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I remember in the mists of Time hearing why humbuckers are almost always installed with the adjustable pole pieces opposite, towards the outside so to speak.
I don't remember the why, however ... so, why are they always reversed?
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03-14-2020 05:50 PM
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historically, by most major guitar manufacturers..i.e. gibson, fender etc etc..the adj. polepieces are placed at the harmonic nodes... virtual 24th fret..29th fret... 31st fret etc etc
there are those that argue against that logic, but the proof is in the pudding...the manufacturers follow the rule...
cheers
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my Guess is that being father apart you get more of a tone difference, But that would mean Buckers with both coils with adjustable poles would make it redundant
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Pure fashion.
There is no measurable proof.
Pure fashion.
To some it looks nice.
Nothing wrong with looking nice to some.
Lots wrong with attributing function to simple fashion.
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^ hahaha..70 years of standard electric guitar pickup placement tech reduced to "pure fashion"
cause "it looks nice"...hahaha
u gotta be kiddin...dream on
but glad you aint designing guitars!!
cheers
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Yawn
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If someone wants to (with reasonably objective ears) flip a PU around and see what difference is measurable...
Fashion is great. Love it.
But not to be mistaken with actual function.
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Neatomic,
You are an endless supply of vaporous summation with little to no actual knowledge or experience.
Perfect creature of the inter web.
Carry on.
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let the ignorant have their field day-
cheers
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The only difference in tone is that the polepieces can often be closer to the strings, so having the neck pickup with the polepieces closer to the nut, could theoretically result in a slightly darker tone. I've had pickups installed both ways, and turned them around, and I can hear no difference at all. If the guitar is designed so that the neck polepieces are under the harmonic, then turning it around will just put the other coil there, no difference.
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whenever you can adjust the screw polepieces at the harmonic nodes you have an advantage, over non threaded polepieces
why all the major manufacturers have positioned pups just that way... since the cc pickup!! pre screws!!! blade!!
oh thats right...they just wanted it to look fashionable for charlie!!!..hah
cheers
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Uh-huh.
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ps- and even if you don't think it matters that screws or non screw polepieces are under 24th fret node...that's superfluous to fact that, one set of polepieces is indeed at the node spot!!!!...and if you look at bridge pups they are under specific nodes as well..its not random!!!
cheers
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I am not arguing about the frigging harmonic nodes, just that the center of one of the coils is there no matter which way the pickup is turned. Polepieces do not make enough difference in tone for me to hear, they are for equalizing string volume.
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i wasn't arguing with you at all!
Originally Posted by sgosnell
but your:
"Polepieces do not make enough difference in tone for me to hear, they are for equalizing string volume."
that's exactly it!!! if you cant hear. why are you adjusting??..it's for those that can hear that the screw polepieces under the nodes are important...and probably why most guitars come stock like that!!
cheers
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The humbuckers were designed by Seth Lover. Seymour Duncan had a detailed interview with him and there SL tells about this too.
Seymour W. Duncan's Interview With Seth Lover | Seymour Duncan
Here he is talking about the pole screws (Lover didn’t want them at the beginning!) and the sales men in Gibson:
”so they finally decided they wanted screws in there, so I put adjusting screws in it for them, then the question they asked me then was which way should those screws set? Should they set up or down? Well you’ve got to give them an answer so I decided to take the one closest to the fingerboard and put the screws facing it and the one closest to the bridge towards the bridge! [Laugh] that made them happy, they had a set way that it should be set…”
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At this point it just looks wrong the other way round
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My thoughts, specifically regarding my ES-175. First, if you are tweaking humbucker screws, it's mainly about leveling out volume between strings -- especially the top 3 strings. At least for me. If you want to reduce bass, slanting the whole pickup works better.
Regarding the neck pickup, my ES-175 has the infamous tilt, which puts the screws closer to the strings. I think that since the adjustment screws are closer to the strings they are more effective for adjustment.
Regarding the bridge pickup, it also makes sense to me that the adjustment screws are closer to the bridge, because the closer you get to the bridge, the more twang in the sound, and that twang is what differentiates the bridge from the neck. So once again the screws are placed for more effective adjustment.
I think it's a solid design.
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This sounds right to me. Makes most sense to have the screws where they can make the most difference--closer to nut for neck pickup and closer to bridge for bridge pickup. Originally Posted by Longways to Go
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So you mean that Gibson, Fender etc etc etc .. have to be played with only open strings ? Because once you fret a string, harmonic nodes positions will change ! Originally Posted by neatomic
The "Cos' it's nice here" answer looks as legit as another to me.
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Originally Posted by 339 in june
Seems like people keep forgetting that all the time....
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I can think of one functional reason for placing the neck pickup near the open string node. If the neck pickup is placed at the end of the fretboard the very high notes will be fretted so close to the neck pickup that it will get very bright as if it were a bridge pickup. Placing the neck pickup near the open string node moves it away from the high frets enough to reduce that effect. But this effect has nothing to do with a harmonic node—it’s simply a coincidence that happens to be where most people prefer the tone of the pickup. Originally Posted by 339 in june
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This has been an interesting and thought provoking thread. My guess is that early pickup inventors and tinkerers were more experimenters than they were experts in music or acoustics theory. They moved their pickups around to find where they sounded best for a particular tone. Since tone is subjective, we ended up with multiple pickup location options. My favorites are the mellower virtual 22nd fret (L-4 CES and L-5 CES) and the thunkier virtual 24th (ES-175). Nice to have choices!
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Don't be hatin' on neatomic!
He's helpful and well-intentioned, IME
(.....even if I don't get what this is all about)
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[QUOTE=Peter C;1016530]Don't be hatin' on neatomic!
He's helpful and well-intentioned, IME
/QUOTE]
haha...thanks for the support bud...but given the conditions the world finds itself in at the present moment a little 24th fret node hate is not gonna bother me!!! haha
the fact is that every guitar manufacturer not just fender or gibson uses the nodes as pup placement guides
dont confuse the sounding of harmonics at certain points with pickup placement...the pup is fixed according to string length..the fret ratios are constant with their placement
anyways, really not worth anyone gettin their dander up...myself especially
cheers
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