If you notice when the best tone comparison videos do their A and B comparison, they will give you 3 or 4 notes back to back instead of entire phrases. Makes a huge difference when trying to hear the exact minor differences youre hearing
Thanks for showing this mod! I had a LP style guitar with a really muddy neck pickup and lot of output. Just tried this and it has gained a lot of clarity and now it's even more balance in volume with the bridge pickup.
Some Les Pauls are equiped with 300 k pots, making the tone darker. Just replace it with a typical 500 or 550 k pot and everything will ho back to normal...
Peter Frampton did this mod to his middle pickup in the Phoenix back in the early 1970's, if you look at the photos of the guitar from the 1970's you can see that. I always wondered why he would do that, now I see(hear!) it. Great video Kris, Rock on Brother!
Many ways to clean up a muddy neck pickup. Flip the pickup around so that the pole pieces are closer to the bridge. Solder a small treble bleed capacitor, without a resistor, to the volume pot so that it cleans up when the volume is rolled down.
Saw It Might Get Loud and Jimmy played Ramble on and I noticed he had the pole pieces removed on his Les Paul neck pickup and the tone was amazing. I removed them that day on my guitar and have never put them back in and that was like 2008 or 2009. Thought that was my secret but now everyone knows!
Most LP guitars have a very muddy and overwhelmingly loud neck PU (due to its position). Therefor this mod is great! In my opinion only with this mod the PUs sound somewhat even. Also a good way to have a perceived solo boost on the bridge PU.
Another thing that accomplishes a similar result is to flip the pickup, slam it, raise the pole pieces to compensate, and optionally remove the cover. Having the poles closer or the same distance while the whole pickup is further away focuses the sound by narrowing the sensing field, which gives a more single coil like tone without as much output loss as this mod. Flipping it around means the sensing field is further back from the neck, which should make it less wooly as well, similar to a 24-fret neck's neck position. Removing the cover gets any interference with the magnetic field or affect on the eddy currents out of the way, so that helps clean it up, too. You don't have to worry about any out-of-phase issues, either, that only happens if you change the winding direction or the magnetic polarity. Additionally, you can do the same things on the bridge to add both clarity and power since the pole pieces (and sensing field) for the bridge pup will move further forward.
I read somewhere that Jimmy modded the pickups on his telecaster prior to the 1st Led Zeppelin album being recorded, whilst he was still in the yardbirds. Great video man, very informative. I think this mod would be better suited for light and shade type songs. Rock on 🤘
I just did the out of phase 50s wiring and flipped the magnets in the neck. So when i use both it gives that kind of sound. SO COOL with a 70s fuzz tone too with the tone knobs.
Interesting, but not really new. Similar to coil splitting, but with the advantage, that you keep the humbucking function active, as the second coil is not shortened, but acts as dummy coil, plus this solution also works with (vintage) humbuckers with only two wires. The tone you (mainly) get from the other coil, which means less output, but most probably more important for a neck pickup, it also means less and less muddy bass, which is nice for overdrive tones. Also the combined pickups sound will change and become brighter and more transparent. Nevertheless the Les Paul will not sound like a Strat, but still like a Les Paul, only a little different and cleaner, which you anyway hear in this video nicely. Also interesting it could be, if you additionally turn around the pickup, so that the remaining active coil is placed closer to the neck. One solution, but you can also do a lot of other nice, more unusual but maybe even more effective things with humbuckers in a Les Paul...
The L (inductance) of the empty "air" coil drops a lot. The total pickup L drops a bit, but since the hum level from that coil is lower there is less hum cancelation. Raising the screws up retains the total inductance and hum cancelation, but still gives a more of a single aperture sound. You then might want to flip the neck pickup for the same string harmonic tone Page got. More between a neck and middle pickup harmonic sound.
@@GCKellochhow about moving the dummy so it's under the magnetized coil? Slight improvement in cancellation or none at all? Never tried it but I do agree with you that the hb needs to be rotated to catch the harmonics at the neck.
@@smollande The hum is only entirely canceled if both coils are the same L and Z (Impedance) regardless of how they are connected. The L of two series wired coaxially aligned coils almost doubles, while the L of two adjacent coils more than doubles.
I'm glad you decided to make this video even though the effect of the featured modification isn't at the top of your personal preferences. It adds balance to the opposite side of the coin, which is the endlessly hungry machine of the music gear industry. Understanding new ways to change our guitar sounds that don't include a hefty price tag is valuable, and it fosters trust in your viewers. Good one boss!
I don't take them out of the neck, but I do lower them down below the cover. Lower them all the way and it mostly drops out that second coil, then raise them back up to taste. Complete opposite of what most people do - raise the poles.
Defenitely sounds like it cleans up the pup, gives it a less thick/muddy sound. from the wound string end. Worthwhile demonstration. Have you tried just taking out the 4th, 5th , 6th string screws to clean up the heavy bass response leaving the treble screws in place ? You could also leave them all in place and screw them down at different distances using them like an equaliser pedal ? drop them in at different depths just like an equaliser pedal for bass middle and treble ? is that not what they were for in the first place ?
Clearly it makes a difference. I looked in Jimmy Page's Anthology book at the No1 LP photos (which it clearly is in the IMGL footage). The neck pickup screws are definitely there in all the stage photos from the 70s and in the 2020 posed images for the book. In fact none of the various LPs shown in the book have this mod. As Bryan Williams has documented, JPs No1 LP had 'odd' pickups in the 70s (T-top bridge and PAF neck) but they got changed later so maybe Jimmy had been messing around with them.
Cool option. Kris's videos always inspire me to try new things, but then there is awareness that mojo is not in the equipment and mods. So the question is how to borrow a bit of Kris's skills.😊 Still looking forvard for album release.
Makes it a single coil with a dummy coil to keep it noiseless. It's hard to keep track of the JP electronics mods. One of my fav JP tones is the '70 Madison Square Garden concert. If all the apocrypha is taken into account by then Seymour Duncan has rewound at least his bridge pickup hot and his tech had swapped the pickup positions and taken the cover off the neck pickup that was in the bridge position. The final version with the 4 push pulls was during The Firm era. Strangely nobody fusses over his theramin tones...
Another option: replace the neck tone pot with a spin-a-split (if the pickup is a 4-wire). I found 100k works best. You can go full single coil to full humbucker and everywhere in between.
The amplitude loss doesn’t come thru in UA-cam very well because of the compression but I’ve also played around with this mod. My workaround for the volume drop was to toss a clean boost in the fx loop of the amp. Never ever engage the boost while on the hot bridge though…
I built an extreme mod/upgrade Strat with 3 quad rail/coil humbuckers , wired like 50's Les Paul with coil splits and the bridge tone pot was P/P to activate the bridge and neck pick ups together regardless of other controls. . the pickups had 4 small coils wired in pairs in the 5 wire pickups. yes that means it had 3 P/P audio taper vol. pots, 2 regular and 1 P/P tone all audio taper 500K with .047 orange tone caps. retained the fender 5-way selector switch. but with the trick bridge tone pot I could have all 3 pick ups together at will. too tone variations to count. this extreme strat I renamed the "Stellarcaster" began as a Starcaster Strat electric guitar By: Fender (said it right on the head stock) body and headstock painted with Spay cans and airbrushed details in a custom stars and planets space theme adorned with a custom extended brushed stainless steel pickguard that acted as both main ground through the controls cases and as the shielding. the headstock got a titanium nut, roller string tree and locking tuners. this extreme custom Strat. guitar looks, feels, plays and sounds totally out of this world.. Wanna Play???
I noticed that your volumes and tones on the guitar are set at 10. I play single channel amps and Les Paul’s with P90’s or low output PAF style pu’s with few or no pedals. My voicing comes from adjusting my guitar’s settings along with changing my attack from fingers to fingernails, to pick. I almost never have the tone of either pickup set at 10; more like 2.5 to 3.5 with 5 on the bridge and 7 on the neck being as far as I usually go;the volume rides between 7.5 clean and 9.5 dirty, but I rarely go to 10 because things get boomy there with the volume and unpleasantly harsh with the tone. You lose a lot of harmonics with the guitar maxed out. The reason I mention all this is that I feel like you might actually hear why that mod makes sense in certain applications if you were to just turn down a little bit .
Thanks for the video Kris. Would have liked to hear the mix between the poll-less neck and bridge pickups. I’d think it would be a pretty cool sound. Like rolling off the neck volume when you have both pickups going together.
Wonder how it would sound if you also removed the Coil Wraps? Maybe make wire(s) from both Coils touch each other, or would it just "short out" the Pickup? I think it sounded better (through Speakers and Headphones both) with the screws removed, kinda throaty sounding to my Ear...I may have to try it with my Lester...
Would love to know how Page got the tone from that live 73 TSRTS. He uses the middle position extensively and it's so unique. Cannot be done with normal buckers or coil splitting.
It's important to remember that the first PAF pickups have a completely different sound than what we know as a humbucker sound nowadays. Older Gibsons with PAFs sounded like fatter Telecasters.
Keep in mind his wiring had a million options too. I just keep my 50’s standard factory spec. It does what it does. I’m a simple man. I don’t mess with much. I prefer my SG, 335, or for real my Billy Bo just rips, honestly because my LP is heavy AF I need to give it more love… I’m a strat guy at heart, but cant hate on the Gibson magic sauce.
I tried this a while ago and after playing around a bit I realised (as far as my ears could tell) I could get the same effect by adjustments of the pickups tone and volume.
what if you did the same thing, but replaced the pole pieces with extremely low magnetic, de-gaussed ones? ....or experiment with different materials for pole pieces altogether...? .perhaps even hollow shells?
I presume removing the pole pieces would also reduce the magnetic pull on the strings by a small amount so giving you a tiny bit more sustain. Of course this also gives you the chance to experiment with different tone screws. I've read that screws made from terbium can give you as much as 4% more honk and 3% more quack compared to regular steel screws.
@@BrunodeSouzaLino I don't know if it does anything for sustain, but if you raise strat pickups too high (A5 mags) the notes will no longer ring pure, but rather start to sound strange like it's fretting out a bit (but it's not). I don't get this problem with buckers - probably cause the mags are below the coils and usually A2 or A3 on my guitars.
i like it. I never use neck alone with drive, because it gets flubby and too much bass. It tightens up the tone, cuts better in mix. Kind of why i moved away from humbukers to P90's or single coils.
I have a Seymour Duncan Black Winter neck pickup that's crazy hot and is way louder than all of the bridge pickups I currently own. I'm going to try this mod to see if it levels out the volumes and pair better with my bridge pickups
I always found that too extreme. I think a better option is to lower the whole pickup down in the mounting ring, and then raise the screw pole pieces back up. This gives an imbalanced magnetic pull between the two coils without eliminating one coil’s output altogether.
It's mainly the voicing that's different. This sounds more direct and snappy than lowering the pickup. And if you just lower the guitar volume it doesn't get this clarity unless you install a treble bleed mod.
Hey Kris, I bet you could get balanced levels if the neck pickup was replaced with a higher output one to compensate for the missing pole pieces. Thanks for all you do.
@@kristanbenson803 yes of course. As a matter of fact, I’ve put the pole pieces back right after finishing this video. 🤘 This doesn’t really have to do anything with the Peter Green out-of-phase tone. That requires turning the magnet over or changing the polarity of the wiring (which is only possible if the pickup has 4 conductors).
I really like the tone and how it doesn't drive the amp as hard as the pickup with the pole pieces. Yet it still retains the fatness / low end. Don't much like the look of the holes in the pickup cover though. Wonder what difference it would make if you used screws that weren't ferromagnetic (eg. brass).
Tried it with my Custom Shop R9! The Neck Pickup is always pretty fat and muddy. With the pole pieces removed it is airy and Sweet sounding! And I didnt recognize a volume drop, know Both Pickups are matching quiet well! Maybe changing the neck custombucker with a weak underwound paf would bring the same effect? 🙌🏼
I watched the "It might get loud" documentary at least 12 times and I never noticed that he had removed the pole pieces! I thought he had just lowered the volume.
This may be more applicable in HSS guitars where the humbucker is much louder than the single coils, especially in entry-level models that have hot ceramic humbuckers.
@@clockwork914 Very roughly, yeah. If you have a super mild treble bleed mod on the neck volume out and turn it down a little (with the pole pieces in place).
hello - this is a cool idea there is a chap called Barrie Cadogan, plays for Primal Sream and Little Barrie he had a trick - instead of removing the screws, raise them as far up as they will go. then lower the pickup as far down as it will go. so you get the screw coil closer to the strings, probably a similar outcome
That's not a trick because everyone knows it. I do it the other way around. Screws deep in because that gives more emphasis to the coil which is closer to the bridge
Interesting, thanks for this original topic. It's not my style but I understand why one would want to remove the pole pieces. It's a question of taste anyway...
Seems like it would make like a tele pickup and eventually die from gunk. *edit: pretty sure is tele was a 59 not "early fifties," which means a few key differences.
I'm a bit surprised noone asked about the bridge pickup yet...? Is there any obvious reason this wouldn't work, too? I am a bit afraid to just try it out in my guitars...
This would have the same effect on the bridge pickup as on the neck. It's just that most people usually don't want an already snappy and thinner pickup position to sound even thinner.
@@KrisBarocsi Thanks for the answer! I get the point. But since we are talking about humbuckers, there is still some room until we hit the end of that scale 😉 of course only if there is a reason to change anything. And I am too happy with my guitars to do that. Might try it out in the cheapest one temporarily, though, Out of curiosity
Those pole pieces screw into the back plate . But the plate has no threads, so after taking them in and out a few times, you might notice the screws spin freely on their own. Or worse.
Page doesn't renmove his pole pieces they are just set really low and they are very rusty so it looks like they are removed but they are not . This isnt a Jimmy Page mod .
I tried the mod where I removed my pickup completely. Killed the tone but my playing sounded better!
@@jeffreyeagen4896 😆 I have to try that one too.
My dearest would have me remove the strings!
@@metalmick 🤣🤣
Removing the vestigial jazz pickup will on fact improve your tone. Just remember to disconnect the useless treble-cut tone pot as well.
I would think the sustain would suffer.
If you notice when the best tone comparison videos do their A and B comparison, they will give you 3 or 4 notes back to back instead of entire phrases.
Makes a huge difference when trying to hear the exact minor differences youre hearing
Thanks for showing this mod! I had a LP style guitar with a really muddy neck pickup and lot of output. Just tried this and it has gained a lot of clarity and now it's even more balance in volume with the bridge pickup.
@@jamartin_music Ah man, that is awesome to hear! 🙌
Or you could just lower it..?
@@pharmerdavid1432 It is already below the frames level. Anyways, I'm enjoying the sound without the pole pieces.
Some Les Pauls are equiped with 300 k pots, making the tone darker. Just replace it with a typical 500 or 550 k pot and everything will ho back to normal...
Peter Frampton did this mod to his middle pickup in the Phoenix back in the early 1970's, if you look at the photos of the guitar from the 1970's you can see that. I always wondered why he would do that, now I see(hear!) it. Great video Kris, Rock on Brother!
Many ways to clean up a muddy neck pickup. Flip the pickup around so that the pole pieces are closer to the bridge. Solder a small treble bleed capacitor, without a resistor, to the volume pot so that it cleans up when the volume is rolled down.
I just took the screw poles out of my Framus neck pickup and now have to put them back in again!
Saw It Might Get Loud and Jimmy played Ramble on and I noticed he had the pole pieces removed on his Les Paul neck pickup and the tone was amazing. I removed them that day on my guitar and have never put them back in and that was like 2008 or 2009. Thought that was my secret but now everyone knows!
Most LP guitars have a very muddy and overwhelmingly loud neck PU (due to its position). Therefor this mod is great! In my opinion only with this mod the PUs sound somewhat even.
Also a good way to have a perceived solo boost on the bridge PU.
Another thing that accomplishes a similar result is to flip the pickup, slam it, raise the pole pieces to compensate, and optionally remove the cover. Having the poles closer or the same distance while the whole pickup is further away focuses the sound by narrowing the sensing field, which gives a more single coil like tone without as much output loss as this mod. Flipping it around means the sensing field is further back from the neck, which should make it less wooly as well, similar to a 24-fret neck's neck position.
Removing the cover gets any interference with the magnetic field or affect on the eddy currents out of the way, so that helps clean it up, too. You don't have to worry about any out-of-phase issues, either, that only happens if you change the winding direction or the magnetic polarity. Additionally, you can do the same things on the bridge to add both clarity and power since the pole pieces (and sensing field) for the bridge pup will move further forward.
I read somewhere that Jimmy modded the pickups on his telecaster prior to the 1st Led Zeppelin album being recorded, whilst he was still in the yardbirds. Great video man, very informative. I think this mod would be better suited for light and shade type songs. Rock on 🤘
Interesting. Thanks for the demo.
I just did the out of phase 50s wiring and flipped the magnets in the neck. So when i use both it gives that kind of sound. SO COOL with a 70s fuzz tone too with the tone knobs.
Interesting, but not really new. Similar to coil splitting, but with the advantage, that you keep the humbucking function active, as the second coil is not shortened, but acts as dummy coil, plus this solution also works with (vintage) humbuckers with only two wires.
The tone you (mainly) get from the other coil, which means less output, but most probably more important for a neck pickup, it also means less and less muddy bass, which is nice for overdrive tones. Also the combined pickups sound will change and become brighter and more transparent. Nevertheless the Les Paul will not sound like a Strat, but still like a Les Paul, only a little different and cleaner, which you anyway hear in this video nicely.
Also interesting it could be, if you additionally turn around the pickup, so that the remaining active coil is placed closer to the neck.
One solution, but you can also do a lot of other nice, more unusual but maybe even more effective things with humbuckers in a Les Paul...
The L (inductance) of the empty "air" coil drops a lot. The total pickup L drops a bit, but since the hum level from that coil is lower there is less hum cancelation. Raising the screws up retains the total inductance and hum cancelation, but still gives a more of a single aperture sound. You then might want to flip the neck pickup for the same string harmonic tone Page got. More between a neck and middle pickup harmonic sound.
@@GCKellochhow about moving the dummy so it's under the magnetized coil? Slight improvement in cancellation or none at all? Never tried it but I do agree with you that the hb needs to be rotated to catch the harmonics at the neck.
@@smollande The hum is only entirely canceled if both coils are the same L and Z (Impedance) regardless of how they are connected. The L of two series wired coaxially aligned coils almost doubles, while the L of two adjacent coils more than doubles.
I'm glad you decided to make this video even though the effect of the featured modification isn't at the top of your personal preferences. It adds balance to the opposite side of the coin, which is the endlessly hungry machine of the music gear industry. Understanding new ways to change our guitar sounds that don't include a hefty price tag is valuable, and it fosters trust in your viewers. Good one boss!
What other mods do you recommend?
Clapton had two screws missing in the neck pickup on the Beano burst, if memory serves it was the E and G string pole pieces
I don't take them out of the neck, but I do lower them down below the cover. Lower them all the way and it mostly drops out that second coil, then raise them back up to taste. Complete opposite of what most people do - raise the poles.
Very interesting indeed! Thank you 😎
Scott Grove did this about 15 years ago.
Awesome. I have a very bright 5k humbucker from GFS in the neck that is great. Neck pickups are often dull and need to be brighter.
Defenitely sounds like it cleans up the pup, gives it a less thick/muddy sound. from the wound string end. Worthwhile demonstration. Have you tried just taking out the 4th, 5th , 6th string screws to clean up the heavy bass response leaving the treble screws in place ? You could also leave them all in place and screw them down at different distances using them like an equaliser pedal ? drop them in at different depths just like an equaliser pedal for bass middle and treble ? is that not what they were for in the first place ?
Clearly it makes a difference. I looked in Jimmy Page's Anthology book at the No1 LP photos (which it clearly is in the IMGL footage). The neck pickup screws are definitely there in all the stage photos from the 70s and in the 2020 posed images for the book. In fact none of the various LPs shown in the book have this mod. As Bryan Williams has documented, JPs No1 LP had 'odd' pickups in the 70s (T-top bridge and PAF neck) but they got changed later so maybe Jimmy had been messing around with them.
Steve Lukather replaces the screws with non-conductive screws so that is looks the same. I wonder if others do.
@@Les537 Hmm, never thought of that. Austenitic stainless steel screws would work.
Interesting. I really like the sound/tone too. Thanks
Cool option. Kris's videos always inspire me to try new things, but then there is awareness that mojo is not in the equipment and mods. So the question is how to borrow a bit of Kris's skills.😊 Still looking forvard for album release.
Cool video man, I might give it a go on one of my guitars where I barely use the neck pickup, might make it more usable to me
I was curious to hear it in the middle position where you can blend them.
I, too, was hoping he'd show how it sounds like using both pickups at the same time!
I think I'll leave mine in 😁
Fair enough. I have them back in my LP too. It's a fun and simple way to give humbuckers clarity if that's what you miss.
Makes it a single coil with a dummy coil to keep it noiseless.
It's hard to keep track of the JP electronics mods. One of my fav JP tones is the '70 Madison Square Garden concert. If all the apocrypha is taken into account by then Seymour Duncan has rewound at least his bridge pickup hot and his tech had swapped the pickup positions and taken the cover off the neck pickup that was in the bridge position.
The final version with the 4 push pulls was during The Firm era. Strangely nobody fusses over his theramin tones...
Another option: replace the neck tone pot with a spin-a-split (if the pickup is a 4-wire). I found 100k works best. You can go full single coil to full humbucker and everywhere in between.
The amplitude loss doesn’t come thru in UA-cam very well because of the compression but I’ve also played around with this mod. My workaround for the volume drop was to toss a clean boost in the fx loop of the amp. Never ever engage the boost while on the hot bridge though…
I built an extreme mod/upgrade Strat with 3 quad rail/coil humbuckers , wired like 50's Les Paul with coil splits and the bridge tone pot was P/P to activate the bridge and neck pick ups together regardless of other controls. . the pickups had 4 small coils wired in pairs in the 5 wire pickups. yes that means it had 3 P/P audio taper vol. pots, 2 regular and 1 P/P tone all audio taper 500K with .047 orange tone caps. retained the fender 5-way selector switch. but with the trick bridge tone pot I could have all 3 pick ups together at will. too tone variations to count. this extreme strat I renamed the "Stellarcaster" began as a Starcaster Strat electric guitar By: Fender (said it right on the head stock) body and headstock painted with Spay cans and airbrushed details in a custom stars and planets space theme adorned with a custom extended brushed stainless steel pickguard that acted as both main ground through the controls cases and as the shielding. the headstock got a titanium nut, roller string tree and locking tuners. this extreme custom Strat. guitar looks, feels, plays and sounds totally out of this world.. Wanna Play???
Do you have a video sample? I would love to hear what it sounds like.
I noticed that your volumes and tones on the guitar are set at 10.
I play single channel amps and Les Paul’s with P90’s or low output PAF style pu’s with few or no pedals. My voicing comes from adjusting my guitar’s settings along with changing my attack from fingers to fingernails, to pick.
I almost never have the tone of either pickup set at 10; more like 2.5 to 3.5 with 5 on the bridge and 7 on the neck being as far as I usually go;the volume rides between 7.5 clean and 9.5 dirty, but I rarely go to 10 because things get boomy there with the volume and unpleasantly harsh with the tone. You lose a lot of harmonics with the guitar maxed out.
The reason I mention all this is that I feel like you might actually hear why that mod makes sense in certain applications if you were to just turn down a little bit .
Thanks for the video Kris. Would have liked to hear the mix between the poll-less neck and bridge pickups. I’d think it would be a pretty cool sound. Like rolling off the neck volume when you have both pickups going together.
I like this chasing down the rabbit hole. Honestly it’s something different and we might even earn something
Thanks
Wonder how it would sound if you also removed the Coil Wraps? Maybe make wire(s) from both Coils touch each other, or would it just "short out" the Pickup? I think it sounded better (through Speakers and Headphones both) with the screws removed, kinda throaty sounding to my Ear...I may have to try it with my Lester...
Would love to know how Page got the tone from that live 73 TSRTS. He uses the middle position extensively and it's so unique. Cannot be done with normal buckers or coil splitting.
It's important to remember that the first PAF pickups have a completely different sound than what we know as a humbucker sound nowadays. Older Gibsons with PAFs sounded like fatter Telecasters.
Keep in mind his wiring had a million options too. I just keep my 50’s standard factory spec. It does what it does. I’m a simple man. I don’t mess with much. I prefer my SG, 335, or for real my Billy Bo just rips, honestly because my LP is heavy AF I need to give it more love… I’m a strat guy at heart, but cant hate on the Gibson magic sauce.
I tried this a while ago and after playing around a bit I realised (as far as my ears could tell) I could get the same effect by adjustments of the pickups tone and volume.
How is the tone different than just turning down the neck volume knob vs. the bridge volume?
Curious to hear the middle position. Any chance you could post a short of that? Lovely LP btw
what if you did the same thing, but replaced the pole pieces with extremely low magnetic, de-gaussed ones? ....or experiment with different materials for pole pieces altogether...? .perhaps even hollow shells?
Not bad Kris, not bad Professor Kris. Good job
I presume removing the pole pieces would also reduce the magnetic pull on the strings by a small amount so giving you a tiny bit more sustain. Of course this also gives you the chance to experiment with different tone screws. I've read that screws made from terbium can give you as much as 4% more honk and 3% more quack compared to regular steel screws.
Magnetic pull affecting sustain is a myth which has been tested.
@hotblackdesiato3451 Wonder where you get them for pickups??
@@BrunodeSouzaLino I don't know if it does anything for sustain, but if you raise strat pickups too high (A5 mags) the notes will no longer ring pure, but rather start to sound strange like it's fretting out a bit (but it's not). I don't get this problem with buckers - probably cause the mags are below the coils and usually A2 or A3 on my guitars.
The terbium pole pieces are really good for encabulation; retroflig them in a pentanion configuration for extra gint.
@@keithklassen5320 Those were my exact reasons for going with terbium. Glad we're on the same wavelength.
Sounds cool! Bit more clarity and high end frequencies maybe? Might try it in my jazz guitar
Does this basically make the neck a single coil? Can the top bobbin pup do anything without those magnets?
it sounds pretty good!
i like it. I never use neck alone with drive, because it gets flubby and too much bass. It tightens up the tone, cuts better in mix. Kind of why i moved away from humbukers to P90's or single coils.
I have a Seymour Duncan Black Winter neck pickup that's crazy hot and is way louder than all of the bridge pickups I currently own. I'm going to try this mod to see if it levels out the volumes and pair better with my bridge pickups
I always found that too extreme. I think a better option is to lower the whole pickup down in the mounting ring, and then raise the screw pole pieces back up. This gives an imbalanced magnetic pull between the two coils without eliminating one coil’s output altogether.
what's the difference with this and lowering guitar volume or adjust pickup height?
It's mainly the voicing that's different. This sounds more direct and snappy than lowering the pickup. And if you just lower the guitar volume it doesn't get this clarity unless you install a treble bleed mod.
Hey Kris, I bet you could get balanced levels if the neck pickup was replaced with a higher output one to compensate for the missing pole pieces. Thanks for all you do.
The idea of removing the pole pieces is specifically to reduce the output.
Might be a silly question, can you put the poles back in if you take them out? How would it affect Peter green tone?
@@kristanbenson803 yes of course. As a matter of fact, I’ve put the pole pieces back right after finishing this video. 🤘
This doesn’t really have to do anything with the Peter Green out-of-phase tone. That requires turning the magnet over or changing the polarity of the wiring (which is only possible if the pickup has 4 conductors).
I really like the tone and how it doesn't drive the amp as hard as the pickup with the pole pieces. Yet it still retains the fatness / low end. Don't much like the look of the holes in the pickup cover though. Wonder what difference it would make if you used screws that weren't ferromagnetic (eg. brass).
What if you raise the pickup after removing the poles?
Tried it with my Custom Shop R9! The Neck Pickup is always pretty fat and muddy. With the pole pieces removed it is airy and Sweet sounding! And I didnt recognize a volume drop, know Both Pickups are matching quiet well! Maybe changing the neck custombucker with a weak underwound paf would bring the same effect? 🙌🏼
I watched the "It might get loud" documentary at least 12 times and I never noticed that he had removed the pole pieces! I thought he had just lowered the volume.
This may be more applicable in HSS guitars where the humbucker is much louder than the single coils, especially in entry-level models that have hot ceramic humbuckers.
Seems like a really useful thing for the studio since it seems to take just a minute or two
THIS is a nice Mod!
Why are the screws standard instead of Phillip ?
Honest question: do they go back in easily if you want to reverse it?
@@Chucksguitargeekery yes, I installed the pole pieces again right after making this video. Be careful with the threads of course.
Can roughly the same result be achieved by adjusting the volume and tone settings ?
@@clockwork914 Very roughly, yeah. If you have a super mild treble bleed mod on the neck volume out and turn it down a little (with the pole pieces in place).
aah ... ney😉 thanks for trying it🤙👍
Haha, someone had to do it.
I believe Page's tone is done the other way around, with the hotter pickup being in the peck position.
What if you just remove the two bass side poles on a muddy pickup?
How about the Richie Blackmore mod where he'd lower the pickups but raise pole pieces extremely high?
hello - this is a cool idea
there is a chap called Barrie Cadogan, plays for Primal Sream and Little Barrie
he had a trick - instead of removing the screws, raise them as far up as they will go. then lower the pickup as far down as it will go. so you get the screw coil closer to the strings, probably a similar outcome
That's not a trick because everyone knows it.
I do it the other way around. Screws deep in because that gives more emphasis to the coil which is closer to the bridge
There’s so many ways to correct for the volume difference.
I'm hearing a little bit of top end clarity. That being said, I'm not doing that to my guitar. hahahahhaha
Don't the screws hold the pickup together? Like, does anything get loose and could fall out, or apart?
No, you got 4 brass screws going up through the base-plate
What year did Jimmy Page remove the pole pieces in his Les Paul neck pickup? maybe in the Robert Plant Jimmy Page 90's Reunion Tour
Interesting, thanks for this original topic. It's not my style but I understand why one would want to remove the pole pieces. It's a question of taste anyway...
I like the Eric Clapton mod turn the tone knob all the way down it’s sounds like a fuzz pedal , Eric called it the Women Tone
Not a mod, just a setting
Now that he said it to everybody get screwed to find the one. Namastè.
Seems like it would make like a tele pickup and eventually die from gunk. *edit: pretty sure is tele was a 59 not "early fifties," which means a few key differences.
I'm a bit surprised noone asked about the bridge pickup yet...? Is there any obvious reason this wouldn't work, too?
I am a bit afraid to just try it out in my guitars...
This would have the same effect on the bridge pickup as on the neck. It's just that most people usually don't want an already snappy and thinner pickup position to sound even thinner.
@@KrisBarocsi
Thanks for the answer!
I get the point. But since we are talking about humbuckers, there is still some room until we hit the end of that scale 😉 of course only if there is a reason to change anything. And I am too happy with my guitars to do that. Might try it out in the cheapest one temporarily, though, Out of curiosity
Personally i prefer the bite of the unmodded pickup.
It is just a noiseless singlecoil. But to each his own.
Interesting. I wonder how the in between position sounds like…
How is it different than just turning your volume down
Electrical tape over the poles.
You're welcome
Try painters tape too
Those pole pieces screw into the back plate . But the plate has no threads, so after taking them in and out a few times, you might notice the screws spin freely on their own. Or worse.
How can I remove the pole pieces from my emg‘s? 😳
It becomes a Gretsch HI LO tron pickup.
So this makes it a single coil with a dummy coil, never thought of doing this.
That top ❤❤❤
That's basically somewhere between a coil split and a tap not really just a coil tap...
Glen Fricker acolytes having a seizure right now.
@@lostinpa-dadenduro7555 😄 Well I could set up my amp to make any pickup sound the same. I just prefer not to. 😅
Why would they…? Was this the same position, the same signal volume through a high gain amp?
First. Cool video Kris! 😀
🤗 Thanks brother!
love your videos but seems weird as P90s actually have pole pieces.
This mod is technically known as the "Least Paul"😅
Sounds like a week middle single coil
And... if we remove some pole pieces?
It'll probably open up your inner Jeff Beck.
IMHO removing the pole pieces sounds like it’s on the radio in another room. I like it ☮️
Just swap the magnet for an A3 and call it a day.
Honestly, in this day and age just get coil tapping and / or use the volume knob. It sounds cool but there is more than one way to get there.
Seems to me that doing it this way is more consistent/predictable and quicker.
@@DaveyMulholland untill you want that fat humbucker lead sound. I like both so yeah :)
I heard Page chewed grape gum when he played. If I do that I'm sure I'll sound like him if I do. 😂 Whatever.
Page doesn't renmove his pole pieces they are just set really low and they are very rusty so it looks like they are removed but they are not .
This isnt a Jimmy Page mod .
Sorry I couldn't tell the difference.
The what now
bla bla bla bla.