Are Thomastik 14's too heavy for a 'More-or-Les Paul" (Heritage H-150!)?

[sgosnell]

Normally the E string will be a good bit weaker than the B. If both are very loud, it's very likely that the pickup is too close to the strings. The adjustment screw for pickup height is the center screw in the end of the pickup ring. Changing the pickup height has a strong effect on the sound.

[pingu]

Yes try taking the B polepiece out completely

By the way all pickups , apart from a Rhythm Chief
1000 , have the coil would round all six polepieces

So the pickup maker has no way to change the
Relative loudness of each string , other than the
polepiece adjustments

Indeed that is what the adjustable poles are for

I also recommend doing the adjustments with
a clean sound into a flat response amp first

Then tweak for your distortion sounds

Good luck !

[ptchristopher3]

Great thread NT.

I mean I love the style where you use 20 words when one would do the job, but it flows so nicely that 20 words seems like the way to do it for certain.

And you deserve an award as surely the only person to ever have said “my wife’s guitar pedal”.

I mean, that sounds as likely as saying, “my wife’s arc welder” - but so much cooler.

Slow down, make sure you hear what really is happening between your fingers and the speaker on the amp before ordering custom PU’s.

And please definitely post a sound sample of your eventual results.

MUCH needed breath of fresh air via your thread.

Chris

[zcostilla]

...The only possible alternative explanation I can think of is that my distortion pedal (which I set on a drastically mild distortion setting, but which has other parameters that I value to create a lovely vintage tone) may be the culprit. Perhaps the pedal is exacerbating an otherwise minor volume difference in the various strings...”

This isn’t really possible because the combined magnetic field disruption that is created by the strings vi rating over the poles are all used to induce one singular voltage/current signal onto one pair of wires (or two pairs in the case of split humbuckers) and this one signal is what is taken by amplifier (and any pedals/processors) to make the sound you hear out of the speaker. An electrical component hay have a particular frequency bias (for lack of a better term), or a speaker cabinet or guitar could have resonant frequency range that seems to stand out above the others, but it would be there for ANY not in that range regardless of the string/position. A C-note played on the 2bd fret of the B-string would be the same main frequency as a C played on the 10th fret on the D-string (with the tone variations caused by the secondary, tertiary, and so on harmonic frequencies that would be different due to string diameter, tension, and the others subtile differences). But these very minor differences would not be enough to make a note played on your B-string stand out and eliminate the frequency bias from a note played on any other string.

i hope that convoluted answer makes sense. It does in my brain, but it’s late and this tiredness might be clouding my ability to communicate the thoughts clearly.