couple of weeks and it does seem to make the humbuckers more dynamic and gives them a bit more of a single coil feel. I’ve also tried staggering them according to the magnetic strength of the strings, which seems to work better than the radius arrangement. Future comparison video idea for you perhaps? 😉
In the old days, the local music store salesman showed me how to adjust pole pieces
on the big hollow body Gibson Jazz guitars. Basically adjust pole pieces to the radius of the neck and individually adjust as necessary. He showed me how to do it: Start with all pole pieces flush with the cover. Turn #2 and #5 up one turn. Turn #3 and #4 up two turns.
Here is the description in more detail.
Reference: Dan Erlewine
Long Post - Copied from the Les Paul Forum
www.lespaulforum.com/index.php?threads/dan-erlewine-les-paul-set-up.184647/
The pickup polepieces [on the '59] were set up to match the 12” (305mm) string radius created by the bridge saddles. I asked some repair techs and Gibsonelectric expert Phil Jones about this polepiece adjustment. Jones was the Gibson Custom Shop’s first builder, and worked there for fifteen years before joining the world-class, six-man repair team at Gruhn Guitars in Nashville, Tennessee.
“Gibson set the outside polepieces flush to the pickup cover,” Jones says. “When flush with the cover, the screwdriver slots of a typical humbucker are at a 45-degree angle. When you raise the middle polepieces to a 12” (305mm) radius, you end up with an almost perfect zig-zag pattern from side to side. In later years, Gibson started putting anything with a slot-stop-bar studs and polepiece slots-in neat, straight lines going at right angles to the strings, to look good.”
My friend Albert Garcia of Whittier, California, an expert setup man, uses a set of .010” to .046” strings (.3mm to 1.2mm) on his Les Paul and adjusts the pickups as follows:
“I use the same zig-zag radius setup that Phil Jones described. Gibson used to recommend lowering the B-string, but I don’t. I set the polepiece radius, then adjust the neck pickup to exactly 1/16” (1.6mm) on both sides, and the bridge pickup the same. Since the screwdriver slot in a polepiece means that metal was removed, zig-zagged polepieces place more metal under each string than a polepiece adjusted with the slot going in line with the strings.
“Then I go back and drop the bass side of the neck pickup another 1/32” (.8mm) or so-until it knocks off some of that ‘whoofiness’ that the neck pickup on a Les Paul always has. I use the exact same setup on P-90s. Also, when I’m done adjusting the polepieces, I remove the pickups and cut the bottoms of the polepieces off-there’s less capacitance if you remove the metal, and it tends to brighten up the sound. I wouldn’t do this on a vintage, however.”-Albert Garcia, Wittier California
Here’s the final setup for the black ’78 Les Paul I’ve been working on through-out the book. In the end, it played great. I radiused and zig-zagged the P-90 polepieces just like the humbucking pickups mentioned above.
The heads of the two oval-head Phillips screws that hold the P-90s into the body were catching the B-, G-, A-, and D-polepieces when I tried to raise or lower them (not an uncommon occurrence). I removed the screws, chucked them into my electric drill, and ground their heads against a smooth file to downsize them. It worked perfectly.
You rock buddy!!!
thats a nice frexkin guitar mane!
can raising pole screw damage your pickups?
They're screws (& not slugs) to allow for adjustment :) If you slip with the screwdriver you could scratch the covers/bobbins or mash the screw heads, but otherwise that's their exact purpose.
@@JoePerkinsMusic thank u sir... cause i think it will damage your pickups not going to sound as it is.
Wtf you smokin?
Ppl put the crack down 😭😭 jk
Seriously tho just have fun and make music
@@kodykindhart5644 I knew about this years ago.otherwise theyr wouldn't be screws.dont be a pussy and affraid you'll ruin your $5000 Gibson...lol.even if I could afford one I would turn those screws quicker than your head could spin like the Exorcist.
jeff beck did this alot when he played humbuckers
It’s all voodoo, regardless of who does it
Thanks for this
Ppl will complain but you showed exactly what this does
Amp and pedals will react differently as will cabs and rooms so it’s hard to know the true effect but appreciate the video
You know who Duane allman is?
It’s got to suck being left handed. Left handed guitarist usually kick ass obviously.
Pafs? Did you mean P.A.F.'s
Very good.
Starts 6:00
You spelled dialing wrong.
We use the Double L here in the UK.
Your crazy if you think this sounds good