Why won't Fender fix the alignment of Strat pickups?

They haven't fixed it because it ain't broken.

 

I hadn't even considered checking the string alignment on the Squier I got back recently.

The guitar is a little slanted (sitting on my lap), but the strings cover the poles quite well. Even considering the pickups were used on a 22 fret neck and are now on a 21 fret.



I would also assume the staggered poles would make up for any alignment discrepancies.

Just as a comparison.

 

It doesn’t matter. It’s not that important to be exactly aligned with the pole piece. It just needs to pick up changes in the magnetic field. The poles are not microphones.

 

They can't fix it for the same reason almost all strat pickup manufacturers can't fix it: the bridge pickup is ANGLED so you need to make a special pickup for the bridge with different string spacing.And this costs $$$.
Since this alignement "problem" does not affect things sonically they let it be.
Plus with the "vintage" craze people have these days issuing a vintage style strat with a perfectly aligned bridge pickup would cause fainting,hate and internetS wars

 

This is another non-issue that has only recently been invented by internet trolls with OCD, and seems to be cropping up more and more. The magnetic field of a pickup covers the whole width of the pickup. Some pickups have solid covers and no polepieces, and they still work just fine. When I bend a string on my Strat, it doesn't lose volume! Stop inventing your own pseudo-science and obsessing over things that don't matter, and start obsessing over things that actually do matter in the real world.

 

The solution is simple. Don't buy one, because they're all the same. That's how Leo designed them (in fact, even more simply with three way switch and non-humcancelling pickups).

Somehow the marginal misalignment of the string vis a vis the poles haven't stopped 66 years of guitarists making great music with them.

Really - go and check out some Gretsches, Gibson's, PRSs. None of them will have every string pass dead centre over every pole either.

Even if they did, the diameter of bass vs treble strings will alter it. Remember the string waggles through the flux exuded by the end pole of the magnet. It's not that critical as the lines of magnetism extend over and around it.



The string really doesn't care how OCD you are about it's relationship with the pole. It's proximity in 3 dimensions is all that's important.

Believe me - you can't see it from normal playing position and noone observing can either.

 

If there was a valid argument, notes played would fade in and out when you bent them over the pickups poles. They don’t. You can bend a g string on a high fret across two or three pole pieces to test, for example.

The combined field that the string interacts with is much bigger than the area above the pole. Iron filing experiments at school demonstrate the distances the field extends from the ends of a magnet. They curve out and around.

You mention the neck angle and string to edge of fretboard closeness, but even adjusting that would not drastically change the path of the high E on the bridge pickup by very much at all.

The issue that they should fix, is the out of date height stagger for wound G strings, which few use these days... I certainly DO notice the weak B string when playing delicate single lines and have to pick that string with a little more energy. It’s a frustration when recording, i put a flat profile pickup in the bridge of my strat.

 

Very possible. A fraction of a mm can make a difference. They are bolt on necks and can be tinkered with. Had this problem with a cheaper guitar before. I loosened the screws, set it straight and screwed it back while holding the neck tightly in place. I've also noticed sometimes the pickguard and screws don't always line up perfectly with the pup. Hope you have good luck with this. Every guitar has it's own twerks. Quality control is not to be trusted. In the best situation it's always best to check these things out before you buy a guitar. If you buy something before you play it, well I guess you just don't know what you're going to get. Caveat, Buyer beware! Keep on pickin!!!

 

I had this issue on a Fender and it kind of bothered me at one point. In my case it was a less-than-perfectly cut nut.

Both this and a mis-aligned neck in the pocked can cause some mis-alignment of the strings. Luckily, both are really easy fixes. I was reading yesterday about Martin guitars from the early 70s having the bridge out of position by 1/4" and throwing intonation off – from factory. Now THAT's a big QC issue

 

Yep, this is a particular problem with teles as it can push strings into the grub screw slots on the bridge, which can make them break.

As you say, shift the neck a bit, hey presto.

 

Are you aware the hidden pole pieces in a telecaster neck pickup are similarly misaligned? Better sell yours.

 

Two different things IME. The strings being misaligned with the fretboard generally can be fixed by loosening the bolt screws and re-aligning the neck inside the pocket.
But it won’t change much the alignment at the bridge because it’s too close to the saddle.
As @Nick Fanis stated above, what you’re referring to comes mostly from the pickup being slanted.

 

But you’re assuming it’s a defect. Offset could be the right way. however if you want to , check out StewMac. They have pickup stretchers and scrunchers to help fix the issue.

 

In the '60s, a young American guitarist named Jimi Hendrix broke onto the scene in London. Everyone agreed that Hendrix's playing was extraordinary, but sadly he chose to play a Fender Stratocaster guitar. The Stratocaster had a fatal design flaw where the guitar's strings didn't exactly line up with the pole pieces on the pickups, so Hendrix's career never took off and he remained in obscurity.

 

Unless you make three different pickups, it isn't possible to have them all perfectly aligned. From the nut to the bridge, the string spacing is getting wider, and one of the pickups is slanted. On a normal strat with three identically sized pickups, pole position with the strings will be a bit approximate.