You’re not supposed to follow the fretboard radius, instead you should follow the string core diameters, which are responsible for string output. Look at a staggered single coil pickup for reference of the pattern (with the exception of the G string, which is still today provided with the tallest polepieces, because historically it was a wound string and its core part was the thinnest). At the end of the process, the D and high E polepieces should be the highest, the A and B intermediate, the E and G lowest. I fine-set them with a clean uncompressed tone by picking evenly, aiming to achieve the exact output volume from each string, which is one of the two reasons I do this to all my humbucker equipped guitars. With modern flatter fretboard radius, you only need very small differences in polepieces height, sometimes even just 0.1 mm is fine. The second reason I do this is, as per the aim of your video, tone adjustment. So you can move all polepieces equally up or down, keeping the stagger pattern explained above, to vary the tone while keeping the volume even across the strings. I agree with your description that the more you raise the polepieces, the more you add mids, pick attack and clarity. However, if you lower the whole pickup a bit at the same time, you’ll be able to add mids (or reduce bass, if you want to see it that way), without adding too much attack or treble. This can really compensate for a dull sounding guitar or pickup, or a bass-heavy/scooped sounding pickup.
You're supposed to do whatever sounds good to you. There is no set rule. You can follow fretboard radius. You can stagger them like Fender. It's up to you and what sounds good TO YOU.
Thank you for this video dude!!!! I bought an epiphone sg and it was too heavy in my low end after i adjusted the bridge, once i adjusted the pickups it sounds incredible 🤘🙏
7:14 flat 7:37 raised I think that in this part the raised polepiece makes the pickup less saturated, which is not so good for distortion. But for the raised polepiece clean sound sounds pretty good.
From my experience and understanding of humbucker pickups, raising pole pieces can do two things. One, it can be used to balance volume between strings. Two, it can be used to change balance between the 2 coils. By raising the poles on the the coil closest to the bridge, more power is produced from string vibration because it's position in the magnetic field has become more optimal in that coil. That coil gets louder. By also lowering the entire pickup to retain the original volume, you can brighten the pickup. By moving a pickup closer to the strings the volume goes up and the note sounds more focused. By changing the balance of the coils, the sound can be affected in a way to emphasize a difference similar to what you can hear picking over one coil vs the other. A small adjustment can go a long way. Usually i do a 1/4 turn at a time on all adjustments. Original gibson humbuckers are know for unbalanced coils. It was a quirk of the manufacturing at the time. Wordy i know.
The reason some of your polepiece screws are stripped is because when the pickups were potted the wax was too hot or the coils were left in the wax bath for too long. This began to melt the plastic coil forms and blunt the threads in the plastic. I'm pretty sure the previous owner of your guitar never touched the screws because the slots were all about the same height and they were lined up perpendicular to the strings. Also, the great deal of wax that curled up out of the coil when you turned the screws tells me they were never adjusted in the past. A previous owner would probably have cleaned off the shavings of wax if he had adjusted the screws. I have that exact same guitar, and I really liked the way it sounded in the music store. I liked the amp I was using to try it out so much that I bought it too. When I took the combo home, after a cleaning and a setup with fresh strings I adjusted the pole screws to balance the output of the strings. I found the plain g and the low E louder than the other strings, so I left the pole screws down where they were. The high e and b, as well as the d string, were softer, so I raised the pole screws to boost the output of those strings. End result was that I liked the sound of my little rig even better. I still have the receipt from the sale, and I can see that I paid $169.50 plus tax for the guitar and a Vox DA-5 modeling amp back in 2014. What a bargain. The amp only puts out five watts max, and I still use it to jam and play at open mikes and stuff. It's really that loud. I now use an Epiphone Les Paul Prophecy Custom, but my little old LTD is a great backup if I break a string.
Thank you so much for this story! I absolutely love this guitar, it’s a beast. Thanks for clearing up some of the things that happened with these pole pieces. Lesson learned!
@@marions.120 Sorry about the long-winded comment. I find that lately a lot of pickups seem to be getting left in the wax bath too long, making the threads in the bobbins too soft so you can’t adjust the pole pieces. In a pawnshop not long ago I got a Schecter C-6 Classic. Beautiful guitar, but the factory pickups had been replaced with a DiMarzio Evolution at the bridge and a P.A.F. Joe at the neck. I didn’t care for the pickups and when I tried to raise the middle hex screws to get more midrange a lot of them were stripped. So even a longtime maker like DiMarzio seems to be overcooking their pickups in the wax bath these days. I ended up putting in a set of GFS Fat Pats, which sound really good to this aging classic rock guy. I still have those DiMarzios with the melted bobbins. Maybe I’ll try to sell them on eBay someday.
@@lumberlikwidator8863 -Sorry, I was mostly joking. It’s good that someone actually does things on their own. I’ve had two professional techs, but years ago I pick up Dan Erlewine’s repair book I started doing a lot myself, not everything, but a lot. I’ve changed nuts, slotted bridges (including a double neck) a things of that sort. So good luck and being it’s Christmas have a great one! ✌️😎🎸🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶
Other than the guitar being out of tune, it sounds more bass heavy with the pole pieces raised. Have you ever tried just raising the outermost pole pieces, and screwing the middle ones down in the shape of a frown, with all of them being lower than the outside ones? See what that gets you. It'll change it for sure, but pickups are strange creatures - each brand has its own voicing. You might like it....and you may not. Like my guitar tech said, you can always put it back....lol.
I think it sounded better before adjusting, both pickups. I think you may benefit from dropping the whole pick-up lower to compensate for raising the poles, neck sounds like the tuning is out of whack after Worth checking out the fine tuning, following the radius is all good but some strings ( unwound, especially G string) sound more prominent so compensate for best tone, do this with guitar plugged in and listen to each change made
You’re totally right, I think there would be a benefit to dropping the pickup to compensate for raising the pole pieces. And yes, the tuning is bad on the clip you mentioned. I apologize!
It sounded Better after raising the pole pieces . Raising the pole pieces AND dropping the pickup body would be even more better . ( Yes , I've done it , no I didn't record anything. )
The magnet isn’t the poles. The magnet is down in the pickup. Those are just screws. Raising and lowering the screws will adjust the field. Weaker the higher as the screw is further away from the magnet. Bad? Meh. Just different.
To lower the pickup, loosen the two middle screws. Do this slowly and in small increments; if you loosen it too much, the pickup will come out of the pickup ring and you'll have to reinstall it!
Na,Its all in your head man ,Ive done that expearment with different guitars at different times ,Leave them the way they come ,You can ajust the whole pickup up or down for more or less volume .The Poles effect nothen unless you have ears like a beagle .
Sometimes it can definitely make the sound way too sharp or trebley. But other times it’s necessary if the pickups sound muddy. It’s definitely subjective and up to each player! :)
I must have cheap pickups, no screws, so they took that ball out of the pickup set up process. Must be that the 2 screws for treble & bass is the only adjustments they want anyone to make.
Some pickups are made that way, unfortunately. I often find that humbuckers designed that way don’t necessarily need to be adjusted. I’m sorry yours are like that!
Depends, not all amps are the same. Repairs to guitars (neck pocket shimming) & other reasons might need pickup height adjustments too ? For the newbie that is learning, maybe they don't adjust them ever.
You’re not supposed to follow the fretboard radius, instead you should follow the string core diameters, which are responsible for string output. Look at a staggered single coil pickup for reference of the pattern (with the exception of the G string, which is still today provided with the tallest polepieces, because historically it was a wound string and its core part was the thinnest).
At the end of the process, the D and high E polepieces should be the highest, the A and B intermediate, the E and G lowest. I fine-set them with a clean uncompressed tone by picking evenly, aiming to achieve the exact output volume from each string, which is one of the two reasons I do this to all my humbucker equipped guitars. With modern flatter fretboard radius, you only need very small differences in polepieces height, sometimes even just 0.1 mm is fine. The second reason I do this is, as per the aim of your video, tone adjustment. So you can move all polepieces equally up or down, keeping the stagger pattern explained above, to vary the tone while keeping the volume even across the strings. I agree with your description that the more you raise the polepieces, the more you add mids, pick attack and clarity. However, if you lower the whole pickup a bit at the same time, you’ll be able to add mids (or reduce bass, if you want to see it that way), without adding too much attack or treble. This can really compensate for a dull sounding guitar or pickup, or a bass-heavy/scooped sounding pickup.
You're supposed to do whatever sounds good to you. There is no set rule. You can follow fretboard radius. You can stagger them like Fender. It's up to you and what sounds good TO YOU.
@@J.C... of course, you can even remove one of the screws, if you feel like to…
@@shredgd5 ...or use rail pickups in the first place.
@@mercatorjubio3804 a rail doesn’t stagger the wound and unwound differently like you need to (see above)
@@shredgd5 of course not, but I don't believe it matters all that much, you can easily loose yourself in those things
Thank you for this video dude!!!! I bought an epiphone sg and it was too heavy in my low end after i adjusted the bridge, once i adjusted the pickups it sounds incredible 🤘🙏
I’m so glad I could help!
7:14 flat
7:37 raised
I think that in this part the raised polepiece makes the pickup less saturated, which is not so good for distortion. But for the raised polepiece clean sound sounds pretty good.
From my experience and understanding of humbucker pickups, raising pole pieces can do two things. One, it can be used to balance volume between strings. Two, it can be used to change balance between the 2 coils. By raising the poles on the the coil closest to the bridge, more power is produced from string vibration because it's position in the magnetic field has become more optimal in that coil. That coil gets louder. By also lowering the entire pickup to retain the original volume, you can brighten the pickup. By moving a pickup closer to the strings the volume goes up and the note sounds more focused. By changing the balance of the coils, the sound can be affected in a way to emphasize a difference similar to what you can hear picking over one coil vs the other. A small adjustment can go a long way. Usually i do a 1/4 turn at a time on all adjustments.
Original gibson humbuckers are know for unbalanced coils. It was a quirk of the manufacturing at the time.
Wordy i know.
The reason some of your polepiece screws are stripped is because when the pickups were potted the wax was too hot or the coils were left in the wax bath for too long. This began to melt the plastic coil forms and blunt the threads in the plastic. I'm pretty sure the previous owner of your guitar never touched the screws because the slots were all about the same height and they were lined up perpendicular to the strings. Also, the great deal of wax that curled up out of the coil when you turned the screws tells me they were never adjusted in the past. A previous owner would probably have cleaned off the shavings of wax if he had adjusted the screws. I have that exact same guitar, and I really liked the way it sounded in the music store. I liked the amp I was using to try it out so much that I bought it too. When I took the combo home, after a cleaning and a setup with fresh strings I adjusted the pole screws to balance the output of the strings. I found the plain g and the low E louder than the other strings, so I left the pole screws down where they were. The high e and b, as well as the d string, were softer, so I raised the pole screws to boost the output of those strings. End result was that I liked the sound of my little rig even better. I still have the receipt from the sale, and I can see that I paid $169.50 plus tax for the guitar and a Vox DA-5 modeling amp back in 2014. What a bargain. The amp only puts out five watts max, and I still use it to jam and play at open mikes and stuff. It's really that loud. I now use an Epiphone Les Paul Prophecy Custom, but my little old LTD is a great backup if I break a string.
Thank you so much for this story! I absolutely love this guitar, it’s a beast. Thanks for clearing up some of the things that happened with these pole pieces. Lesson learned!
Half way through your comment I realized it was time to pull my pickups out of the wax…😴
@@marions.120 Sorry about the long-winded comment. I find that lately a lot of pickups seem to be getting left in the wax bath too long, making the threads in the bobbins too soft so you can’t adjust the pole pieces. In a pawnshop not long ago I got a Schecter C-6 Classic. Beautiful guitar, but the factory pickups had been replaced with a DiMarzio Evolution at the bridge and a P.A.F. Joe at the neck. I didn’t care for the pickups and when I tried to raise the middle hex screws to get more midrange a lot of them were stripped. So even a longtime maker like DiMarzio seems to be overcooking their pickups in the wax bath these days. I ended up putting in a set of GFS Fat Pats, which sound really good to this aging classic rock guy. I still have those DiMarzios with the melted bobbins. Maybe I’ll try to sell them on eBay someday.
@@lumberlikwidator8863 -Sorry, I was mostly joking. It’s good that someone actually does things on their own. I’ve had two professional techs, but years ago I pick up Dan Erlewine’s repair book I started doing a lot myself, not everything, but a lot.
I’ve changed nuts, slotted bridges (including a double neck) a things of that sort. So good luck and being it’s Christmas have a great one!
✌️😎🎸🎶🎵🎶🎵🎶
@@marions.120 Dan’s books are pure gold. Merry Christmas!
Pertaining to the Gibson Dirty Fingers pickup, do you also adjust the pole pieces on the top coil as well as the bottom?
Other than the guitar being out of tune, it sounds more bass heavy with the pole pieces raised. Have you ever tried just raising the outermost pole pieces, and screwing the middle ones down in the shape of a frown, with all of them being lower than the outside ones? See what that gets you. It'll change it for sure, but pickups are strange creatures - each brand has its own voicing. You might like it....and you may not. Like my guitar tech said, you can always put it back....lol.
I think it sounded better before adjusting, both pickups. I think you may benefit from dropping the whole pick-up lower to compensate for raising the poles, neck sounds like the tuning is out of whack after
Worth checking out the fine tuning, following the radius is all good but some strings ( unwound, especially G string) sound more prominent so compensate for best tone, do this with guitar plugged in and listen to each change made
You’re totally right, I think there would be a benefit to dropping the pickup to compensate for raising the pole pieces.
And yes, the tuning is bad on the clip you mentioned. I apologize!
@@BigJakeMusic no worries, it could be a result of the magnetic pull on the strings from the pick-up being closer, keep up the good work 👌😎
Thank you :)
It sounded Better after raising the pole pieces .
Raising the pole pieces AND dropping the pickup body would be even more better .
( Yes , I've done it , no I didn't record anything. )
The magnet isn’t the poles. The magnet is down in the pickup. Those are just screws. Raising and lowering the screws will adjust the field. Weaker the higher as the screw is further away from the magnet. Bad? Meh. Just different.
I'm new to these pickups I've never own an gutiar with these how to do i lower my neck pickups
To lower the pickup, loosen the two middle screws. Do this slowly and in small increments; if you loosen it too much, the pickup will come out of the pickup ring and you'll have to reinstall it!
Na,Its all in your head man ,Ive done that expearment with different guitars at different times ,Leave them the way they come ,You can ajust the whole pickup up or down for more or less volume .The Poles effect nothen unless you have ears like a beagle .
What guitar is in this video?
good video
I appreciate it :)
Thanks, I solved a stuck pole piece problem with your solution! Magnetic screwdriver helps too.
I'm so glad I was able to help!
Your B string sounds out of tune, perhaps pole pieces interfering with strings?
Probably not, I noticed that while editing and didn’t re-record it. It was simply out of tune and I’m sorry!! 😂
twisted up pole pieces make the sound dry or poor or sharper. Sometimes it's necessary. (IMHO) Thanks
Sometimes it can definitely make the sound way too sharp or trebley. But other times it’s necessary if the pickups sound muddy. It’s definitely subjective and up to each player! :)
" Poor " is contextual and subjective.
Makes brighter , with more clarity and definition. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is up to you .
I must have cheap pickups, no screws, so they took that ball out of the pickup set up process. Must be that the 2 screws for treble & bass is the only adjustments they want anyone to make.
Some pickups are made that way, unfortunately. I often find that humbuckers designed that way don’t necessarily need to be adjusted. I’m sorry yours are like that!
@@BigJakeMusic I actually prefer them to be set & forget, I need to focus on playing the guitar instead of adjusting screws & knobs.
Haha fair point for sure!
Pickup adjustments are something that you usually do once , and thereafter forget . You're not constantly moving back and forth .
Depends, not all amps are the same. Repairs to guitars (neck pocket shimming) & other reasons might need pickup height adjustments too ? For the newbie that is learning, maybe they don't adjust them ever.
whatever not much of difference sweet guitar though