Adjustable poles on a tele pup!

[darmstrong]

I love my tele OF COURSE (new Squier with a most excellent nut made by Rob DiStefano) but was irked by the big difference in volume between the G and D strings, even with NPS-wrapped strings, and even with a lighter-than-standard plain G.

On my humbucker guitar I can adjust the pole piece screws, but on my tele? The construction of the pups didn't seem to invite raising the actual magnets as one might do on a Strat pup, so...

Here's what I did: I put tiny steel washers on top of the magnets to, in effect, raise them for the D string on the bridge pup and the D and high E string on the neck pup.

They stay in place without gluing so it's easy to try different configurations. (Tiny hex nuts are thicker and will give a more pronounced effect.)

I think it helped balance the output between the strings. I may add more washers onto the bass string poles (and angle the pups up more on the bass side) and see how it works with pure nickel wrap strings too.

Anyone else do this or something similar? Is there something better than tiny washers to use?

[Jakedog]

I just want to say, that's freakin' genius. I never in a million years would've thought of that. I'm going to try it when I get home.

Jake

[yegbert]

If you search you'll find posts here discussing doing that using the head from a nail.

[J. Hayes]

I've never done it to raise the pole but, I've had a Strat and a Nashville Tele which came with the poles raised on the middle pickup and kept grabbing my fingernails all the time if I didn't watch it. I checked with a guitar tech I knew and he said "Just hammer 'em down" which I did and it worked great. I had a small hammer and just pounded on top of the poles gently until they were all flush and it worked great. You could probably go the other direction if you pulled the pickup out.....JH in Va.

[Al Nico]

Originally Posted by J. Hayes

I've never done it to raise the pole but, I've had a Strat and a Nashville Tele which came with the poles raised on the middle pickup and kept grabbing my fingernails all the time if I didn't watch it. I checked with a guitar tech I knew and he said "Just hammer 'em down" which I did and it worked great. I had a small hammer and just pounded on top of the poles gently until they were all flush and it worked great. You could probably go the other direction if you pulled the pickup out.....JH in Va.

Holy moly, what lousy advice!... unless your tech knew that the Tex-Mex pups had plastic bobbins with the pole isolated from the coil wire (not sure of this). Vintage style pups have the wire wrapped directly around the magnets, and moving the poles, much less hammering them, could break the wire. Also, doesn't striking an alnico pole have the potential to demagnetize it?

[JoeAArthur]

Originally Posted by Al Nico

Holy moly, what lousy advice!... unless your tech knew that the Tex-Mex pups had plastic bobbins with the pole isolated from the coil wire (not sure of this). Vintage style pups have the wire wrapped directly around the magnets, and moving the poles, much less hammering them, could break the wire. Also, doesn't striking an alnico pole have the potential to demagnetize it?

At one time, several decades ago, this advice used to be quite popular - with people wanting their 70ish Tele to have that flat magnet look of the older models, AND with TECHS more than willing to give it to them!! I've seen many bridge pickups with bent bottom plates from having the magnets pounded down.

I'd never do it.

[darmstrong]

Thanks Jakedog. I really think it works. I posted about this over at Fender Forum and a guy replied that he thought I must have a string being muted by something, because he doesn't see this problem with Teles.

I play it unplugged all the time and I don't hear any muting (though I'll give a careful listen tonight) and the G seemed louder than the D on both pups so I don't think it's one weak magnet, but I'm trying to keep an open mind.

Possibly the different character of the two strings is part of the issue with me; the stiff plain G is always thicker sounding than the flexible wound D.

So, does anyone else think the G is louder than the D with straight poles?

[chickenpicker]

My Mexican Tele undoubtedly suffers from different string volumes, most noticeably a quiet top E.

I'll try adding steel shims (something another poster, Arby, has done to adjust pickups on his pedal steels, incidentally) and report back on the results.

On the subject of adjusting the magnet position, you should never subject magnets to shocks, as this does demagnetise them. You could move them slowly though, using a small g-clamp to apply pressure - as long as you knew the windings were not going to be damaged.